Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!

Book: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village
Author: Laura Amy Schlitz
Audience: Grades 4 to 6
In a Nutshell: vignettes on medieval life for one or two readers

And the Newbery goes to... a collection of 17 short portraits of young people living in a medieval English village. Mostly written in different poetic forms, and all intended to be read aloud as monologues or two-person vignettes. The word portraits are simply illustrated in the style of a medieval illumination or tapestry, and interspersed with simple introductions to related historical topics such as Pilgrimage, the Crusades, and Falconry. A full stratum of society is represented, from the lord's daughter to the miller's son to the village half-wit. The characters and their stories often overlap or interact with the the one right before or after, but there is not an overarching story- more like a poetic cycle that gives an overall picture when taken together.

The book does an excellent job of combining historical facts and effective, three-dimensional characters fleshed out in very few words. As this year's Newbery winner it seemed to come out of left field for many fans of kid lit (as they often do), but I see what the Newbery Committee was thinking. It stands out in terms of quality of writing, facts, illustrations, and physical layout. As oral monologues I think some are more accessible than others for a grade school reader, but that's not a requirement for handing out Newberys. Enough of the characters' poems are accessible that many young readers will find at least a few they like. And if the shiny medal on the cover, which makes it a shoe-in for school library shelves around the country, starts a revival of readers theater in history and English classrooms around the country, then good for the author.

Surrender

Book: Surrender
Author: Sonja Harnett
Audience: Teen to Adult
In a Nutshell: a good boy, a bad boy, a dog, and lots of arson

As 20-year-old Gabriel lays dying, he thinks back over his short life in the small Australian town of Mulyan: his emotionally distant/abusive parents, a horrible childhood mistake involving his severely retarded older brother, Vernon, and the wild boy Finnigan with whom he made a childhood pact. Pale, quiet Gabriel (real name Anwell) would become the good one, the angel, and Finnigan would be bad. Really bad. Throughout their childhood, Gabriel quietly allows teasing, unkindness, etc. to happen to him, but Finnigan always makes the transgressors pay later, usually by burning something important. As a series of fires, and worse, terrorize Mulyan, Gabriel knows he must take drastic action to stop Finnigan, even at the cost of his own life.

This is a beautifully written, delicate psychological thriller, if that description is possible. It does border on confusing sometimes- or most of the time, depending on how carefully you're following the jumps back and forth through the timeline. Finnigan is so wild and immoral he started really bothering me- I couldn't find much to like, even in a "love to hate 'em" kind of a way. But maybe that's just me, or maybe that was the point.
The end leaves many, many unanswered questions about what really happened- like does Finnigan really exist? Is the dog dead or alive? What's going on?? Unanswered-ness is not necessarily a bad thing, but expect to think with this one.

P.S.: Surrender is the dog's name.
P.P.S.: This book was a 2006 Printz Award finalist (in case you keep track of these things)

The Higher Power of Lucky

Book: The Higher Power of Lucky
Author: Susan Patron
Audience: Grades 4-6
In a Nutshell: girl lives in a trailer in the California desert w/ her French guardian and dog, pondering bugs and the meaning of life

I'm way behind on my posts, so I'll make this short. This book won the Newbery Award for 2006, and that's why I read it. I honestly never would've given it a second look otherwise- just not my style. Set in a tiny, dusty California town, nice gentle cover illustration...nah. But I like to give the Newbery its dues, so I read it. It's well-written, certainly, and I did like it. But it's not an easy sell to most readers- unless you're sold on gentle, slightly quirky, and heartfelt. Which I guess some people are, and more power to you. I almost suspect that the librarian in California who started all the bruhaha about the scandalous use of the word 'scrotum' on page one was a plant by the publisher and/or Newbery Committee to generate press. Almost, but not quite.

PS: It was only a dog.
PPS: It was only a scrotum.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party

Book: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation; Volume 1: The Pox Party
Author: M.T. Anderson
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: a young boy is a slave, an experiment, then a rebel fighter in revoluntionary America

Like I've said before, I looove M.T. Anderson. And here he's written another very original, distinctive, disturbing book that sticks in your mind a long time after the last page turns, whether you want it there or not. And he won the National Book Award for it, so bravo! That said, this is not an easy read. It's written in impressively accurate 18th-century-style English, and it's long. Octavian and his mother, Casseopeia, are African slaves owned by a group of radical scientists and scholars called the Novanglian College of Lucidity. In the sober city of Boston, they live in opulence and are treated as exotic royalty, but Octavian must weigh his food and feces. When their fortunes shift and a harsh new benefactor takes control, the experiment of Octavian and his mother takes a dark turn: scientific proof of the inferiority of the African races. I won't give away the details, but some horrible things happen, and Octavian's personal account goes silent. The story picks up in secondary sources and through the letters of a revolutionary soldier as Octavian ends up with the man's unit. The history depicted is slightly alternative, but similar enough to the history books to make readers take a good hard look at what they think they know about the American Revolution.

The book is chock full of themes of human rights, freedom, friendship, and the fuzziness of right and wrong, good and bad in the American Revolution-- and by extension, the whole American experience? Or any world-changing conflict? Let's say yes. After all, that's the sort of thing they hand out National Book Awards for.

Part Two is coming (sometime) and even though I generally have little to no interest in revolutionary fiction, I can't wait.

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom

Book: Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom
Author: Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrator: Kadir Nelson
Audience: Grades 2-4 or so
In a Nutshell: Harriet Tubman listens to God and finds freedom for herself and many others

The illustrator of Ellington Was Not a Street and the author of several black history titles offers up a gorgeous depiction of Tubman, her faith, and the part it played in her escape from slavery and the leadership in the Underground Railroad that followed. The word that comes to mind is transcendent. A beautiful and memorable book.