The John Newbery Medal is awarded each year to the
author of the most outstanding chidren's book.
Holes
(Newbery Medal Book, 1999) by Louis Sachar -
(winner 1998 National Book Award:Young People's Literature)
If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in
the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy." Such is the
reigning philosophy at Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention
facility where there is no lake, and there are no happy campers.
In place of what used to be "the largest lake in Texas" is
now a dry, flat, sunburned wasteland, pocked with countless
identical holes dug by boys improving their character. Stanley
Yelnats, of palindromic name and ill-fated pedigree, has landed
at Camp Green Lake because it seemed a better option than
jail. No matter that his conviction was all a case of mistaken
identity, the Yelnats family has become accustomed to a long
history of bad luck, thanks to their "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!"
Despite his innocence, Stanley is quickly enmeshed in the
Camp Green Lake routine: rising before dawn to dig a hole
five feet deep and five feet in diameter; learning how to
get along with the Lord of the Flies-styled pack of boys in
Group D; and fearing the warden, who paints her fingernails
with rattlesnake venom. But when Stanley realizes that the
boys may not just be digging to build character--that in fact
the warden is seeking something specific--the plot gets as
thick as the irony.
A
Long Way from Chicago : A Novel in Stories by Richard Peck
- (finalist 1998 National Book
Award:Young People's Literature)
What happens when Joey and his sister, Mary Alice -- two city
slickers from Chicago -- make their annual summer visits to
Grandma Dowdel's seemingly sleepy Illinois town? August 1929:
They see their first corpse, and he isn't resting easy. August
1930: The Cowgill boys terrorize the town, and Grandma fights
back. August 1931: Joey and Mary Alice help Grandma trespass,
poach, catch the sheriff in his underwear, and feed the hungry
-- all in one day. And there's more, as Joey and Mary Alice
make seven summer trips to Grandma's -- each one funnier than
the year before -- in self-contained chapters that readers
can enjoy as short stories or take together for a rollicking
good novel. In the tradition of American humorists from Mark
Twain to Flannery O'Connor, popular author Richard Peck has
created a memorable world filled with characters who, like
Grandma herself, are larger than life and twice as entertaining.
The Randolph
Caldecott Medal is awarded each year to the
illustrator of the most outstanding chidren's picture book.
Snowflake
Bentley (Caldecott Medal Book) by Jacqueline Briggs Martin,
Mary Azarian (Illustrator) -
Most children are captivated by snow, but how many go on to
make it their lifework? This beautiful biography, winner of
the 1999 Caldecott Medal, tells the true story of a Vermont
farm boy who was mesmerized by snowflakes. Wilson Bentley
was fascinated by the six-sided frozen phenomena, and once
he acquired a microscope with a camera, his childhood preoccupation
took on a more scientific leaning. Bentley spent his life
taking countless exquisite photographs (many that are still
used in nature photography today), examining the tiny crystals
and their delicate, mathematical structures. Jacqueline Briggs
Martin tells this tale with simple, graceful prose that will
engage children's imaginations. Edifying and snowflake-scattered
sidebars offer more information about Bentley's methods and
snowflake science. The artwork of Mary Azarian, whose 19th-century
hand-press illustrations decorate the charming Barn Cat, shines
once again in Snowflake Bentley, with woodcuts that reveal
an appreciation for detail as well as for the man who loved
snow. The lovely illustrations and equally fresh text will
inspire and comfort youngsters (and grownups too) who wish
they could capture snowflakes all year long. (Ages 4 to 8)
--Brangien Davis
Duke
Ellington : The Piano Prince and His Orchestra (Caldecott
Honor Book) by Andrea Davis Pinkney, J. Brian Pinkney (Illustrator),
Brian Pinkney (Illustrator) -
Most children are captivated by snow, but how many go on to
make it their lifework? This beautiful biography, winner of
the 1999 Caldecott Medal, tells the true story of a Vermont
farm boy who was mesmerized by snowflakes. Wilson Bentley
was fascinated by the six-sided frozen phenomena, and once
he acquired a microscope with a camera, his childhood preoccupation
took on a more scientific leaning. Bentley spent his life
taking countless exquisite photographs (many that are still
used in nature photography today), examining the tiny crystals
and their delicate, mathematical structures. Jacqueline Briggs
Martin tells this tale with simple, graceful prose that will
engage children's imaginations. Edifying and snowflake-scattered
sidebars offer more information about Bentley's methods and
snowflake science. The artwork of Mary Azarian, whose 19th-century
hand-press illustrations decorate the charming Barn Cat, shines
once again in Snowflake Bentley, with woodcuts that reveal
an appreciation for detail as well as for the man who loved
snow. The lovely illustrations and equally fresh text will
inspire and comfort youngsters (and grownups too) who wish
they could capture snowflakes all year long. (Ages 4 to 8)
--Brangien Davis
Snow
(Caldecott Honor Book) by Uri Shulevitz -
Uri Shulevitz won a Caldecott Medal for his illustrated edition
of Arthur Ransome's The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship,
and has won numerous other awards for illustrating his own
books. Not surprising, then, that he'd create such a lovely
book as Snow, a touching story about childish hope, grumpy
pessimistic grownups, and the wonder of snowfall. Will the
snow come? (Oh, please?) In the first scene there is none,
but the second has--if you can find it--a single flake. Then
there are more--but they melt. And then, finally... joy! These
are unusually subtle illustrations for a children's book:
so many illustrators try to out-do each other with lurid effects
and excessive brightness, but many of Shulevitz's exquisite
panels are close to monotone. He paints whole cityscapes in
a dozen shades of gray, with small human figures who you notice
(at second glance) have coats of gray-green, gray-blue, or
gray-brown. The adults have tiny Edwardian parasols or handle-bar
moustaches. The abstract, atmospheric, folktale effect is
heightened by a pared-to-the-bone text, just a few words per
page. "'It's nothing,' said man with hat. Then three snowflakes.
'It's snowing,' said boy with dog." Snow perfectly captures
the transformative nature of snow and the result is magical.
No,
David! (Caldecott Honor Book) by David Shannon -
When author and artist David Shannon was five years old, he
wrote a semi-autobiographical story of a little kid who broke
all his mother's rules. He chewed with his mouth open, jumped
on the furniture, and he broke his mother's vase. As a result,
all David ever heard his mother say was "No, David!"
Tibet
: Through the Red Box (Caldecott Honor Book) by Peter Sis
-
As a child in 1950s Czechoslovakia, Caldecott Honor-winning
artist Peter Sís would listen to mysterious tales of Tibet,
"the roof of the world." The narrator, oddly enough, was his
father--a documentary filmmaker who had been separated from
his crew, caught in a blizzard, and (according to him, anyway)
nursed back to health by gentle Yetis. Young Sís learned of
a beautiful land of miracles and monks beset by a hostile
China; of the 14th Dalai Lama, a "Boy-God-King"; and of "a
magic palace with a thousand rooms--a room for every emotion
and heart's desire." Hearing these accounts--some extravagant
but all moving--helped the boy recover from an accident. The
stories also allowed Sís's father to relate an odyssey other
adults didn't seem to want to know about in cold war Czechoslovakia.
"He told me, over and over again, his magical stories of Tibet,
for that is where he had been. And I believed everything he
said," Sís recalls. Still, after some time he too seemed to
become immune, and the stories "faded to a hazy dream."
Young
Readers Selection - Browse our collection
of books for young readers including Pokemon, The Wildflower
Series, Harry Potter and MORE! |
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The
National Book Foundation sponsors an award ceremony
for the year's most outstanding books. This year's ceremony
was held at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City
and celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation.
Steve Martin was master of ceremonies and commented "I
really wanted to be here tonight because I thought it
would be a good way to troll for intellectuals".
A record number of nominations totaling 881 was recieved.
Winners receive $10,000 US cash award and a crystal sculpture.
FICTION
Waiting
by Ha Jin -
"Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce
his wife, Shuyu." Like a fairy tale, Ha Jin's masterful
novel of love and politics begins with a formula--and like
a fairy tale, Waiting uses its slight, deceptively simple
framework to encompass a wide range of truths about the
human heart. Lin Kong is a Chinese Army doctor trapped in
an arranged marriage that embarrasses and repels him. (Shuyu
has country ways, a withered face, and most humiliating
of all, bound feet). Nevertheless, he's content with his
tidy military life, at least until he falls in love with
Manna, a nurse at his hospital. Regulations forbid Army
officers to divorce without their wives' consent--until
18 years have passed, that is, after which they are free
to marry again. So, year after year Lin asks his wife for
his freedom, and year after year he returns from the provincial
courthouse: still married, still unable to consummate his
relationship with Manna. Nothing feeds love like obstacles
placed in its way--right? But Jin's novel answers the question
of what might have happened to Romeo and Juliet had their
romance been stretched out for several decades. In the initial
confusion of his chaste love affair, Lin longs for the peace
and quiet of his "old rut." Then killing time becomes its
own kind of rut, and in the end, he is forced to conclude
that he "waited eighteen years just for the sake of waiting."
NON-FICTION
Embracing
Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II by John W. Dower
-
Embracing Defeat tells the story of the transformation of
Japan under American occupation after World War II. When
Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Forces in
August 1945, it was exhausted; where America's Pacific combat
lasted less than four years, Japan had been fighting for
15. Sixty percent of its urban area lay in ruins. The collapse
of the authoritarian state enabled America's six-year occupation
to set Japan in entirely new directions.
POETRY
Vice:
New and Selected Poems by Ai - You
know the age-old question: Suppose you could handpick a
cast of living or dead characters and have them all to dinner.
Who would you ask? In this searing collection, Ai does the
difficult work of choosing for us. She invites a whole host
of often less-than-presentable guests, including presidents
("I have a deep affection for my wife, / but also for sweet,
big-haired girls... who never complain of tired jaws"),
paparazzi ("I am there for you, / a friend, not an enemy,
/ stalkerazzi, or a tabloid Nazi"), and prurient priests
("Lord, I crave things"). Elsewhere, Ai gives voice to Lenny
Bruce, a grief-stricken Marilyn Monroe, and the spurned
lover who confesses "A man could never do / as much for
Imelda / as a pair of shoes." Donning the mask of our most
famous (and infamous) politicians and celebrities, as well
as our most vilified antiheroes, she gives new life to the
dramatic monologue. And in poems "by" rapists, murderers,
looters, hit men, and stalkers, she puts words in the mouths
of the thoroughly muzzled. Like Whitman, she writes from
the conviction that every voice--no matter how despicable
or seemingly insignificant--deserves the chance to be heard.
--Martha Silano
YOUNG
PEOPLE'S LITERATURE
When
Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt -
Summer in the tiny Texas town of Antler is traditionally
a time for enjoying Wylie Womack's Bahama Mama snow cones
and racking up the pins at Kelly's Bowl-a-Rama, but this
year it's not going well for Toby Wilson. His 13-year-old
heart has been broken twice: once by his mother, who left
him and his father to become a country singer in Nashville,
and then again by his crush Scarlett Stalling, the town
beauty who barely acknowledges Toby's existence. But when
Zachary Beaver, "The World's Fattest Boy," comes to Antler
as part of a traveling sideshow, Toby begins to realize
that there might just be people who have it worse than him.
By reaching out to Zachary in small ways--such as helping
him realize his lifelong dream of being baptized--Toby is
better able to put his own problems into perspective. At
the baptism, Toby finally feels at peace: "Zachary smiles
and I wonder if he's feeling different. Because standing
here waist deep in Gossimer's Lake... I'm feeling different--light
and good and maybe even holy." By summer's end, Toby's friendship
with Zachary has provided him with the emotional stamina
to begin dealing with his mother's decision and to gracefully
accept the fact that Scarlett will forever be just beyond
his reach.
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