Our Library

Our Library

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

It's that time of year.  The Caldecott Award winning and Newbery Award winning books have been announced.  Some very interesting choices this year.  

The Newbery Award winners are: 


Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life by Ashley Bryan.  I think this is one of those that could have won BOTH the Newbery and the Caldecott awards.  Not only is it well written; it is beautifully illustrated.  




Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk. I haven't read this one yet, but have been told by the other elementary librarians that it is not appropriate for elementary school.  I hate when that happens, but our GV friends can enjoy this one in middle school. 


The Inquisitor's Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog by Adam Gidwitz.  This is an honor book. An interesting one that I am in the middle of reading.  Elementary school appropriate and will be in our collection 



The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill.  The winner of the Newbery Award this year.  I am also still working on this one but am glad to be able to add it to our collection. 

While this has not been my favorite year for Newberys (as shown by the fact that I'm struggling to get through these books), I have LOVED the Caldecotts.  The Caldecott Award winners are the best illustrated children's books of the year.  

The Caldecott Award winners are:

Radiant Child:  The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat is the Caldecott Medal winner this year.  It is illustrated by Javanka Steptoe.  I have not even seen this one.  As always, after the awards are announced, I get online and purchase the winners.  This one has been interesting.  When I first went to Amazon.com, it was not available.  A couple of weeks later, it was available, but the cost was $79.99 (WOW!!!!).  I've been checking back and forth with Amazon since the award announcement.  It's either VERY expensive (yesterday it was $238.33) OR it will not ship for 2 months.  I've never had this difficult of a time trying to acquire an award winner for our library.  I'll keep trying.  

They All Saw a Cat illustrated by Brendan Wenzel.  I LOVE this one!  It's about perspective, and the cat looks different to everyone who sees it.  I see bits of other artists in the illustrations...Seurat, Picasso.  VERY VERY well done!  

Du Iz Tak illustrated by Carson Ellis.  I LOVE this one too!  The text is jibberish which makes this book basically a wordless picture book.  I think the kids will have a great time trying to interpret the text using the illustrations.  

Leave Me Alone! is illustrated by Vera Brosgol.  Love this one too!  As a mom, I totally get it.  Grandmother has a house full and just wants to be left alone with her knitting; so she takes a journey that makes her appreciate her big family.  Precious

Freedom in Congo Square is illustrated by R. Gregory Christie.  Very well done.  Beautifully written and illustrated.