award winners

Today I finished reading The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, winner of the Newbery Medal.

It was fine but not tremendously exciting. It had these ingredients which seem to recur in Newbery winners:

• dead parent
• divorced parent
• book love
• smart girl
• rural setting

I'm not sure how much kid appeal there was in this book. I can see it working better as a read aloud than as independently read book, but I imagine that seeing "scrotum" on page 1* will cause some teachers and parents to look for another book. It's kind of a story for youngerish kids than that the reading level and some content would imply.

Flotsam by David Weisner, won the Caldecott. It's sort of like Zoom but with a couple more dimensions. And it's Weisner, so it's good...I just wish the award had introduced someone new to a wider audience.



*the scrotum referenced is that of a dog that was bitten by a rattlesnake.