Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

Another Newbery winner. I've been reading them on my phone slowly while nursing instead of checking Facebook or Instagram the last few weeks, and it has been refreshing. I know I read this one at least once as a child, but I had no recollection of it. I liked some parts of this book, and didn't like others as much. I thought learning about the language of the wolves, and the way wolves interact and work together as a pack, was fascinating. I especially liked reading the author's note at the end about how she learned all of this about the wolves by visiting Alaska and learning about them there. I thought all of the things that Miyax does to survive were amazing, and I was very impressed with her knowledge and ability to survive out there. I thought all of that was worth the read. But I was really disappointed in the backstory about Miyax and why she was running away and especially in the ending where she finds her father. I don't know that there was anything really wrong with them--it just felt really sad and depressing. The whole book kind of a little bit felt like cultural appropriation as well. Plus, the dialogue was distractingly slow. Also, you don't learn that her English name is Julie until like 2/3 of the way through the book (right?) so why is it titled Julie of the Wolves? Why not Miyax of the Wolves? But overall, worth a read and I can imagine any animal-obsessed child would love this book.

More to the Story by Hena Khan

When I heard about this book--a modern retelling of Little Women about a Muslim family in America--I immediately jumped on it. I love Little Women, and I love retellings about different races or backgrounds from the original story. And this did not disappoint. I loved this story about four sisters who are brought together by one sister's illness and how their experiences as Muslims in America inform their lives. I thought they were such a sweet family and I really liked each of the characters. Jameela, the main character, seemed very realistic to me--she made mistakes, had to learn to fix things, but seemed to think very much like a real twelve-year-old. Also, I liked how the storyline of Jo chopping off her hair had a real purpose and a real modern-day counterpart in this story. It worked very well and I loved this adaptation.

The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox

This is a Newbery award winner that I read from the library while nursing, and I didn't really enjoy this one. I feel like a lot of the Newbery winners prior to this decade are focused on historical fiction to help kids learn about some aspect of American history, and this was the one focused on the slave trade. It's about a boy who gets kidnapped and forced to sail on a slave ship so that he can blow his pipe and force the slaves to dance and exercise so they stay in better condition on their journey back from Africa. The book definitely exposes the horrors of the slave trade and how awful and inhumane it is in every way. But I really can't imagine a kid reading this book and enjoying it at all. There's no feeling like the main character triumphs or like he has any power to make any decisions at all to make a difference, so it just felt really dark and scary the whole time. The book ends with the slavers being discovered by the authorities and then somehow at that exact same time a huge storm coming upon them and wrecking the ship and somehow everyone else dies except the boy and the one slave boy he is able to save, and then they somehow swim to shore and then are discovered by an escaped slave who has connections to get the slave boy to freedom somehow? It was confusing and didn't seem super believable to me. Basically, this is maybe the first Newbery winner that I am not interested in owning a copy of to keep on our shelves.

The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I've read a bunch of Kate Morton's novels, but they were all like 6 or 7 years ago. I was trying to find a good book to read for our book club in November, since we haven't had a book club meeting for a long time, and I thought of Kate Morton and decided to try reading her most recent one. I really liked it... until the last 5% of it where everything started to fall together and I was really bugged by how everything ended up. Kate Morton does an amazing job of writing about different timelines and different characters, and in this book she surpassed herself by including a huge number of characters that were all related to the mystery in some way, over 150 years of this story. I really enjoyed the different timelines, although I think it was hard to keep it straight (and I bet if you didn't read it quickly, it would be even harder). My only real complaint is how everything ended--I feel like there wasn't enough detail about the ending of the contemporary storyline (like how did she end with her fiancee?) and Morton didn't answer enough about how the original murder happened in the first place. I should probably write more of my impressions so that I remember everything better for book club, but I don't have the energy to do this right now. Despite the disappointing ending, the rest of the book was good enough that I'm glad I read it. 

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli

I had never heard of this book and had no idea what it was about, but I checked it out as an e-book as a part of my quest to read all the Newbery award winners. I read this first, before any of the other Newbery winners I'd checked out, because it was incredibly short and I knew it would be fast to get through. Despite it being so short and fast, I thought it packed a lot of punch and had quite a lot of meaning behind the story. It was set in medieval London, while the plague was going through, and follows a boy, Robin, who is struck by some malady (not the plague, I think?) where he can't walk or use his legs any more. His parents have both left him to go fight in a war and serve the queen, and he's supposed to be working as a page at some castle, but he instead is taken up by a priest who helps to nurse him back to health, and he eventually makes a huge difference in a battle against the Welsh and saves the castle and is reunited with his parents. The whole message of the book--and the meaning of the title--is that you just have to keep trying and working through things and eventually a door will open, or a way will open up to you to do what you need to do. There was also the idea of "Anyone can NOT do it," which Robin thought when he thought "I can't do this!" I really liked that idea and I think that's a great message for a kids' book. I also really liked the setting of medieval England and picturing that time and era. 

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

This book took me by surprise. It's like 95% a normal story, realistic fiction about a girl in her normal life in New York City in the 1970s. But then you start to figure out there's time travel involved. I thought this story was just brilliant, and I absolutely loved it. I don't know why I haven't heard more about it... I really liked the way the author wrote and how she tells the story, I loved the main character and how she develops and learns where she needs to be kinder to everyone, and I was so impressed with the twists that I didn't really see coming with the time travel. I also loved how she incorporated A Wrinkle in Time throughout this book, with explicit references to time travel and kind of as foreshadowing for what is coming. I definitely would have loved this book as a kid and I really am happy that I read it!

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

I REALLY liked this book. I thought it was so good and I basically liked everything about it. The format, in a kind of poetry/rap writing, was super enthralling (and made it quick to read); the characters were sweet and believable and struggling with real things; the plot and the basketball were fun and exciting. I basically blazed through this super fast because it was so easy to keep going and because I didn't want to stop. I loved that the main character, Josh, was dealing with things that were super important (like his dad's health) and not so important (like his hair getting cut when he didn't want it to), although they felt really important to him. The story felt earnest and real, and I was surprised when the ending turned out devastating, but with a hopeful turn. I thought this definitely deserved the Newbery and I know my boys will LOVE it when they get older. 

From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks

I've had this book on my to-read list for a while, because it sounded so cute and so good. And it definitely was. I read this quickly in one evening because I didn't want to put it down. The story is about Zoe, who receives a letter from her biological dad who is in prison, and her efforts to get to know him through letters, and later, to help him get out of prison for the crime he didn't commit. I loved Zoe's character, how she was super into baking and really committed to developing this skill, and how she was determined to do something about Marcus being in prison once she found out about it. I also really liked how this book addressed racism in policing and the court system in a real mild way, without preaching a ton about it, as Zoe learns about it and has her mind opened up to it along with our readers. And it also addressed Zoe struggling with her relationships with her best friend and her mom, in a realistic way. Definitely a great book I want to have on our shelves. 

Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman

I thought this book was good. That's about as strong of a response I can give to it. I liked a lot about it--the two authors seem fantastic and fun, and I want to be friends with them; I loved their candor and honesty about their experiences in this long-lasting friendship and how they worked to save their friendship when things started to go south; I liked their communal voice and the side jokes they threw in to their writing. But it definitely started to drag after a while. I think I wanted a little more research-based discussion about friendship--that's kind of what I was expecting--but the book seemed to be almost solely about their relationship with a few studies referenced here and there. And maybe I didn't want to read about how their friendship started to sour, and how important it is to save friendships, because maybe that hits a little too close to home with something I'm not very good at. I definitely enjoyed their perspective and it made me want to be better about putting in the effort to prioritize friendship more.