The Grey King by Susan Cooper

The Grey King by Susan Cooper (1976 Newberry Medal Winner)

This is a book that I wasn't expecting to find on the list. Sure I've seen books from a series, but all of the ones that I recognized were the first book in th the series. The Grey King is the fourth book in The Dark is Rising series. Susan Cooper, along with Madeline L'Engle, are both authors that I was disappointed not to see multiple times on the list as well. All mock bitterness aside, let's talk about this wonderful book.

Before we can get into the actual story, we have three books of background to address. I'll try to keep it short, but I definitely have to explain the major characters.

Will Stanton

We meet young Will in the pages of The Dark is Rising. On his eleventh birthday, he notices some very strange things in his neighborhood. He discovers that this is because he is the seventh son of a seventh son, and because of this he is actually part of a group called the Old Ones.

As the youngest of the Old Ones, it is Will's responsibility to prepare for the final battle with the Dark. In all but the first book of the series, Will is the person resposible for most of the action of the last four books. As an Old One, Will can travel to different times that are important to the Old Ones, freeze time, and an assortment of impossible things.

Will is guided by the first of the Old Ones, a man called Merry Lyons.

Merry Lyons

He was the first Old One and has been involved in all of the battles against the Dark. I won't say anything more to avoid giving away too much.

The Book

After suffering a major illness, Will is sent to Wales to recuperate. While he is there, he is also searching for the Sleepers who are being watched by a Dark agent, the Grey King.

Will meets a strange young boy named Bran, and the two of them join forces to solve the mystery in the verses that Will discovered in the previous books.

The book is filled with Welsh, problem solving, and a look into the past. This is a great book for anyone that enjoys adventure stories filled with Fantasy elements. You can also talk with young readers about the friendship as it develops between Will and Bran, as well as making judgements about people that you meet.

I expect that I will come back to talk about the other books in this series if I ever get through the Caldecott and Newberry books.

Joseph had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback (2000 Caldecott Medal Winner)

Joseph had a Little Overcoat

Joseph had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback (2000 Caldecott Medal Winner)

I discovered this book when I was visiting my best friend in Alaska. One day I went with his wife and two sons to the library, and we got this book, among many others. The boys loved the song that was on the CD that came with the book.

It's a fairly simple formula story. We meet Joseph who has an overcoat that gets old, and rather than throw it out, he decides to recycle it into something else. He continues to recycle until he has nothing left except for a story, which he turns into the book. It's a great lesson for kids. It teaches them to wonder what else their broken things could become.

The song is also a great treat as it comes from a traditional Jewish song. You can use the song to talk about various forms of music, and some of the cultural traditions behind this story.

Take a look at this book, and I'm sure you will find plenty of applications for your classroom.

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo (2004 Newberry Medal Winner)

I'm not really a good person to compare movies with the books from which they take their stories. I spent most of the time I was reading Despereaux thinking about everything that the movie got wrong. I do the same thing with every movie/book combination. I can't think of a single movie that I thought was better than the book.

One of the biggest differences is that Despereaux isn't brave. He does act bravely, but he isn't a brave mouse. In the movie, we see Despereaux carrying his sword from the beginning and stealing cheese from traps and not being bothered by the cat. This isn't the mouse we get in the book. In the book, Despereaux doesn't act like a frightened mouse not because of his bravery, but because of his wonder with the world around him.

Despereaux follows his wonder to reading the book in the library with the tale of a knight that fills his mind. His wonder also leads him to follow the music of the King. It also brings him into the presence of the Princess, with whom he falls in love.

These are some reasons why I enjoyed the book more than the movie. Let's talk about the book on its own though.

Despereaux is born as the last and smallest member of his littler of mice. He lives in a French castle, and his mother and father a dismayed at how unusual of a mouse he is. His is so small for a mouse. He doesn't tremble. He even opens his eyes and looks at the sun, which no mouse baby has ever been known to do. I mentioned the acts that get him banished from the mouse community because of his unmouselike behavior.

Meanwhile in the dungeon, there is a rat that becomes obsessed with the light of the world, but because he lives in the dungeon, he cannot share in the light. He travels to the banquet room of the castle and accidentally scares the queen to death when he lands in her bowl of beloved soup. He vows revenge.

There is also Miggery Sow to consider. Mig is a young girl whose father sold her to another man for a red table cloth, and a handful of cigarettes. Mig finds herself living and working in the castle which takes her one stop closer to her dream of becoming a Princess, but this makes her a bigger target for a certain rat.

Things get complicated, and I don't want to give too much away even if you have seen the movie. (Things progress differently than the movie suggests.) The important thing to know is that this story hinges on Despereaux overcoming his fears and becoming the hero he found in his books.

This is an important lesson for students to discover and can provide a great amount of discussion with your children.

A Sick Day for Amos McGee

A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead (2011 Caldecott Medal)

Let's take a journey through a typical day of zoo keeper, Amos McGee. He has a very specific pattern to his day. He makes tea, he gets dressed, he rides the bus to the zoo, then he spends time with each of the animals-play chess, reading stories, and many other things.

One day Amos gets sick and cannot go to work. His friends at the zoo miss him, so they take the bus to Amos' house to visit him. Amos gets to enjoy all of the activities that are usually only enjoyed at work, and it helps him feel much better.

Stead is both writer and illustrator, and the illustrations are breathtaking and yet simple. Stead does a great job of telling the story through the art and making the visuals compelling. Not everyone can act as author and illustrator, but Stead does a fantastic job with this story.

We used this with preschooler when we were talking about being thankful and talked about being thankful for being healthy, but you can also hit on friendship and the things that friends might do. It would also be great to combine with a trip to the zoo. You can talk about the animals you might see at the zoo, or what animals you had seen at the zoo after you had already been there.

*A quick correction-The Caldecott list shows Erin E Stead as the illustrator, and I just noticed that so does the picture of the cover I have listed. Sorry for the confusion.

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (1995 Newberry Medal Winner)

I've know about Sharon Creech for several years. I first encountered her from reading Love that Dog, a collection of poetry written by a young boy learning about poetry in school, and followed closely by Hate that Cat a continuation of that tale. I also stumbled upon Heartbeat, the story of a young girl who loves to run, but doesn't want to be a runner, also told in poems.

When I saw her name on the list of Newberry Medals, I half expected to find a book of poetry, but instead we get the tale of Salamanca Tree Hiddle as she travels with her grandparents telling them the story of her friend Phoebe and her mother. This story helps to illuminate Sal's own troubles with her mother leaving their family.

Sal and her father have moved from Bybanks, Kentucky to Euclid, Ohio to be near a woman, Mrs. Margaret Cadaver with whom her father has become attached. Sal hates leaving her home and the connection that home has with the mother she loved so dearly.

Sal believes that if she can arrive in Lewiston, Idaho by her mother's birthday, then Sal will be able to bring her home. Sal knows that this is a foolish belief, but that doesn't stop her from wanting it to be true. She is travelling with her grandparents on her father's side. They are an odd duo, and they love listening to the story of Peeby (the name they use for Phoebe) and Sal's part in that story.

Phoebe is a fun character to read about although I'm not sure that I would actually want to spend much time with her. Her first reaction to most situations is to come up with a horrible explanation. What happened to Mrs. Cadaver's husband? She killed him and buried him in the back yard. Why did her mother disappear? A lunatic took her away.

Phoebe is the perfect foil to unravel the story of Sal's mother's disappearance. Both girls have similar stories about mothers that leave, and we get to understand Sal much better because of this parallel.

Oh, I should talk a little bit about Sal. She is an only child although her parents had wanted to have a large family. She loves the outdoors, especially the outdoors of her home in Bybanks, Kentucky. She misses her mother, and can't let go of the past because of that love.

This is a fun adventure. I especially enjoy getting to know Sal's grandparents. They also have a fun story to experience. Even several days after finishing the book, I still find myself saying, "Huzzah, huzzah."

A Ball for Daisy (2012)

A Ball for Daisy by Christopher Raschka (2012 Caldecott Medal Winner)

Generally a Caldecott winner is picked because of the combination of image and text. In this case, though, there are no words. I was surprised by this narrative choice, but it works out extremely well. Although there are no words, it isn't very hard to figure out the story.

I took this to the day care where I work, and "read" it with one of the classes, and worked with them to tell the story. It worked out great. Even at 3-4 years of age, they had little trouble working out the story.

So what is the story? Daisy is a dog with a red ball. Daisy really loves her ball, and doesn't really want to be without it. One day, Daisy's owner takes her to the park. They play catch, and have a great time until another dog gets Daisy's ball. While this other dog is playing with the ball it bursts. Daisy is heartbroken and is miserable until the next day when they go to the park and the girl that owns the other dog offers Daisy and new blue ball.

All of this story is done without a single word. There isn't even a sound effect for the ball popping. It is just a great example of visual story telling that can be a great lesson for kids. This is something that has been popping up in shorts before animated movies this past summer, where there are shorts with little to no words, maybe just some sound effects. This allows children to practice creating a story.

Check out this book for yourself, and any kids in your life.

Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson (1945)

Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson (1945 Newberry Medal Winner)

It's hard to believe that this is the book that started off the Newberry Medal. It is much shorted and less complicated than modern winners, but more importantly, it follows a very strange format and story. This story is similar to the ending of The Big Snow because it seems to be about people being responsible for providing for the needs of animals.

All the animals of Rabbit Hill are excited because there are New Folk comin' to the old house. Lots of other human characters get names, but even after we learn the couple's names, they are still called New Folk. The main conflict seems to be whether the New Folk are also Nice Folk and Planting Folk but not Trap-Setting Folk or Hunting Folk.

The 'adventures' are weak and the characters are shallow. Mother is always afraid, and Father is obsessed with Kentucky Blue Grass. In one moment, the animals act like they can't do anything without humans and the next they are decrying humans for trying to take care of what the humans have worked to produce.

The New Folk are just confusing. How do they hear a field mouse fall into a rain barrel and call for help? What is their motivation for doing nice things for animals besides following the model of Francis of Assisi?

The best comparison I can find is think about the Redwall books. What if there were humans, and the animals of the Abbey decided not to do any work and let the humans take care of everything instead? Redwallers get stuff done, and even when times are hard, they work to find a way through the problems. The animals in Rabbit Hill do not.

I do want to make on quick comment on Little Georgie's song. Why is everyone singing it? How do the humans pick up on it? What is the point aside from adding a chapter to the book? It's just "New Folks comin', oh my!" over and over again. Is this where pop songs came from?

Look, Rabbit Hill is an important book since it was the first book to win the Newberry Medal, but that doesn't mean it has continued to be a good book after all this time. Animals can fend for themselves most of the time, and it's a shame to see them brought so low.

Although this blog is called Excellent Children's books, I wouldn't recommend that you check this one out of the library, and certainly don't spend money on it.

The Big Snow by Bertha and Elmer Hader (1949)

The Big Snow by Kathrine Milhous (1949 Caldecott Medal Winner)

Just like The Egg Tree, this book is rather lengthy compared to today's picture books, but don't hold that against this tale. The story follows all the different creatures of the forest as they decide what to do for the winter. You get excellent illustrations and a fictional look into the minds of these animals. How will the winter impact their choice of homes. We get to see animals that migrate and nonmigratory animals.

After the choices are made, we get to see how a big snow negatively impacts these animals. How are the food sources diminished because of the falling snow? How will the animals survive?

The answer turns this tale from a fiction to an autobiography of sorts. An older couple cleans up the sidewalk in front of their house and then provides food for all of the animals. I'm guessing that this is something that the Haders did most winters. Although the couple doesn't participate in the celebration, they do imagine the joy the animals feel from the offering.

This book definitely won't work for very young children, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it be very effective at the 3rd or 4th grade level. If it were a bit longer and used some bigger words, this book might possibly be eligible for a Newberry Medal today.

A Wrinkle in Time (1963 Newberry Medal Winner)

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (1963)

I love this book. I am disappointed to learn that L'Engle never won another medal for her other books. In fact, That is the reason that I thought for a long time that you could only win the medal once. She did win several Honor Medals, but this is her only Newberry Medal winning book.

I discovered this book when I was in Fifth grade. we were doing book reports, and my teacher suggested this book to me. I loved the characters and the story. It was my first introduction to a fully-rounded female character. Meg was brilliantly constructed, and it made me want more of those kinds of characters.

Let's talk about the basic story. Meg Murray is the oldest of four kids in her family. There are the twins, Sandy and Denny, and Charles Wallace. Her parents are both genius scientists. At the moment, they have been missing their father for several years. He went to work on a research project for the government. At first the whole family was with him, then the project required them to be away, then he just stopped sending messages at all.

This has made things very hard for Meg. First the Murrays live in a small town where there is lots of gossip. Second, Meg is very smart about things like mathematics and science, but she has her own tricks for doing the problems, so the teachers don't appreciate her. Third, Charles Wallace is considered to be a bit on the slow side by the town since he didn't start to speak until he was three, and then he just started speaking in complete, and rather loquacious language.

So that is the background of the story. Let's get into the exciting part.

Meg meets three mysterious women through Charles Wallace-Mrs. Which, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Whatsit. The women inform Charles Wallace and Meg that their father is used a tesseract to jump to another place in the universe, and he is in trouble. Only Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe can save him. (I forgot about Calvin. He's a boy a bit older than Meg that Meg and Charles Wallace meet on the way to an old house where the three ladies are living. Calvin is like Meg because he is smarter than most people, and like the twins because he is athletic, and like Charles Wallace because he has the ability to understand people.)

Anyway, the ladies take the three children to a variety of places in their attempt to find Dr. Murray. There is a two-dimensional universe, and a planet with large hairy creatures that don't have eyes, but are wonderful and caring. Eventually, though, they find the planet with It.

I won't say anything more for fear of giving away too much, but this is the book that got me to try to memorize the periodic table of elements (which I gave up on later) and to work on my mathematics. It is also the book that got me hooked on Science Fiction.

This is also the 50th anniversary of A Wrinkle in Time, so it is the perfect time to check it out for the first time or the hundredth.

The Egg Tree by Katherine Milhous (1951)

The Egg Tree by Kathrine Milhous (1951 Caldecott Medal Winner)

A lot has changed in Children's Literature since the Caldecott Medal was created. The Egg Tree is a great example of those changes. It is certainly an interesting story, but it is so long compared to most children's books. Let me give you a quick synopsis:

Grandmom has her six grandchildren over the night before Easter. All of the children go searching for eggs, which have been placed in the most unlikely of places, so when Katy can't find any, she decides to go searching in the attic. There she finds and old hat box with six hollowed-out eggs that Grandmom had made when she was little. After giving the winners (the children with the most eggs a very strange prize, (bunny-shaped cookies with eggs baked in the middle) Grandmom makes an Easter Egg tree with the six eggs. The children want to learn how to make their own eggs, so Grandmom teaches them. With all of the eggs they make a bigger tree, and show it off to anyone that wants to come and see it. (There are also directions for making an Egg Tree in the back of the book.)

Exhausting isn't it? Sadly this book is very focused. You can't use it for anything other than an Easter unit, and even then, it really doesn't apply unless you want to make an Egg Tree with your class. I'm sorry, but I have no interest in blowing out 15-25 eggs just for one project that will probably involve lots of broken eggs. sure it won a medal a long time ago, but it wouldn't win that award these days.

Dead End in Norvelt (2012 Newberry Medal Winner)

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos (2012)

Jack Gantos has a big problem standing in the way of his summer vacation plans-his mother.

It's 1964 and Jack lives in a small community called Norvelt. It was established by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in an attempt to help impoverished people develop a new home and community where they could work together. Only a handful of the original Norvelters, as they are called, are still alive and living in town.

In the opening scenes of the books we find Jack using a pair of binoculars this father had claimed during the World War II from an abandoned Japanese bunker. Jack also has his father's Japanese rifle. Jack is using the binoculars to watch an war film at the drive-in miles away. Since it is just a movie miles away and the rifle isn't loaded, Jack pretends to shoot the enemy soldiers. The only problem is that the gun is actually loaded and goes off.

Several things happen at that point. First Jack's nose starts to bleed like a fountain, which happens everything something disturbing happens. Next his mother runs out and starts shouting at him. Next he wonders what happened with the bullet. Maybe it made it all the way to the drive-in or accidentally his one of his neighbors.

With a promise not to tell his father, Jack is grounded for the rest of the summer. This keeps him from hanging out with friends and playing with the player deficient little league team. The only thing that Jack will be allowed to do is help old Miss Volker, one of the few remaning original Norvelters, and the woman that Mrs. Roosevelt entrusted with keeping Norvelt healthy, and keeping track of all the original Norvelters. It is her duty to declare deaths, and write obituaries. Unfortunately, her hands are so arthritic that even with a hot-wax bath, she can hardly write anything. Jack is taken as her secretary.

There are lots of mysterious deaths in the community as original Norvelters die at a frightening rate. There is also the mysterious death of a Hells Angel that bought one of the old houses. This leads to some arson attempts by his biking brothers.

Many of the characters face feelings of being trapped in Norvelt. Jack's father wants to move to a more prosperous area. Miss Volker feels trapped while she waits for the rest of the Norvelters to die. Jack feels trapped by being grounded.

Will any of these characters manage to escape a dead end in Norvelt?

Madeline's Rescue by Ludwig Bemelmans (1954)

From what I've seen of Caldecott and Newberry Medal winners, the medal isn't really awarded to a recurring character. It might happen with the first story in a series, but it is unusual to happen further down the road. Madeline is an exception to that rule.

Madeline was the creation of writer Ludwig Bemelmans who served as author and illustrator. The series of books is best known for the opening lines:

"In an old house in Paris, that was covered with vines,
lived twelve little girls in two straight lines...
the smallest one was Madeline."

Madeline was featured in seven stories, and is a favorite among children appearing in books, on television, and in movies.

Madeline's Rescue tells the story of Genevieve, a dog that rescues Madeline after she falls into the Seine river while trying to scare Miss Clavel, the woman that cares for the twelve little girls. All of the girls love Genevieve and there is constant arguments over who gets to spend time with her. At one point the landlord, who does not like dogs, has Genevieve dropped off in the countryside. The girls and Miss Clavel search for their beloved Genevieve with no luck, but she manages to find her way back on her own.Before the arguments can get out of control again, it is discovered that Genevieve has given birth to eleven puppies so all of the girls can have their own dog with no more fighting.

Madeline's adventures happen in France, so there are great opportunities to talk about that culture, and some of the architecture. There is also a great opportunity to talk about sharing, and what fighting about Genevieve did to their little group. You can also use the book for a discussion about pets, and places that might not accept them.

Although the culture is a bit different, and the story is a bit older, the adventures of Madeline have not lost their appeal or applicability. Add this tale to your list because hopefully Madeline will never go out of style.

There are 69 Newberry Medal books and even more Caldecott Medal books.

I've read some in each category, but I've never read them all. However, I've always wanted to try it, so why not make a blog about it to make it a little harder to give up? I recently read Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos, and in a day or two I'll have a review ready, but not quite yet. I also have several Caldecott books handy.

My plan with all of this is to read and review all of these books (133 I think) I will probably add in some other reviews of books that I would recommend.