The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron and illustrated by Matt Phelan (2007 Newberry Medal Winner)

The last decade of Newberry medal winners has seen several stories about young girls with nontraditional families. (Look at When You Reach Me, and Moon Over Manifest) Fortunately, each of those books brings something different to the mix, so it doesn't matter that they have that in common.

Lucky's mother has died, and since her father can't handle the pressure of raising his daughter alone, he calls his first wife, Brigitte, to come all the way from France to Hard Pan, California (population 43) to take care of Lucky. Lucky always worries that Brigitte will leave her too, but she isn't sure this will happen.

At the age of 10, Lucky has a job cleaning up the town hall after all of the 12-step meetings. She likes to listen to the tales told by the members of the various groups, and Lucky is also in search of her own Higher Power, just like she heats about in the meetings. She has two good friends, a boy named Linclon, who is an avid knot tier who also has aspirations of becoming President, and Miles, a 5-year-old boy who loves the book Are You My Mother? by P. D. Eastman.

The book has illustrations of various knots that are fun, and the relationship between Lucky and Brigitte is strange and fun. It makes for interesting reading.

Lucky's search for her Higher Power leads her to run away from home, but will that actually take her where she wants to be? Lucky has plenty of problems sorting out her life, and her adventures are worth the read.

So let's make some suggestions about uses in the classroom:

• Talk about what makes a family.
• Talk about what it would be like to live in a town as small as Hard Pan.
• Read Are You My Mother to the class and talk about why Miles likes the book so much. (You can talk about it throughout the whole book so you can see the changing perspective of the book.
• Experiment with tying knots.

There are plenty of other ideas you can explore. Why don't you share some of them below in the comments?

Song of the Swallows (1950 Caldecott Medal Winner by Leo Politi)

Song of the Swallows (1950 Caldecott Medal Winner by Leo Politi)

I've mentioned that many of the older Caldecott winners have difficulty deciding how long they should be. That is a problem for Song of the Swallows. This book is too long to fit in with modern ideas about book length for younger readers. The story isn't too bad, but it does drag if you are trying to read it to a class.

The story is rather simple even though it is long. The story follows the non adventures of a young boy that is waiting for the swallows to return and signal the start of spring. This all starts when the bell ringer at Mission San Juan Capistrano tells Juan the story of how the swallows manage to find their way from South America to California every spring.

Juan goes home and creates his own small garden in hopes of attracting a family of swallows to nest near his house. This is successful, and Juan sings the song of the swallows. (You can find the tune and words in the back of the book.)

While the story isn't terrible, it dragged for me as a reader. Maybe I'm just too conditioned for modern stories, but there it is. You might enjoy the story, and make use of the Spanish dialogue in your classroom. It will also be a great story if you are talking about migration.

Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (1947 Newberry Medal Winner)

Normally, I would avoid giving away the ending of a book, but you need to know all about this story in order for it to make sense. So you've been warned.

So Miss Hickory is a doll that is made from an apple branch that looks like a body, and a hickory nut that happens to be shaped like a face. Miss Hickory is very set in her ways and a bit rude at times too.

During the nicer times of year, she lives outside in a doll house, and during the winter months she is moved inside, but this year things are different. The family is going away for the winter, and Miss Hickory has been forcefully evicted from her home by a chipmunk. A crow helps her find a robin's nest to live in during the winter, but she balks at the idea even though she agrees to live there in the end.

Her new home is above the hole of a squirrel. Miss Hickory does not treat this squirrel very well, and insults him all the time. That will come back to haunt her.

Miss Hickory has many adventures over her winter. She helps a group of pheasant hens to band together into a women's society to stand up to the male pheasants. She rescues an old frog that has gotten trapped in the ice. She also learns a lot. She changes her wardrobe frequently using the natural world around her for materials.

There are some strange chapters, especially when Miss Hickory goes to a "party" at the barn that is attended by every animal you can find in the world. I can't explain where they come from or how they get there, but I liked it.

So, I mentioned that I would talk about the ending, so here it goes. When spring arrives, the robins that lived in her nest returns and kicks her out. Desperate for a place to go, Miss Hickory visits her neighbor the squirrel, who being hungry after the long winter, eats Miss Hickory's head. This is actually a liberating experience. It frees her of being so hard headed, and even without her head, she is able to feel her way into the tree and sets herself into an open space int the tree and becomes a grafted branch.

Yes, this story is strange, but if you are into unique takes on the world, then this book might be for you.

Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes (2005 Caldecott Medal Winner)

Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes (2005 Caldecott Medal)

When I think about writers that should have won a Newberry or Caldecott Medal more than once, I will definitely have Kevin Henkes as a part of that list from now on. Henkes is a prolific writer with a hefty portfolio of tales that are all worthy of that medal in my opinion.

Maybe you don't recognize the name, so let me give you a few examples of the stories that Mr. Henkes writes:

• Jessica-a young girl has an imaginary friend named, Jessica. What will happen to Jessica when she starts Kindergarten and makes new friends?
• Chrysanthemum- A young mouse named Chrysanthemum deals with the other students who tease her because of her name.
• Owen-A young mouse doesn't want to give up his blanket.

These are just a few of the amazing stories that have come from Mr. Henkes, and any one of them could have won a Caldecott Medal. So let's talk about Kitten's First Full Moon. (I did learn that Owen won a Caldecott Honor Medal.)

This is the story of a young kitten that mistakes the full moon for a bowl of milk and tries to get the milk with some less than filling results.

• Sticks her neck out and lick a lightning bug.
• Jumps off the porch and lands on her head.
• Runs after the moon and climbs a high tree without getting any closer.
• Mistakes the moons reflection in a pool of water for an even larger bowl of milk with soggy results.

After all of that the kitten crawls home saddened until she gets back to her front porch and finds a bowl of milk waiting for her.

It's a fun little tale with picture that tell the story just as much as the words. I have used the story without the words on occasion. When I do this, I have a student tell me the story one-on-one. Have the student look through the book and try to recall the story.

Other fun ideas:

• Talk about perspective. Why does the kitten think the moon (which is very far away) is a bowl of milk?
• Goal setting. The kitten has a goal. How does she reach that goal?
• List other objects you might mistake the moon for (in the different phases)
• Track what the moon looks like on different nights. (The kids can draw the moon every night and bring it in with them.)

There are plenty of other ideas, so if you have something cool to share, leave a comment below.