Next Monday, Jan. 25, during its annual Midwinter Conference (which is virtual like everything else this year) the American Library Association will announce the winners of the most coveted awards in children’s literature. There are several categories, but the oldest and most prestigious is the John Newbery Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature. We’ll let you know the actual winners on Monday, but we also like to try our hand at predicting. So, with a spin to the Wheel of Fortune . . .   Janie: I look to current social and political trends to make my guesses, though that’s not always reliable. Each year’s Newbery committee is notoriously quirky!…

We wrap up our Newbery Buzz series for this year with a discussion of Echo Mountain a historical novel set during the Great Depression. Joining us will be Pamela, a longtime friend and sometime contributor to Redeemed Reader. Janie: Echo Mountain has reaped three starred reviews in the most prestigious journals. Its author, Lauren Wolk, won a Newbery silver medal for her first novel, Wolf Hollow, three years ago. So it’s likely this book has been under discussion ever since it was published last spring. Here’s a brief synopsis: Ellie’s family (her parents, older sister Esther, and little brother Sam) took a severe hit when the stock market dropped and…

The Barnabus Project, Our Little Kitchen, and I Am Every Good Thing are all contenders for this year’s Caldecott award for illustration. The Barnabus Project by the Terry, Eric, and Devin Fan (the Fan Brothers). Tundra, 2020, 72 pages. Reading Level: Picture book, ages 4-8 Recommended for: ages 4-10 Barnabus lives under a bell jar in a secret lab far below the Perfect Pets pet store. Mouse-size, with mousy ears and tail, he also sports miniature elephant’s feet and trunk. Barnabas is comfortable being himself, but the man-sized creatures in the green rubber suits have marked him as a “Fail.” He’s not the only one: the secret lab is filled…

Three more possible Newbery contenders we never got around to reviewing. When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller. Random House, 2020, 302 pages Lily, her older sister Sam, and their mother are moving in with their Halmoni (grandma). Lily is happy about it and Sam is angry, but Sam has been generally miserable since their father’s death some years earlier. And now Halmoni is dying of brain cancer. Shortly after the move, Lily sees a tiger in the rain—a hallucination, or could it be somehow real? As the tiger appears to be stalking her, Lily realizes that Halmoni sees it too. It turns out that the tiger is a…

Continuing our discussion of possible Newbery winners, we pick up a book that has everybody talking: Janie: Betsy, there are two books that I think will be considered very seriously by this year’s Newbery committee. We talked about King and the Dragonflies, but we should also consider Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You. This book is nonfiction–unusual for consideration, but by no means unheard-of. It’s also a young-reader version of an earlier book for grownups, and that’s a first, as far as I can remember. Stamped is called a “remix” rather than a “young reader edition,” but the material is taken from an earlier book called Stamped from the Beginning, by…

We’ve been scanning the starred review lists and listening in on the chatter to tell you about the likely Newbery contenders for this year. So far we’ve pondered King and the Dragonflies, Chirp, The List of Things That Will Not Change, and Skunk & Badger. For today . . . Janie: For our fourth Newbery Buzz talk, Hayley and I are tackling Everything Sad Is Untrue, by Daniel Nayeri. I’ll lay my cards out up front: I found this book amazing, in theme, structure, literary quality, and characterization (see my review). But it’s definitely not conventional. Hayley, could you give us a summary of the plot? Hayley:  Absolutely.  This is a unique…

All Thirteen gives the rescue of the Thai boys’ soccer team the drama and excitement it deserves. All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team by Christina Soontornvat. Candlewick, 229 pages plus notes and index. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ages 8-up On a “typical Saturday” in June, the Wild Boars soccer team met for a routine practice on the field of Mae Sai, a town in western Thailand. Their coach, Ekkapol Chantawong (better known as Ek), had been building team spirit through strenuous hikes and bike rides. That day, he planned an excursion into Tham Luang cave to round out the afternoon.…

The Next President takes a unique approach to the list of presidents by looking at their backgrounds–and speculating on the future. The Next President: The Unexpected Beginnings and Unwritten Future of America’s Presidents by Kate Messner, illustrated by Adam Rex. Chronicle, 2020, 48 pages. Reading Level: Picture book, ages 4-8 Recommended for: ages 5-10 Future presidents are among us! Who might they be? At the time George Washington was sworn in as #1, nine future presidents were already grown men: Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J.Q. Adams, and Jackson. Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, and Zachary Taylor were teens or younger. We see all of them as they might have looked…

We’re keeping an eye on children’s books that have been talked up as possible contenders for the 2021 ALA Youth Media Awards (to be announced on January 25). It’s impossible to forecast what will tickle the fancy of this year’s Newbery committee, but here are three titles that keep showing up on “Best Of” lists and mock Newbery ballots. Rick by Alex Gino. Scholastic, 2020, 240 pages. Rick is just starting middle school with his longterm best bud, Jeff. They’re starting to drift apart, but Rick doesn’t know why until the Rainbow Spectrum Club opens, with meetings on Tuesdays, everyone welcome. Rick furtively attends the first meeting out of curiosity,…

We’re continuing our annual “Newbery Buzz” series today with round #3 for 2021. (We have already discussed Chirp and King and the Dragonflies earlier this month.) As a reminder, we do not know which books the actual Newbery committee is seriously considering; we discuss books we’ve been hearing lots of “buzz” about in the children’s literature channels and try to determine if the book might have a shot. Today Betsy and Megan are discussing a great chapter book that Megan enjoyed reading aloud with her boys. Betsy: Megan, you and I both enjoyed this new chapter book, Skunk and Badger, from Amy Timberlake (and we’re both big fans of her picture…