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From: Melody Allen <melody_allen>
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 08:07:53 -0500
I've enjoyed the many comments so far on the Newbery winners. I marked several passages in Lizzie Bright for the fabulous descriptive language and imagery. Two secondary characters who add much to the book are the two older women who in different ways befriend Turner. In such an unrelentingly sad book, where there are so many losses, I was a bit surprised that when Turner went to the asylum only to find Lizzie had died, he did not in some way look into the fate of the woman with the yellow shutters or even bring her back home. I think her return might have been a more believable consolation than the turn-around of the other boy, her grandson I think - or at least it would have reinforced his developing friendship with Turner.
I did find this book very affecting and moving, but it is Turner's story - Lizzie is the catalyst for his coming into his own and the parallel story of the townspeople breaking away from the control of a few just as Turner breaks from his father. His reconciliation with his father and the regret of some townspeople over what happened on Malaga cannot stop the sad fate of both. The image of the children flying like birds is an effective reference to an image from African American folklore. The eye of the whale connects in my mind to an afterlife, but I am not sure why.
The scenes of his father educating him are appealing in revealing another side to his father and Turner's actual pleasure in the disciplined learning in balance to his joy in the freedom Lizzie shows him. I will leave it to others as to what this reveals in terms of race relations. The application of his lessons to the real events and relationships around him I found delightful.
While the kids all pick on Turner as the preacher's son and an outsider, the kids on Alcatraz are the ones who show acceptance and care for Natalie in Al Capone. Another book with strong secondary characters, also emblematic but not trivialized. In contrast, this book ends with a strong sense of victory, the heart of which again seems to me to be family reconciliation and reconfiguration as a boy moves into adolescence. Melody Allen melody_allen at gw.doa.state.ri.us
We've heard some varying opinons on Kira-Kira, and several favorable comments on both Al Capone and Lizzie Bright.
It seems to me one of the great challenges for the Newbery Committee each year is to evaluate, and ultimately compare, books that are so different stylistically and often thematically. These three books, as well as the third honor book this year, The Voice That Challenged a Nation, are great examples of how very different books can be (although there are some themes common to all of them).
I find Kira-Kira quiet and understated, and the second time I read it, long after the first, I had forgotten how funny it is; like everything else about the novel, the humor is subtle. At the same time, it was a a book I couldn't stop thinking about, making it a powerful and profound reading experience that continued to resonate after I'd closed the cover.
I found that Al Capone, like Kira-Kira, felt like effortless storytelling, but it had a much brighter, crisper tone as it deftly balanced much higher humor as well as drama in a lively narrative. Lizzie Bright also blends humor and high drama, but with language that is dazzling with its richness. And The Voice That Challenged a Nation shows how artful non-fiction writing can be. The opening chapter made me feel the excitement, anticipation and, above all, importance of that Lincoln Memorial Concert as if I was in the midst of the crowd--spine-tingling.
Whether you've read one of the 2005 Newbery books or all of them, tell us what you thought, or what your experiences have been sharing them with children.
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, UW-Madison 600 N. Park St., Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706
ph: 608&2?03 fax: 608&2I33 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
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Received on Mon 21 Feb 2005 07:07:53 AM CST
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 08:07:53 -0500
I've enjoyed the many comments so far on the Newbery winners. I marked several passages in Lizzie Bright for the fabulous descriptive language and imagery. Two secondary characters who add much to the book are the two older women who in different ways befriend Turner. In such an unrelentingly sad book, where there are so many losses, I was a bit surprised that when Turner went to the asylum only to find Lizzie had died, he did not in some way look into the fate of the woman with the yellow shutters or even bring her back home. I think her return might have been a more believable consolation than the turn-around of the other boy, her grandson I think - or at least it would have reinforced his developing friendship with Turner.
I did find this book very affecting and moving, but it is Turner's story - Lizzie is the catalyst for his coming into his own and the parallel story of the townspeople breaking away from the control of a few just as Turner breaks from his father. His reconciliation with his father and the regret of some townspeople over what happened on Malaga cannot stop the sad fate of both. The image of the children flying like birds is an effective reference to an image from African American folklore. The eye of the whale connects in my mind to an afterlife, but I am not sure why.
The scenes of his father educating him are appealing in revealing another side to his father and Turner's actual pleasure in the disciplined learning in balance to his joy in the freedom Lizzie shows him. I will leave it to others as to what this reveals in terms of race relations. The application of his lessons to the real events and relationships around him I found delightful.
While the kids all pick on Turner as the preacher's son and an outsider, the kids on Alcatraz are the ones who show acceptance and care for Natalie in Al Capone. Another book with strong secondary characters, also emblematic but not trivialized. In contrast, this book ends with a strong sense of victory, the heart of which again seems to me to be family reconciliation and reconfiguration as a boy moves into adolescence. Melody Allen melody_allen at gw.doa.state.ri.us
We've heard some varying opinons on Kira-Kira, and several favorable comments on both Al Capone and Lizzie Bright.
It seems to me one of the great challenges for the Newbery Committee each year is to evaluate, and ultimately compare, books that are so different stylistically and often thematically. These three books, as well as the third honor book this year, The Voice That Challenged a Nation, are great examples of how very different books can be (although there are some themes common to all of them).
I find Kira-Kira quiet and understated, and the second time I read it, long after the first, I had forgotten how funny it is; like everything else about the novel, the humor is subtle. At the same time, it was a a book I couldn't stop thinking about, making it a powerful and profound reading experience that continued to resonate after I'd closed the cover.
I found that Al Capone, like Kira-Kira, felt like effortless storytelling, but it had a much brighter, crisper tone as it deftly balanced much higher humor as well as drama in a lively narrative. Lizzie Bright also blends humor and high drama, but with language that is dazzling with its richness. And The Voice That Challenged a Nation shows how artful non-fiction writing can be. The opening chapter made me feel the excitement, anticipation and, above all, importance of that Lincoln Memorial Concert as if I was in the midst of the crowd--spine-tingling.
Whether you've read one of the 2005 Newbery books or all of them, tell us what you thought, or what your experiences have been sharing them with children.
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, UW-Madison 600 N. Park St., Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706
ph: 608&2?03 fax: 608&2I33 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
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Received on Mon 21 Feb 2005 07:07:53 AM CST
