A Project! Because Apparently I Have Nothing Else Going On

I stumbled across a couple blogs this last week of people who set about to read all the Newbery Award books. The Newbery Awards have been given out every year since 1922. That's a lot of books to read, even in the kidlit division! So, I'm beginning the task of chipping away at that list. So far, I've finished the 2009 and 2008 winners.

The Graveyard Book, by N. Gaiman. This was very fun to read. A very unique story, extremely well written. Kind of dark in a Harry Potter/Twilight way (but then again, isn't everything these days?).

What I learned: When referring these books to children, don't just assume that if they won the award, they're totally appropriate for any age. Check for a YF or JF designation. YF is for Young Adult fiction. The Graveyard Book is definitely Young Adult fiction. JF is for Juvenille Fiction. Much better for the younger ones.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, by L. Schlitz. Totally interesting, well written, containing new information to me from the medieval period. The play format was very cool, and I could see my daughter's 4th grade class reading and performing this book aloud. Absolutely safe for children of any age. I read this one in a couple of hours over about three nights.

What I learned: A Newberry book should be a book that is written very well, and one that children will enjoy reading. Although this book is written very well, there is no way 99% of the children of the world would pick this book up and read it for enjoyment. It would be like one of us saying, 'Gee, I think I'm going to pick up a copy of Grey's Anatomy and peruse it this weekend'. Sorry, not going to happen.

Right now I'm reading Savvy, by I. Law. This was an Newberry Honor book from 2009. I also just received from the library The Wheel on the School by M. De Jong, the 1955 award winner, and The Moorchild by E. McGraw, a 1997 honor book.

What I'm enjoying most about this list is I can just do a little before-bed reading and get through these pretty quickly, for the most part. I know I'll slow down at some point and actually read a book meant for an adult, but for now I'm having a great time.

If you'd like to read a few of these with me, check out this link. http://www.slcolibrary.org/rc/rcwr/pdf/booklists/booklistNewbery2010.pdf. This link is courtesy of my friend the librarian. Doesn't everyone need one of those? I think so. Again, check for the YF or JF designation when deciding to let little ones read these, or to read these to little ones.

Oh, and remember how I'm really offended if you're not a Goodreads friend with me? Yep. I am. And there's only one way to redeem yourself. You know what to do.