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Voting is over and we have chosen our winning books.

Medal:
When You Reach Me

Honors:
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
All the Broken Pieces

They posted the results of the Newbery Awards:



Winner:
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Honors:
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip M. Hoose
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick

What do you think? Do you agree with their choices?

I do not understand how they picked Mostly True Adventures there were tons of books that were better!

Kathy wrote: "I do not understand how they picked Mostly True Adventures there were tons of books that were better!"

Yeah, I thought that that was a surprising pick! I liked the book, but don't think it is Honor-worthy when considering what else is out there.

On the other hand, I actually read straight through Homer P. Figg and I had to pick up the others that I read several times. (WYRM and CT). I think that speaks to the ability of the author to hold the audience's focus.

I am one of the few who didn't especially like WYRM. As I have said before, I think it is well plotted, but I don't end up loving the characters and that makes me feel like it is missing something.

I always have to wonder if last years publicity has effected their choices. Critics were claiming that children find the Newberys boring. The last two Newberys are deffinatly not boring. In fact these are books that will appeal to kids in many ways.

I was disappointed with 2 of the choices as Homer P. Figg was the most returned unread/unfinished of the books and "When You Reach Me" got a lot of scorn from the kids because they thought the time travel element was weak. I and most of the 6th grade girls loved "Evolution of Calpurnia Tate." If they actually picked books that appealed to the kids, they would have gone with Rick Riordian's "Last Olympian." Hands down that is the book from last year that the kids love, reread, and cherish. Yet again this award needs to start reflecting both adults and kids views.

I admit that Homer P. Figg was not one of my picks. I had a hard time getting into it and Homer truly annoyed me for awhile, but then the high adventure and memorable characters took over, and I ended up enjoying it very much. I was a bit surprised that my 5th grade girls seemed to like it, but they did. None of us picked it as a Newbery though...but a notable :-) I think it will be easy to book talk.

I'm just getting to Homer P. Figg so I can't say anything about that one. I'm also going to re-read When You Reach Me and When the Mountain Meets the Moon to see if I like them any better. But the two choices of Calpurnia Tate and Claudette Colvin as honor books are, to me, completely appropriate. Would that one of them had won the top honor. I can't believe I forgot about Claudette Colvin when we were discussing books to read. I loved the subject matter (about which I was woefully unaware), the quality of the writing, the research, all that I learned. When do we start in on the 2011 list?

Barbara wrote: "I'm just getting to Homer P. Figg so I can't say anything about that one. I'm also going to re-read When You Reach Me and When the Mountain Meets the Moon to see if I like them any better. But th..."


Perhaps Homer was chosen for the time period and setting.