The last Newbery of the 1920s, The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly, is a Polish medieval adventure. Outside of Dr. Doolittle, this week’s story finally had all the elements I would expect to be in a Newbery: young teens as the main characters, a vivid setting, a few sets of villains, and…
Month: June 2014
Like Camping in an Industrial Park: Tips & Lists for Healthy Cooking while Traveling
Eating well while traveling is a delicate dance between being flexible and proactive. On the one hand traveling is often hard on your body. You are sleeping in strange places, at strange times, and often not well or long enough. You’re exposed to different (and usually more) germs as you go through crowded airports…
Newbery Review # 7 (Gay-Neck, Mukerji, 1928)
There are a number of times reading Newbery’s from the 1920s where I think, “well, that probably wouldn’t be the way someone would write it now,” and the title of our 1928 book is one of those times. It’s about a carrier pigeon named Chitra Griva, roughly translated as iridescent throated, or a neck painted…
5 Tips for a Month-Long Hotel Stay: Creating a Workable Space
We’ve reached the half-way point of this month-long adventure in Atlanta. Right before we left, I had a sweet new Milwaukee friend ask me if I would mind working and writing from a hotel room for a month—did I need somewhere beautiful or nice to help inspire my writing? I assured her that as…
Newbery Review # 6 (Smoky the Cowhorse, James, 1927)
This week we come to the 6th Newbery Winner from 1927: Smoky the Cowhorse by Will James. It reminded me of a mix between Black Beauty set in the American West and a Nature Channel special about a plains horse narrated by a Cowboy. It chronicles the life of the semi-wild horse Smoky from…
On Risk & Beauty: Hiking Blood Mountain, Georgia
With the exception of golf courses, the northern suburbs of Atlanta is a difficult place for someone who loves to walk. In particular, where we’re staying there aren’t a ton of sidewalks connecting one strip mall to another industrial park. Instead, sidewalks sort of start and stop around housing developments, or are only…
Newbery Review # 5 (Shen of the Sea, Chrisman, 1926)
This week we tackled another set of folktales, the 1926 Newbery Award winner Shen of The Sea: Chinese Stories for Children by Arthur Bowie Chrisman. I have to say reading another set of folktales was a little rough, since I am more of a novel girl than a short story or folk tale one….
Three Trips to Atlanta
So, I’m in Atlanta. This is actually my third time in Atlanta. The first time I came to Atlanta I was 19, and it was your average college spring trip: you know where you and your dad drive a couple thousand miles from the Midwest through the south to see a slew of Great…