Lois Lowry’s 1990 Newbery winning book, Number the Stars, centers on ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her Jewish friend Ellen Rosen in 1943 Copenhagen, after the Nazis have taken over Denmark. It’s a beautiful book that manages to be suspenseful and authentic for such an intense topic, while still being a good first book gentle enough…
Muddy Soccer Fields, Potty Training, and Flat Tires: A March 2020 Corona Diary Entry
A few weeks ago, when my husband Evan, a middle school social studies teacher, was getting ready to start e-learning, I mentioned that I’d seen a couple compelling suggestions by people I admire online to keep a journal of this time. I thought it’d be great to have his students write down their experiences. He…
Newbery Review #68 (Joyful Noise, Fleischman, 1989)
Paul Fleischman’s 1989 Newbery winning book, Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, is a short book of poetry that conjures up the noise of summertime insects. Each page has two columns of text, one for each voice, mostly alternative and unison parts, although there are some parts where the two voices are saying different things…
15 of the Best Board Books for One Year Olds
In the middle of all the little pamphlets and one sheet reminders that we left the hospital with was the instruction to “read to your child 20 minutes a day.” This is, of course, wonderful advice. It’s the kind of public health initiative meant to convey that it’s never too early to expose your child…
Newbery Review #67 (Lincoln: A Photobiography, Freedman, 1988)
Russel Freedman’s 1988 Newbery winning book, Lincoln: A Photobiography is a great biography (with lots of photographs) of Abraham Lincoln. Even though one of my first quasi-dates with my husband Evan in the spring of 2006 was to the Lincoln museum in Springfield Illinois, I don’t think of myself as having an above average interest…
35 Books for My 35th Birthday
This is my 6th year of birthday reading lists! (You can see the others here: 30 // 31 // 32 // 33 // 34 ). My top picks for this year were Circe, When Life Gives You Pears, Being Mortal, The Blue Sword, and The Blue Castle. The full list is broken down by nonfiction / memoirs / novels / YA/ middle grade reads (but doesn’t include any…
Newbery Review #66 (The Whipping Boy, Fleischman, 1987)
Sid Fleischman’s 1987 Newbery winning book, The Whipping Boy, is about spoiled Prince Horace (Prince Brat by his subjects behind his back) who has a servant for everything, including taking his whippings. But when he runs away, and takes his whipping boy, Jemmy, with him, Prince Horace learns that only by experiencing the harsh realities…
Family Christmas Letter 2019
Dear Family & Friends, Merry Christmas! 2019 started out with our sweet Lily baby learning to crawl and ended with a little girl with brown curls bouncing as she runs after her brother (or Bro, as she often calls him now). Highlights of the year were our trips to North Carolina for…
Newbery Review #65 (Sarah, Plain and Tall, MacLachlan, 1986)
Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan is told from the perspective of ten-year-old Anna as she and her younger brother Caleb await and meet the woman who answered the advertisement for a mail-order bride their father had placed. Set in 19th century American Prairie, the book is short and sweet, honest and compelling. I’ve…
Paleo Thanksgiving Stuffing
For me chopping up onions and celery for paleo stuffing feels like one of the first moments of the holidays. While this is certainly not a recipe from my childhood (I’m pretty sure that we often had boxed stuffing for our Thanksgivings. Not that I’m complaining, I loved boxed stuffing. It’s magic and delicious…
Newbery Review #64 (The Hero and the Crown, McKinley, 1985)
The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley won the 1985 Newbery medal. Only daughter of a king, Aerin is looking for her place in a kingdom that is suspicious of her just as they were of her foreign, magically powerful and long-dead mother. Aerin finds a recipe for an ointment that protects the wearer…
Learning to Soothe a Baby: a letter to a new mom
A few months ago I was emailing with a dear friend, also named Amy, who was about to have her first baby. (Here’s a picture of us when I was pregnant with Jackson.) Amy is wise and kind, an ennegram 1 with a 2 wing (like me!), organized, caring, and especially wants to be organized…
Newbery Review # 63 (Dear Mr. Henshaw, Cleary, 1984)
Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary is the 1984 Newbery winning epistolary novel starring Leigh Botts writing letters to his favorite author Mr. Henshaw. At first Leigh is young, just learning to read and write, then as he gets a bit older (6th grade) he writes Mr. Henshaw for a school assignment. After Leigh tries…
Like A Leaf Falling to the Ground: Saying Goodbye to our Milwaukee Parish
The last of the warm Wisconsin breezes are bringing down the very first yellow ash leaves of Fall this week. All summer I’ve been trying to find the words to write about our local Anglican parish closing, to explain something so big and complicated, private and yet at the same time a deeply shared experience….
Newbery Review # 62 (Dicey’s Song, Voigt, 1983)
Dicey’s Song by Cynthia Voigt won the 1983 Newbery. It’s the second installment in a seven-part series called the Tillerman Cycle. I read the first book of the series in fourth grade, and I clearly remember being completely taken with Homecoming: the details of these kids being abandoned, counting their money and buying a tiny…