Writing in the style of William Blake’s short lyrical poems, Nancy Willard’s short, beautifully illustrated book A Visit to William Blake’s Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers won the 1982 Newbery. It was the first book of poetry to win the Newbery, and Alice and Martin Provensen’s illustrations won the book a Caldecott honor…
Travels with Two: Making Memories with Friends in the Craziness of the Toddler Years
Last week we came home from our third trip of the year with two little kids. Our first one in March ushered in Spring with a road trip out to Durham, North Carolina and this last one we headed up to Northfield and Minneapolis, Minnesota. In between I took the kids down to Wheaton, Illinois…
Newbery Review # 60 (Jacob Have I Loved, Paterson, 1981)
The 60th Newbery winner, Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Paterson, is the first of these Newbery books that I still have my copy of from when I read it as a child. Evidently, I liked it enough to print my whole address in the front, so it could be returned to me should I…
A Window into My Home: A Guest Post at The Homely Hours
For a long time I thought that having such a small house and such small children meant that we couldn’t have a sweet little altar space to put our crosses and icons and prayer books, but having it at the kitchen table has ended up being so great. It truly is the heart of our…
Newbery Review #59 (A Gathering of Days, Blos, 1980)
Our 59th Newbery is historical fiction written as the diary of one Catherine Cabot Hall age 13: A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos. In her diary entries, Catherine chronicles two years of going to school, tending the house, caring for her little sister, dealing with her father’s…
Sharing My Birth Stories: A Podcast Interview & Sermon
I recently had two opportunities to share part of my birth stories. One was on the Christian Birth-Story Podcast “Birthing in God’s Presence” Episode 30 (You can listen to it here. Scroll to the bottom of this post for links to what I talked about.) And the other was as part of our parish’s Good Friday service sermons:…
Newbery Review #58 (The Westing Game, Raskin, 1979)
Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game was the 58th Newbery winning book and the award’s first mystery. Set in southern Wisconsin along Lake Michigan (Milwaukee perhaps?), 16 people move into an apartment complex and are each invited to prove that he or she is the true heir to their wealthy next door neighbor by discovering which…
“You’ll Miss These Days” : Remembering the Joy, Delight, & Drudgery of Parenting Little Kids
Last week, as the sun began to start warming up early April Wisconsin, I was walking with Lily (11 months) and Jackson (3 1/2) when two older women passed and called out, “We’re jealous of you. We miss that stage!” I laughed and thanked them. But inside I thought, “Well, you wouldn’t…
Newbery Review # 57 (Bridge to Terabithia, Paterson, 1978)
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson won the 1978 Newbery Award. Jess Aarons the narrator and protagonist is a lonely 10 year old who secretly draws, longs to be the fastest kid in school, and is sandwiched into a family of sisters. Leslie Burke moves into the farm house next to theirs, and they…
What I Packed in My Hospital Bag for a Natural Birth
Going into the birth of our second child, my husband, Evan, was pretty adamant that we bring less stuff to the hospital than we did the first time around. I’m a chronic over-packer, wanting to be prepared for any situation, but with dreams of being a minimalist. So for our daughter’s birth, I really…
Newbery Review #56 (Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, Taylor, 1977)
Mildred D Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is the 1977 Newbery winner about the 1930s black Mississippi Logan family through the eyes of the narrator, nine-year-old Cassie Logan. Cassie and her bothers, Stacey (12), Christopher-John (7), and Little Man (6) are not sharecroppers, but their grandmother (Big Ma) owns land that…
A Bookcase for the Whole Family: Form, Function, and a Bunch of Toys
As temperatures in Milwaukee compete with those of Antarctica, Lily decided to start crawling, our kitchen pipes froze, and I decided our bookshelves needed an overhaul. Fortunately, Evan got a few days off of school for snow and cold weather. We have a small house and most of our book collection is downstairs on…
Newbery Review #55 (The Grey King, Cooper, 1976)
The fourth book of the Dark is Rising Sequence, the 1976 Newbery winner, The Grey King by Susan Cooper continues the modern Arthurian fantasy, this time set in beautiful Wales. I read the first three books to get ready for this one, because I definitely have a want-to-check-all-the-boxes-and-read-everything-in-order personality, but I don’t…
34 Books for My 34th Birthday: A 2018 Reading List
To celebrate my 34th birthday, here are 34 of my favorite books from the past year! (You can see my past birthday book lists here : 30, 31, 32, & 33) My very top picks from the year were Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry, A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, Born a Crime: Stories from…
Newbery Review #54 (M.C. Higgins the Great, Virgina Hamilton, 1975)
I feel pretty guilty about not liking this book: M.C. Higgins the Great by Virginia Hamilton, winner of the 1975 Newbery award. Its subject matter (Appalachian Poor Communities) and its author (one of the first women (or person!) of color to win the Newbery) are both things that I think the Newbery Award books…