Poems about different people that live in a Medieval village in 1255 and experience different things such as hunting, deformities, parent’s death, worshipping of saints, and many more. The book was written by a school librarian for students to have plenty of opportunities to be lead stars instead of having small parts in plays. Great historical facts and amusing water color and ink illustrations.
Frennie is an African American girl that lives in the early 1970s. She faces many problems that normal children coming from the same background faces: segregation, bullies, mother's miscarriages, her brother's deafness, among others. There is a new boy in school that everyone calls Jesus Boy. Even Samantha, Frennie's best friend and daughter of a preacher thinks he might be Jesus Christ. This book focuses in Hope, like the poem Frennie is reading in class says: Hope is the thing with feathers, so Hope is the only thing left. What I liked most about this book was how the characters lived each day at a time. There is no hero at the end who will come and save the day. The characters just have to find ways to solve their own problems, the way it is in the real world. This book is suitable for children 9 years and older because of some content and vocabulary.
2008 Newbery Honor Book
Schmidt, Gary D. The Wednesday Wars.
Holling Hoodhood is just starting the seventh grade with a teacher, who according to him, hates his guts. His father is a busy architect who expects him to take over the family business one day. This year, however, Holling is experiencing things he never dreamed of like learning and performing Shakespeare, bullies at school, an accident that sends him to the hospital, the Vietnam War, assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., just to name a few. It turns out that the teacher he hates, has her husband fighting in the war. She is afraid of watching the news afraid that they might mention his name. He gets missing in action and that makes her hard to reach. She makes Holling really learn his lessons but later becomes friendlier and nicer. Holling will learn the value of friendship, family and something more. Schmidt sure knows how to engage readers into his stories.
2008 Newbery Honor Book
No comments:
Post a Comment