< Newbery Medal and Honor Books
Given the Newbery Award's prestige it would be easy to assume that the award winners are all excellent books for children. The Biblioguides Team has not found this to be the case. We always want to provide parents with the information they need to make the best book decisions for their families. With that goal in mind, we've put together a complete list of all medal winners and honor books since inception, and the Biblioguides Review Team is working together to read our way through the winners and to provide a review. Where we have not yet reviewed a book, a description directly from the dust jacket or from the publisher has been provided. In some cases, we have shared a brief synopsis from The Newbery and Caldecott Awards: A Guide to the Medal and Honor Books (1999).
Reviews are the thoughts and opinions of the particular reviewer and do not necessarily represent all members of the team. Reviews will continue to be added as the team reads more of the Newbery books. We hope this list will help you familiarize yourself with the various winners and provide the necessary information to determine which books would be a good fit for your family!
Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon
By: Dhan Gopal Mukerji
Medal Winner
Reviewed by: Sherry Early
Recommended age: 11+
Also read and recommended by: Sandy Hall
If you’re interested in carrier pigeons, or pet birds, or India, or birds used in war, this Newbery award book from 1928 might just fit the bill. Yes, it’s somewhat dated in style and content. Yes, the first half of the book is a nature story reminiscent of Jean Craighead George’s books such as The Other Side of the Mountain, and the second half changes focus and deals with themes of fear, war, and religion. Yes, the narration jumps back and forth from the boy who owns and trains the pigeon to Gay-Neck himself telling his own story by means of “the grammar of fancy and the dictionary of imagination.” Yes, its audience would probably be limited, but I think there are some children and adults, especially nature lovers and bird lovers, who would really like this book.
The descriptions of the pigeons’ defense against their enemies, eagles and hawks, and of their capacity to deliver messages even in the midst of battle are detailed enough to make the reader feel as if he could go out, purchase a pigeon, and begin training tomorrow. And it sounds like fun. As an adult and a non-animal lover, I’m sure it’s not that simple, but don’t be surprised if a child, after reading this book, wants his own bird to train and watch and admire.
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Downright Dencey
By: Caroline Snedeker
Illustrated by: Maginel Wright Barney
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
A small island thirty miles out to sea, brave folk who lived by hunting the whale, but who lived proudly, prosperously, in what is perhaps the most interesting of all New England villages, Nantucket. Such is the scene of this story one hundred years ago.
Dencey's debt is incurred when she throws a stone and hurts Sammy Jetsam, a poor waif of a boy. She is horrified at her own deed and to get the boy's forgiveness she runs away from home and goes far out on the Common to find him.
Jetsam demands, as the price of his forgiveness, Dencey's only story book, and, moreover, that she teach him to read it.
How she runs away many times to teach Jetsam—how Jetsam saves her life and has an adventure of his own—this is the human story that happens on quaint Nantucket to this lovable boy and girl. Mrs. Snedeker knows Nantucket, and gathered her material there; so does Maginel Wright Barney, who has captured the strength and peace of old New England in her lovely illustrations.
From the dust jacket
The Wonder Smith and His Son
By: Ella Young
Illustrated by: Boris Artzybasheff
Honor
Reviewed by: Sherry Early
Ella Young, an Irish poet and mythologist and part of the literary revival in Ireland around the turn of the last century, took the myths and stories about Gubban Saor or Cullion the Smith aka Mananaun and rewrote them for children in this Newbery Honor book of 1928. The full title of the book is The Wondersmith and His Son: A Tale from the Golden Childhood of the World. The tales were fantastical and very odd to my ear, but maybe not so very child-like. I’m too used to my folklore in simple everyday language, pre-digested and probably dumbed down. This collection is written in highly poetical language, and the tales meander about without a clear meaning or plot or character arc.
Perhaps it would be fun to read these tales aloud to a group of children and see just what they make of them. I’m baffled, befuddled, and bewildered, although I do catch some moments of beauty in the midst of the confusion. If you are of Irish extraction or just interested in myths and folktales and hero tales, you might enjoy trying to make sense of these stories. I read for plot, meaning, and characters, with a nod to language along the way. Therefore, I had to force myself to finish this translation and retelling of old Gaelic tales.
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