1937 Newbery Medal and Honor Books

Roller Skates

By: Ruth Sawyer
Illustrated by: Valentino Angelo

Medal Winner
NOT REVIEWED

A year on roller skates! A year when one was free to stop and chat with Patrolman M'Gonegal, and make friends with Mr. Gilligan, the cabby, and even play with Tony, whose father kept a fruit stand down the street.

This was Lucinda's year in New York City in 189—, when her family went to Europe and left her—not, thank Heaven, with Aunt Emily and her four docile, ladylike daughters, but with Miss Peters, who understood that a girl of ten wanted to roller skate to school, and who wasn't always worrying about a little lady's social dignity!

This is a delightful story of old New York, about a tomboy who could not help being a lady at the same time, who was both quick-tempered and sympathetic, both stubborn and astute.

From start to finish it rings true—and no wonder, for if you read the introduction, you will find that it all really happened once.

From the dust jacket

Audubon

By: Constance Rourke

Honor
NOT REVIEWED

Naturalist, artist, woodsman—all these descriptions fit John James Audubon, and each of them adds its own color to the story of his life. His personality grips the imagination—unflagging energy drove him from Pennsylvania to Texas, from Florida to Labrador in his unending search for birds, salty humor capable of self-appraisal, unwavering devotion to Lucy his wife. Courage and independence armed him equally against frontier dangers and the slanders and flatteries of civilization. His singleness of purpose never faltered from his youth to his death.

The book is illustrated with reproductions in full color of twelve of the elephant folio prints from "Birds of America" and many drawings in black and white, done in the spirit of Audubon's friend Bewick, by James Macdonald.

From the dust jacket

The Codfish Musket

By: Agnes Danforth Hewes

Honor
NOT REVIEWED

Even as a youngster, Dan has a keen eye for fine rifles and arms. On a mission to Washington for his Boston employer, Dan becomes secretary to Thomas Jefferson. The president sends him into the frontier with a message for Meriwether Lewis, but along the way Dan spots gun thieves arming the Indians. He defeats them and delivers his message, finally returning to Washington.

From The Newbery and Caldecott Awards: A Guide to the Medal and Honor Books (1993)

The Golden Basket

By: Ludwig Bemelmans

Honor
NOT REVIEWED

The gentleman on the cover of this book, holding his hat, is Mr. Horatio Coggeshall, manufacturer of pianos, from London, England. The two little girls are his daughters, Celeste and Melisande.

The wind that blows through the open stonework on the top floor of the belfry, where they stand, comes from the North Sea and sweeps across Belgium.

The boy is Jan, son of the proprietor of The Golden Basket, a good hotel of twenty rooms, which stands below on the great square of the city of Bruges.

Above the little group can be seen some of the bells, part of the famous carillon, that send their iron music "clink, clank, clunk" every fifteen minutes over the roofs of the old town below.

Ludwig Bemelmans went to Europe and painted the earnest houses, the silent winding canals, their artful bridges, the tall chestnut trees that lean over them, and the many swans on the green waters.

The wind that comes from the sea pushed in a herd of clouds, which stayed, and while it rained for three weeks, Mr. Bemelmans wrote a story to go with the pictures, about the children and Mr. Goggeshall, a lemon soufflé, and a French general who eats cucumber salad in bed in the middle of the night, about a submarine, the Mayor of Bruges, swans, and a frog that lives in a bottle, about the carillon, and about how to come home after falling into the Canal.

From the dust jacket

Phebe Fairchild: Her Book

By: Lois Lenski

Honor

Reviewed by: Deanna Knoll
Recommended age: 8-14
Also read and recommended by: Sandy Hall

Reading any Lois Lenski book is to board a time transport and be whisked away and deposited for a few hours in a corner of American history. This book is no different and her rich descriptions create a complete tableau that draws in the reader to this time and place. 

The author stays true to the prevailing attitudes and treatment of children during the early 19th century; but in doing so, manages to instill the main character with an indomitable spirit full of hope and resilience while reflecting the reality of life in Puritan New England. 

What I particularly appreciated was Ms. Lenski’s endeavor in showing the importance of picture books and reading for pleasure with children without the book becoming a lecture to parents on the importance of such books. Reading this story along with a well-illustrated copy of Mother Goose rhymes will make this historical time period come alive.  

Whistler's Van

By: Idwal Jones

Honor
NOT REVIEWED

Following a Gipsy caravan over the wild moorlands of Wales—sleeping under the stars with the Rommany company—learning the strange passwords and the tradition-bound customs of a picturesque nomad race—today full of new adventures, and never knowing what may come with tomorrow—that is the life that Gwilym learns when he  dares to follow the Whistlers' Van in search of his grandfather.

Idwal Jones grew up on the Welsh moors, across which the Gipsy caravans used to trail at certain seasons of the year, so it is small wonder that Whistlers' Van is so vivid in setting, so real it its characterization. Whether he himself ever ran away with the Gipsies, Mr. Jones does not confess, but at least he knew them so well that all his varied career in between (see back flap) has never erased them from his mind.

From the dust jacket

Winterbound

By: Margery Bianco
Illustrated by: Kate Seredy

Honor

Reviewed by: Sherry Early
Recommended age: 13+
Also read and recommended by: Diane Pendergraft, Sandy Hall

Winterbound is a clean, wholesome story of two teen sisters, ages nineteen and sixteen, and how they work together to manage an impoverished household in the country through a Connecticut winter. This story of two strong, independent young women learning to care for a home and a family is just the sort of "feminist" novel that should be required reading for today’s up and coming generation. There are two younger siblings in the family, Martin and Caroline, and Kay and Garry are responsible for the care and upbringing of their younger family members as well as for feeding the wood stove, doing the shopping, making the meals, pumping the water from an outside pump, and scrounging for extra income when their money almost runs out. It’s really a delightful, self-reliant sort of story that shows how some young people used to learn to be adults in difficult circumstances. I was quite impressed with Kay and Garry and their good humor and their tenacity and determination while living in a home—no running water, no electricity, cracks in the walls, below zero temperatures—that would be daunting to me and absolutely impossible for most anyone younger than I am.