2021 Newbery Medal and Honor Books

When You Trap a Tiger

By: Tae Keller

Medal Winner
NOT REVIEWED

When Lily and her family move in with her sick grandmother, a magical tiger straight out of her halmoni’s Korean folktales arrives, prompting Lily to unravel a secret family history. Long, long ago, Halmoni stole something from the tigers. Now they want it back. And when one of the tigers approaches Lily with a deal–return what her grandmother stole in exchange for Halmoni’s health–Lily is tempted to agree. But deals with tigers are never what they seem! With the help of her sister and her new friend Ricky, Lily must find her voice…and the courage to face a tiger.

From the publisher

All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team

By: Christina Soontornvat

Honor

Reviewed by: Sherry Early
Recommended age: 12 and up
Also read and recommended by: Christine Kallner

In this 229 page somewhat over-sized book, Christina Soontornvat, an American writer with family in Thailand, tells the story of the 13 members of the Wild Boars soccer team who were trapped in the cave Tham Luang Nang Non, the Cave of the Sleeping Lady, for eighteen days while thousands of people came together from all over the world to effect their rescue. Soontornvat uses narrative, photographs, diagrams, and informational sidebar inserts to tell the story of the boys and how they survived and of the rescuers who worked to save them.

I already knew the outlines of the story of the cave rescue from watching the movie, Thirteen Lives. But reading about the cave rescue made me appreciate even more the miraculous nature of what was accomplished in rescuing these boys. Vern Unsworth, one of the many key players in the rescue, said, after the boys were safely out of the cave, “I still can’t believe it. It shouldn’t have worked. It just should not have worked.”

All of this story is presented in narrative form and in language that is accessible to children ages eleven or twelve and up. As an adult reader, I was nevertheless fascinated and enlightened by this “children’s book.”

Box: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom

By: Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrated by: Michele Wood

Honor

Reviewed by: Deanna Knoll

Fighting Words

By: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Honor
NOT REVIEWED

Ten-year-old Della has always had her older sister, Suki: When their mom went to prison, Della had Suki. When their mom’s boyfriend took them in, Della had Suki. When that same boyfriend did something so awful they had to run fast, Della had Suki. Suki is Della’s own wolf–her protector. But who has been protecting Suki? Della might get told off for swearing at school, but she has always known how to keep quiet where it counts. Then Suki tries to kill herself, and Della’s world turns so far upside down, it feels like it’s shaking her by the ankles. Maybe she’s been quiet about the wrong things. Maybe it’s time to be loud.

In this powerful novel that explodes the stigma around child sexual abuse and leavens an intense tale with compassion and humor, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley tells a story about two sisters, linked by love and trauma, who must find their own voices before they can find their way back to each other.

From the publisher

We Dream of Space

By: Erin Entrada Kelly
Illustrated by: Erin Entrada Kelly and Celia Krampien

Honor

Reviewed by: Sherry Early

Wow, was this book a downer! It started out with a dysfunctional family, parents that call each other (expletive deleted) names all through the book and siblings that mainly ignore one another as much as possible, and it ended with the Cash, Fitch and Bird coming through their various difficulties with a small glimmer of hope in spite of the story’s climax in which the space shuttle Challenger explodes.

When I say “small glimmer of hope” I mean small. The hope is barely there, and I’m not sure young readers will see it at all. Maybe this story would be encouraging, something of a mirror, for those children who live in dysfunctional families like the one in the book, but I tend to think escapist literature is more appealing for many children (and adults) who live in hard situations. At least, Bird has her astronaut fantasies, Fitch his video games, and Cash his Philadelphia 76ers basketball games. The reader of this sad but true to life novel won’t get much more than a glimpse of a beginning of family growth, maybe.

A Wish in the Dark

By: Christina Soontornvat

Honor

Reviewed by: Sherry Early
Recommended age: 12+ for independent reading, younger for read aloud

Well, this sort of Thai setting, Buddhist, dystopian fantasy middle grade novel is not exactly the kind of book I would have expected to enjoy, but I did. The author blurb says that Ms. Soontornvat grew up in Texas and lives in Austin, so maybe some of the Texan in her got into this novel, too? The blurb also calls the story Soontornvat’s twist on Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, my favorite book ever, so maybe that’s why I liked it. Anyway, I thought it was quite fascinating with a positive message about light conquering darkness and change being difficult and costly but possible.

Pong, the protagonist of the story, becomes our boyish Jean Valjean as he flees the long arm of the law and sees himself as condemned to be always running, always sinning. He wants freedom and thinks that he will do anything to obtain it, but eventually he learns the lesson: “You can’t run away from darkness. It’s everywhere. The only way to see through it is to shine a light.”