Three New Newbery Books!

So far this week, I have read three more Newbery books! I, Juan de Pareja was pretty good--I enjoyed it because of the Spanish artist storyline. It's about a black boy who is the slave of the painter Diego Velázquez, and it's a pretty cool point of view from which to tell the story of the artist's life. Hitty, Her First Hundred Years was actually really good at first, but I felt like each new owner she had, the story got a little less engaging. My favorite was the first girl, and then by the end I kind of felt like the author was just ready to be done with the whole thing. It's Like This, Cat was another story about growing up in New York City--I am coming to wonder if the Newbery committee was a whole bunch of people who grew up in NYC during this period, because I have read more than one about growing up in the city (From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankwieler comes to mind). Anyway, it was actually very engaging to me, and since I am not a teenage boy growing up in the city, that has to say something for the book!

I am not really sure what to say about these books sometimes--I read them, and sometimes I wonder if this was REALLY the best book out that year (like The Tale of Desperaux and A Gathering of Days) and sometimes I really think that a book deserved the honor (like Maniac McGee and Walk Two Moons). I would like to be a fly on the wall sometimes when they are deliberating over which books to choose for the medal and honor books, because sometimes they seem to look for one thing, while another year they are looking for something else. For example, a book like Maniac McGee is something that I think a kid could relate to: trying to figure out where you belong, and having to deal with other people's perceptions of you. A book like A Gathering of Days seems like something that kids would have a tough time relating to, and it wasn't especially exciting or engaging to me either. That year, it seems like they were looking for informative historical fiction, as opposed to relatability or engagement.

Anyway, it's interesting to read so many of these books and think about how things have changed over the years, and how some things are the same. Race relations were an issue as far back as Caddie Woodlawn (Indians and white Americans), all the way up through Maniac McGee (white Americans and black Americans.) It seems like we always like to read about how people who are different relate to each other; I guess a book would be pretty boring if everyone got along all of the time!