Children's Books discussion

Come join us to discuss the Medal Winner,
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

and/or the Honor books:
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick

Order the ones you want now! Figg is currently avl. to me only as an ebook, and Colvin only at the larger system. The others are all at the little local system.

When You Reach Me is a book I loved! I don't know if I'll join in the discussion though because I read it almost 15 years ago and can't reread it now.

I will say though that in order to get full enjoyment from it you should have read and remembered the book A Wrinkle in Time. Just FYI.

I love Callie Vee (Calpurnia Tate) and her adventures! Her little brother has his own series too but I haven't read them all.

The Grace Lin book is hugely popular. I haven't read it though but I'll see if I can squeeze it into my limited reading time.

Thanks Lisa for the tip. I hope we are all familiar with A Wrinkle in Time because it's a Newbery and a popular classic, but your note is appreciated!

I've been waffling on whether it's time to read the sequel(s) to Lin's fantasy; I'll try.

I didn't know there were books about little boy Tate; I'll have to consider them, thank you.

Skunked
They seemed to be more about Travis and their animals. I did flip through the first one and may have given it to one of the nieces. I wish niece #2 had decided she wanted to be a vet when she was still learning to read. I would have given her this series.

Ah, neat, thank you!

(Note - December is going to be a catch-up from the previous incarnation of the Newbery Club. I'll try to create the best discussion topic format for it soon.)

Re' The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate: I can't be objective or tell you effectively why I love this so much. Reminds me a bit of Caddie Woodlawn or even Thimble Summer but with even more joy.Highly recommended to those of you who know what it's like to be a young reader and find a kindred soul in a treasure of a story.
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Reread: this time I realized how long it is. And mostly episodic. I bet some readers aren't particularly crazy about it. I wonder how many members of the target audience appreciate it? No scary adventures, no adventures hardly at all really, no trauma. Historical fiction with no trauma, you gasp? Yep. The Tates are very well off. Of course, they do have servants, but Callie Vee is only just becoming aware of others' perspectives and so there's not much to say there.

I do highly recommend it.

Cheryl wrote: "can't be objective or tell you effectively why I love this so much. Reminds me a bit of Caddie Woodlawn or even Thimble Summer but with even more joy.Highly recommended to those of you who know wha..."

Glad you enjoyed Callie Vee as much as I did. You hit the nail on the head that it feels like a classic historical fiction novel I loved when I was a kid. My nieces refused to read anything but graphic novels. Maybe nephew 2 will like this one. He likes The Borrowers which most kids didn't read even when I was obsessed with it.

QNPoohBear wrote: "Cheryl wrote: "can't be objective or tell you effectively why I love this so much. Reminds me a bit of Caddie Woodlawn or even Thimble Summer but with even more joy.Highly recommended to those of y..."

I read The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate right before joining Goodreads and never marked it as read or wrote a review. Probably will need to reread, but in 2009, I was reading a lot of novels both classic and contemporary in German and in English about girls in the 19th and early 20th century striving for education (and in particular high school and college/university education) and one of the main bones of contention I have noticed is that in both the classic and in the contemporary novels I read, it is far more often the mothers, grandmothers, aunts etc., it is the women who are most vehemently opposed to their daughters becoming educated and striving for something other than being housewives.

That is the case here. The mother just can't see around her blinkers, poor thing.

Just finished When You Reach Me. Still pondering it. The author is clearly a fan of A Wrinkle in Time and thinks that everybody should read and be familiar with it. She also apparently defines it as a Time Travel book. I'm not so sure.

This definitely is Time Travel. But not SF. There's no explanation of a mechanism or means at all. And it's more about themes, like of the different shapes friendship can take, and who's a hero or who's a villain, and even a smidge of racial injustice. I do recommend to intelligent youth and adults who know that kids' books can be interesting.

"... it's simple to love someone.... But it's hard to know when you need to say it out loud."

Wow. Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice was an amazingly brave teenager. I gave the book four stars. Fascinating... and intense. Hard to read right now, in the days preceding and the day after Trump's reelection. But worthy. Highly recommended.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Breathless pace made it difficult, the first time and on this reread, for me to slow down and process; I kept forcing myself to take breaks. I don't know if I'm interested in the sequels (?companions?) or not.

I noted, this time, a resemblance to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. A young girl, living in a gray country, working hard to make the earth grow green, goes on a quest to ask a wise & powerful person for aid, finds a companion who also needs powerful help, a diverse variety of adventures ensue. I'm not accusing Lin of plagiarism, but it seems likely that she was a fan of the story.

So many of the adventures and stories are so much fun. The greedy monkeys, the king & peach tree, the wife's story. I think the incident that I find most interesting right now (Nov. 2024) is about the coat the villagers made for Minli, each person giving a piece of their coat's sleeve to piece together for her.

The December 'recap' or whatever you want to call it is ready. Start ordering whichever books you're interested in (re)reading!
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I finally finished my second "reading" (by audiobook) of When You Reach Me. I first read it in 2010 when it won the award, so I didn't remember anything about it. However, I remember that I really loved the story. The fact that Miranda was a big Wrinkle in Time fan won me over, as I have been a huge Wrinkle in Time fan since I first met it in high school. I also liked the way the author organized the chapters as $20,000 Pyramid categories. I really liked the way the author tied everything together by the end. I am quite glad that it was the Newbery winner for 2010.

Good to know, thank you!

Finally my request for The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg came in... and I can't finish it. Heavy historical fiction and adventure are two genres I'm just so tired of. The humor in here is spread very thinly, despite promise of blurb and original cover. I read to p. 88 and the last bit.

Cheryl wrote: "Wow. Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice was an amazingly brave teenager. I gave the book four stars. Fascinating... and intense. Hard to read right now, in the days preceding and..."

I'm reading this now and it's fascinating. There's so much more to the story than Rosa Parks was tired and wouldn't move to the back of the book. I like how this book shows how the women's political group got involved and how even an elite, White woman donated to help Claudette Colvin's cause. I especially appreciate the diagram of the bus seats so we can see just where she was sitting. Yes the polite thing to do is give up your seat to an older woman but most teens don't (a few have and I declined because I was only going a short distance) and the bus wasn't full. The woman could have sat elsewhere. What really surprised me was that ALL the Black people had to leave the row for just ONE White person to sit. That doesn't come through in anything I've heard about Rosa Parks. What also surprised me but yet didn't was that Ms. Colvin was considered too dark skinned, too poor and too young to be the poster child for the movement. Teens today are quick to point out all those injustices and they can harness the power of social media, online petitions and use their voices to protest. My heart was breaking for Claudette. I haven't gotten any farther than the segregation charges being thrown out and her being charged with assaulting an officer of the law.

I'm reading this as my state's bus system budget got slashed, routes were cut and they're trying to move the main bus hub. I'm hearing some similar issues at play that were around in 1950s Alabama but now it's all unofficial and we fight it. At the same time, the bus company dedicated a new shelter to Rosa Parks!

I'll keep reading the bio and attempt a complete review.

Oh I'm so glad that you're finding it a worthy read (and said that your city's bus service is getting cut).

Cheryl wrote: "Oh I'm so glad that you're finding it a worthy read (and said that your city's bus service is getting cut)."

It's the STATE bus system! The whole state has one bus system and it's ridiculous that the governor couldn't find money in the budget to keep it funded for another year. The city is walkable enough but in the suburbs people can't get to work and back easily without a car. I am amazed at how this Montgomery bus boycott worked! People came together and chauffeured each other around for free! Today the working people are reporting spending their paychecks on Uber/Lyft rides. In some places, even in the cities, working families can't go out for recreation on the weekends. Fewer people walk places the way they did during the Montgomery boycott. I think they would say it's not safe and you can't trust strangers. I like how the Black community in Montgomery looked after their own. Today it's a broad cross-section of people who ride the bus.

My heart is breaking for Claudette and her schoolmates who have turned against her due to internalized racism and colorism and lack of education. Good for her for fighting and refusing to accept the idea of "good" hair and "bad" hair and light skin = superior. She was ahead of her time.

I am reading about the trial now and how smart Claudette outsmarted the slick lawyer who kept trying to blame Dr. King for "bewitching" the Black community to boycott the buses. I am sick reading about the death threats and bombings and surprised but not at how the Whites in power claimed the "Communists" were "infiltrating" the Black churches. Even more sick at heart reading about the bombings and threats to the protestors and the librarian who spoke out and took her life after too many threats. Then I navigate to Google news and read the headlines under "literature" and "education" and it's more of the same.

Claudette is one tough, resilient woman! So far I already admire her greatly.

Ah, goodness sakes.

Yes, Colvin is ever so inspiring.

Ahh Their carpool got shut down for being an unlicensed taxi organization. I bet that's the case today too. And I bet Uber would protest their loss of income.

I made it to the epilogue and I hope Ms. Colvin is currently doing speaking engagements because we need her to share her story with the youth of today. They're fighters like her. If they see something, they record it and share it on social media. If young Claudette could have had the power of social media, she would have had that bus boycott going a lot sooner.

Agreed!

Aw Ms. Colvin is still wary of being in the public eye because of how she was treated back in the 60s. It's a different time and teens will love her even more for being an unwed mother, a dark skinned woman who stood up (or sat down) for her rights. She did one speaking engagement at her old high school and was in awe that a Black girl and a White girl could come up on stage together to take pictures together.

The author's note was very interesting and there are some great resources in the back. I would recommend Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice for every classroom and school library around the globe. Her story needs to be told and kids need to hear it. As Ms. Colvin questioned "Why aren't the adults saying anything? Why are they putting up with segregation?" Kids today are saying the same things. "OK Boomer [eyeroll]!" My teenage niece, just the age Claudette Colvin was when she was arrested, is a scrappy little fighter standing up for "free Palestine" and the environment and LGBTQ+ rights. I would have gotten this book for her when she was younger but it's probably at the school and she can walk to the public library if she really wants to and get it there.

I do admire your niece - you've praised her before and I'm thrilled to learn that she's keeping it up!

I do feel bad for adult Colvin, still feeling wary....

Ms. Colvin is finally getting her due and she's now, finally, speaking out about what she did. She agrees it's up to the youth to carry on the fight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d-f2...
Her second son is also interviewed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfyqq...

OOH a movie
https://deadline.com/2022/01/anthony-...


A 20 year old interview

https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/...

Way more unsung heroes on the sidebar.

https://americanswhotellthetruth.org/...

More resources to update the book's bibliography
https://rosaparksbiography.org/bio/cl...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCkjB...

Super! thank you!