Children's Books discussion

Newbery Medal winner:

The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly

Newbery Honor Books
Across So Many Seas written by Ruth Behar
Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All written and illustrated by Chanel Miller
One Big Open Sky written by Lesa Cline-Ransome
The Wrong Way Home written by Kate O’Shaughnessy

(Note that we're all caught up. We won't know 2026 books until January. Therefore the design of this group will have to change.)

(Barring a better idea from any of you, I think I'll just go ahead and make November & December Newbery months in the Miscellaneous club. Which would mean that this is the last new annual thread in this group. Though I may decide to do a 'best of' or something some day.)

November is going to be busy for me so I cheated and read the Winner already, The First State of Being by the previously lauded Erin Entrada Kelly.
I did give it four stars.

Kelly is not among my favorite authors. However, this is Time Travel, & the TT is well-done, and also I remember 1999, so this was fun. The themes seem a little simplistic to me, but maybe that's because I've read too many books & been alive too long.

"People with walnut-sized brains are afraid of smart people - especially smart women."

"What if nothing bad happens? What if something good happens?"

"You can get artificial upgrades [to your body] for certain things. My mom says it's not really an upgrade, though, because upgrade implies that all our so called imperfections are problematic, and she says that's not true. The Global Science Council agrees. But the AI companies - the ones who offer the upgrades - think the GSC is wrong."

(One thing I really disagreed with is Michael's mom's pride. She's working three jobs, exhausted all the time, barely sees her son... and doesn't think she needs to use the services of the food pantry.)

I also read Across So Many Seas already. I started it this morning, and could hardly put it down. Four solid stars.

I'm so glad this is a Newbery book. Not only because I would not otherwise have read it, but also because I recommend it widely.

It's a quick read, with some sadness but lots of joy, too. Parts one and two are about history that I knew almost nothing of. For more of part three, I recommend My Brigadista Year. The last part made me sniffle a bit....

Includes good end notes.

Cheryl wrote: "I also read Across So Many Seas already. I started it this morning, and could hardly put it down. Four solid stars.

I'm so glad this is a Newbery book. Not only because I would no..."

That sounds so much better than Blood Secret. I'll add it to the endless TBR library list!

Wow, yeah, I'm not adding Blood Secret to mine!

The First State of Being
I thoroughly enjoyed this time travel novel. I found the characters very engaging, the setting was fleshed out, the future interludes were fascinating, and I especially loved the final reveals from the sumbook. A big thumbs up from me, and a five-star read.

Magnolia Wu Unfolds it All
I listened to this book and quite enjoyed it. The premise of Magnolia wanting to be a "sock detective" and finding the owners of the lost socks in her family's laundromat was a twist on the usual MG detective novel. The author does an excellent job of narrating this MG novel that she wrote. The pace never flagged, and she made all of the characters and events very interesting.

I didn't read the other three books.

Beverly wrote: "Magnolia Wu Unfolds it All
I listened to this book and quite enjoyed it. The premise of Magnolia wanting to be a "sock detective" and finding the owners of the lost socks in her family's laundromat..."

I just finished this myself. I probably would have liked it more if I didn't despise the illustrations... so listening was a good choice! I especially liked the developing friendships. There are a lot of names to keep track of in this very concise story, but it really is worthwhile to pay attention and learn about each of them, not just Iris (the first new friend).

I'm intrigued by Aspen's strategy for dealing with his abusive dad, which is remembering the motto 'stay gray.' I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't read the book - I recommend you read it.

I think it's Newbery Honor worthy because it offers a glimpse of the working class in NYC. We've plenty of books about the immigrants, the artistic, the ghetto, the poor little rich kids... but the second-gen immigrant family who run a laundromat? And contemporary, not historical? This is new! Of course I'm sure the committee saw merit in the family, friend, and neighborhood personal dynamics, too.

One Big Open Sky - four stars, rounding up because of the thorough author's note.

Listened. Good as an audio book.
Not only is it more honest & inclusive about pioneer movements in the historical context than the Little House books, but it's also very akin to a Refugee story. It's also explicitly an homage to the Christian faith and to the story of Moses & his people.

The Wrong Way Home, currently listening, 40%.

If you read faster than you listen, choose reading. It's so frustrating 'watching' this girl (not) trying to adjust to the outside world. She's so afraid of plastic, sugar, medicine, etc. that she can't even look around to see that other people are doing just fine despite exposure to those 'toxins.' Dr. Ben's ideas are based on truth, mostly, but his zero-tolerance obsession is, of course, ridiculous.

Ok done with The Wrong Way Home. I did wind up giving it four stars.

Of course I, as an experienced adult, knew from just about the very beginning that Fern is being misled. But when will a child figure things out? They'll connect with Fern, and very likely be much more ready to believe her understandings and ignore the 'clues' that are so obvious to me.

The subtlety and nuances of the themes are wonderful... the author has such respect for young people. For example, at the end (view spoiler)[we still don't know if all the people at The Ranch should be 'rescued' or not, because it is their home, and it is mostly good for them to be there (hide spoiler)]. And how independent should Fern's mom be? Should she accept help from friends & teachers?

So, I'm done with all five. All were excellent reads and I recommend them.

It is interesting that they have some significant themes in common. For example Wrong Way Home is contemporary fiction, and One Big Open Sky is historical fiction, but both are primarily about Finding a New Home after a lot of struggling travel. They also both have a bit of a feminist theme.

Across So Many Seas is also about travel, and homes, but in a very different way. It would be interesting to do a compare & contrast of all three with a classroom of young teens.