Children's Books discussion

from: Book Links: April/May 2002 (v.11, no.5)

https://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/...
... If you haven't become acquainted with these titles, get ready for some wonderful reading. --Ed.

[If you can find them!]

Tuck Everlasting [needs no support, imo; I assume you are all familiar with it (though the movie is *very* different and worse, accd. to my smart adult son)].
--Beth Warrell, assistant editor

The Folk Keeper
Corinna Stonewall is stubborn, cunning, and fiercely territorial in her situation as Folk Keeper, protecting the household from the fearsome Folk who live in the darkness below ground. But when she takes a new station on a wealthy estate by the sea, the Folk there prove to be more dangerous than she's ever known before... selkie folklore ....
--Laura Tillotson, editor

Frindle
[Again, I hope you know this, or at least know [author:Andrew Clements|63095]. I'm due for a reread of it. I think of it as, a bit, like Nothing But the Truth but for younger kids.]
--Judy Moburg, advisory board member

The Goats
[Controversial and I, personally, am not interested.]
--Stephanie Zvirin, Booklist Books for Youth editor

Stone Fox
[A very short book that I've seen in many many classrooms.]
--Judy Nelson, advisory board member

The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia
First published in 1968 and now a classic...
--Randall Enos, advisory board member

Tree in the Trail
... can easily be used to expand a study of U.S. history.... tells the history of the Great Plains and the Santa Fe Trail through the life and times of a lone cottonwood tree. I remember boys in my grade-school class being fascinated by the details of what it took to build a yoke for oxen... a text expanded with beautiful illlustrations.
--Mary D. Lankford, advisory board member

When Zachary Beaver Came to Town tells what happens in the small town of Antler, Texas, after the arrival of Zachary Beaver, a 600-pound teenage sideshow act who is subsequently abandoned by his manager.... [I, personally, gave it three stars.]
--Beth Warrell, assistant editor

In Autumn Street the first sentence, "It was a long time ago," sweeps the reader back to an era of disturbing times for both children and a nation.... World War II. Young people of that era didn't understand .....
--Mary D. Lankford, advisory board member

The cast of characters in Jip: His Story may remind readers of a Dickens novel... Jip is a compelling mystery with excellent characterization and an authentic depiction of 1850s rural America.
--Laura Tillotson, editor

The current interest in all things patriotic invites one to look at
My Fellow Americans: A Family Album as an award-winning title. It is a visual book of information that respects the natural curiosity many young readers have for people who lived in earlier times. I appreciate Provensen's personal choices of men and women who made significant contributions (both good and otherwise) to U.S. history and culture. ... Who would be in your "Family Album" in 2002?
--Judy Moburg, advisory board member

Scooter is an evocative love letter to an urban childhood ....It's filled with joy.
--Julie Corsaro, advisory board chair

If life gives you lemons, well, make lemonade, and this is just what Virginia Euwer Wolff did by taking a trite statement and weaving it into Make Lemonade , her astounding blank-verse novel.
--Randall Enos, advisory board member

How many of these nominations by ALA folk do you agree with?

I'm going to have to read more to find out what I might admire besides Tuck Everlasting and Frindle. Some seem vaguely familiar so maybe they, like Jip and Autumn Street, would be easier for me to find.

The only one I have read is Tuck Everlasting and I really liked it when I was a kid. I haven't reread it. I'm not sure I would enjoy it as much.

I've requested a few. Turns out more than I expected are available.

My son and I did both enjoy our rereads of Tuck Everlasting last month.

Of this short list, my vote is for Tuck Everlasting as well.

Well, one could vote for all. But yes, if only one, Tuck Everlasting for sure. I did reread Frindle and loved it again, recommend it again... and read the sequel & enjoyed it! I could not manage Tree in the Trail, not even enough to confirm how badly it has (likely) aged.

Pretty soon I'll be reading (or at least trying to read) Make Lemonade.

I gave Make Lemonade four stars. I agree it's worth at least an honor. A novel-in-verse from back in 1993. Intense, but not so bleak that it's too hard to read. Hopeful ending. Memorable details. I'm peeved at the narrator's mother for her hypocrisy, but otherwise everyone is a good guy.

Cheryl wrote: "Well, one could vote for all. But yes, if only one, Tuck Everlasting for sure. I did reread Frindle and loved it again, recommend it again... and read the sequel & enjoyed it! I could not manage Tr..."

The only other book on this list that I have read is The Goats, and I did not like it enough to vote for it. I don't feel like I can vote for books that I have never actually read for myself.

That makes sense, thanks!