Newbery Books discussion

I feel like this category of books/children's lit has been replaced by the easy reader series. Much like The Whipping Boy, it's for early-grade readers . . . and most of their books consist of Spongebob and Disney these days.

For any of the librarians/teachers out there: Is this book still read by children? Or will it become a token of an earlier era?

This book is loved by students in my library. I'm sure it helps that the fourth grade teachers read it aloud with their classes each year. Also, I feature Patricia MacLachlan in one of my "Author of the Month" library lessons - in which I go through all of her books with the students and encourage them to read the entire "Sarah" series.