Batchelder Award 2010 A Faraway Island by Annika Thor; trans. by Linda Schenck (Delacorte) Review

Batchelder Honor Books

• Eidi written by Bodil Bredsdorff, translated by Kathryn Mahaffy (FSG) review
• Big Wolf and Little Wolf written by Nadine Brun-Cosme, illustrated by Olivier Tallec, translated by Claudia Bedrick (Enchanted Lion) review
• Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness written by Nahoko Uehashi, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu, translated by Cathy Hirano (Levine/Scholastic) review

How the Horn Book reviewed the winners

Annika Thor  A Faraway Island; trans. from the Swedish by Linda Schenck
      Delacorte
      Reviewed 1/10
In this welcome addition to the canon of WWII stories (the first of a quartet of books previously published in Sweden), two Jewish sisters from cosmopolitan Vienna are evacuated to a fishing village on a small, stark Swedish island. Stephanie, twelve, and Nellie, eight, comfort each other on their journey with romantic visions of their new life, but the reality is bleaker, especially for Stephie. The girls are separated: Nellie is placed with kind, warm Aunt Alma and her young family, Stephie with stern, brusque, chilly Aunt Marta. At first Stephie’s experiences bear out her sense of displacement: food and language and landscape are all unfamiliar; her classmates either despise her for her foreignness or grossly misjudge her identity (as when an admirer, hoping to please her, presents her with a framed picture of Hitler). Stephie’s gradual adjustment to her new family and community unfolds believably, in large part because of straightforward, unsentimental prose and an immediate present tense. An unusually fine balance is achieved between the small, child-centered humiliations (having to wear an ugly old black woolen bathing suit) and joys (learning how to ride a bike) and the larger adult issues that necessarily intrude (worry about her parents’ safety; the war). Most interesting is the author’s matter-of-fact acknowledgment of Stephie’s assimilation: at the end of the book, a year after her arrival, she no longer wishes she could go home; she is home. MARTHA V. PARRAVANO

Bodil Bredsdorff  Eidi; trans. from the Danish by Kathryn Mahaffy
      Farrar
      Reviewed 11/09
This second book in the Children of Crow Cove series, which began with Bredsdorff’s stunning The Crow-Girl (rev. 5/04), also features a girl leaving home to find her place in the world. While it was the death of protagonist Myna’s grandmother that prompted the journey in the first book, Eidi takes to the road because of a birth. The blended family that already includes Myna, Eidi, and two other children becomes too crowded for Eidi’s taste after baby Cam is born. Though her friend Rossan advises her to accept and love her new brother or he’ll become “like a stone in [her] shoe… just a constant annoyance,” she decides to avoid the situation and live with Rossan, earning her keep by carding and spinning wool from his sheep. Once again Bredsdorff’s crystalline prose evokes the austere beauty of the Danish coastal setting and shapes a strong, independent main character. The events aren’t as distinctive and memorable as those in the previous volume, but they build gracefully on that book’s depiction of a family as a group of people who may or may not be biologically related, but who nonetheless look out for one another and know that, wherever they are, their bond remains. C.M.H.

Nadine Brun-Cosme  Big Wolf & Little Wolf; trans. by Claudia Bedrick; illus. by Olivier Tallec
      Enchanted Lion
      Reviewed Fall 2009
When Little Wolf starts hanging around under Big Wolf’s tree, the latter is first curious, then annoyed, then nurturing, then frantic when his diminutive counterpart goes missing. With an expansive palette, the illustrations underscore the touching relationship between the two leads, but the story’s subtlety may elude readers. NB

Nahoko Uehashi  Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness; trans. by Cathy Hirano; illus. by Yuko Shimizu
      Levine/Scholastic
      Reviewed fall 2009
In this sequel to Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, bodyguard and skilled warrior Balsa returns to her native Kanbal and discovers a conspiracy to wrest power from the Mountain King. Fans of the first book will find even more action and intrigue here and will enjoy further insights into Balsa’s character. Uehashi’s detailed fantasy world is completely engaging. JMB

2010 ALA awards