Newbery Medal 2010 When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (Lamb/Random) review

Newbery Honor Books

• Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose (Kroupa/FSG) review
• The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly (Holt) review
• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon written and illustrated by Grace Lin (Little) review
• The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick (Blue Sky/Scholastic) review

How the Horn Book reviewed the winners

Rebecca Stead  When You Reach Me
   Lamb/Random
   Reviewed 7/09
The first real indication that this book is going to get deeply, seductively weird is when broody classmate Marcus engages the heroine, Miranda, in a discussion about a flaw in the logic of A Wrinkle in Time: “So if they had gotten home five minutes before they left, like those ladies promised they would, then they would have seen themselves get back. Before they left.” Miranda’s life is an ordinary round of family and school, the first characterized by a pretty strong relationship with her mother and Mom’s good-guy boyfriend, the second by ever-shifting (and perceptively limned) alliances in her sixth-grade class. But when her best friend is bizarrely punched by another boy on the street, and when she starts receiving anonymous notes that seem to foretell the future, it’s clear that all is not as it seems. The mystery provides a thread that manages, just, to keep the plot’s several elements together, and the closely observed relationships among the characters make the mystery matter. Closing revelations are startling and satisfying but quietly made, their reverberations giving plenty of impetus for the reader to go back to the beginning and catch what was missed.R.S.

Phillip Hoose  Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
   Kroupa/Farrar
   Reviewed 3/09
It’s 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, and fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin is in the thick of things. She refuses to give up her seat on the bus (nine months before Rosa Parks) and is also one of the plaintiffs in the federal case that ends segregated buses, yet her story remains largely unknown. Hoose fashions a compelling narrative that balances the momentous events of the civil rights movement with the personal crises of a courageous young woman. Because Claudette was young, pregnant, and unwed, it was the more respectable Rosa Parks who was thrust into the national spotlight as the face of the movement. But Claudette’s story is no less inspiring, and Hoose reasserts her place in history with this vivid and dramatic account, complemented with photographs, sidebars, and liberal excerpts from interviews conducted with Colvin. Recent books have done a commendable job of exploring the civil rights movement beyond the iconic figures of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks — A Dream of Freedom by Diane McWhorter, Freedom Riders by Ann Bausum, Freedom Walkers by Russell Freedman — and Hoose’s thoughtful book now joins their ranks. J.H.

Jacqueline Kelly  The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
   Holt
   Reviewed 9/09
Eleven-year-old Calpurnia is the middle child (and only girl) of seven siblings. It’s summertime, 1889, in Fentress, Texas, and hot enough to fry an egg outside: the local newspaper reports that “the temperature was 106 degrees in the middle of the street.” After Callie’s letter to the editor is published (“It seemed to me that the temperature in the shade would be a lot more useful to the citizens of our town”), her favorite brother encourages her to spend the summer writing down her scientific observations. Trouble is, there’s only one other family member with any interest in science, not to mention a copy of Charles Darwin’s new and controversial book, The Origin of Species: gruff, intimidating, misanthropic Granddaddy. After some initial icebreaking, the two bond over insatiable curiosity about the natural world, culminating in their thrilling discovery of a new plant species. Along the way, Callie learns to carefully catalog her observations, noting questions (“Why don’t caterpillars have eyelids?”; “When does the young human organism get a grasp of time?”) and formulating hypotheses. She also tries to carve a place for herself as a scientist amidst very different expectations for her future. Calpurnia’s perseverance and confidence gained working sideby- side with her grandfather are evidence that she’s more than capable of meeting her goals. Kelly, without anachronism, has created a memorable, warm, spirited young woman who’s refreshingly ahead of her time. ELISSA GERSHOWITZ

Grace Lin  Where the Mountain Meets the Moon; illus. by the author
   Little
   Reviewed 9/09
Minli lives with her father, a storyteller and dreamer, and her disapproving mother in a poor village in the shadow of Fruitless Mountain. An encounter with a goldfish peddler prompts Minli to seek the Old Man of the Moon, who makes his home atop the forebodingly named Never-Ending Mountain, to ask him for help in changing her family’s fortunes. On her arduous journey, Minli is assisted by folklore creatures, including a talking fish who points her in the right direction and a dragon who becomes her closest compatriot. Other children, too, help on her quest; twins (collectively named Da-A-Fu) outsmart wicked Green Tiger, and Minli’s friendship with a buffalo boy prefigures her success. The story’s many elements are entwined, neatly symbolized by the intricately tangled red threads of destiny that, as Minli discovers, are overseen by the Old Man of the Moon. The book’s format reflects this interconnectedness: interspersed with the main text are folktales explaining past events or stories allowing characters to relate their experiences. Likewise, as Lin’s appended author’s note indicates, her own life story informs the work, as do her dozen cited sources. Lovely full-page illustrations in blues, reds, greens, and luminous golds as well as delicate chapter-openers, all influenced by traditional Chinese art, contribute to this original, folklore-inspired fantasy’s sense of timelessness. The book’s numerous typos are unfortunate. ELISSA GERSHOWITZ

Rodman Philbrick  The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg
   Blue Sky/Scholastic
   Reviewed 1/09
In Pine Swamp, Maine, in the 1860s, young Homer P. Figg is a prodigious liar — this gets him into trouble as often as it gets him out of it, but serves him well as an entertaining storyteller. While his voice is laced with humor, his situation isn’t. Homer and his older brother Harold’s guardian is Squinton Leach — just about the meanest man in Maine (though “there was a meaner man in Bangor once, that poisoned cats for fun”). When Squint enlists Harold, seventeen but still underage, to stand in for him in the Union Army against his will, Homer decides to set off after Harold and stop this crime of conscription. Whip-smart, Homer knows how to deal with all manner of humanity he encounters on his quest: fugitive slave hunters, a beautiful grifter, and a Confederate spy. But he doesn’t know how to deal with Harold when he finds him at Gettysburg on the eve of that bloody battle, except to join him in the fighting. Homer’s facile narration, and a little laying waste of the truth here and there, moves the plot quickly and creates a captivating read. Still, Homer never obscures the misfortunes of war and those who fought it. B.C.

2010 ALA awards