2011 Newbery Medal

I'm a little behind here, but thought I'd post the latest and greatest from the ALA site - the Newbery award winners. I must confess to not having read a single one of them, but all look noteworthy based on their summaries:
(from the ALA website)

2011 Medal Winner

The 2011 Newbery Medal winner is Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool, published by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
The town of Manifest is based on Frontenac, Kan., the home of debut author Clare Vanderpool’s maternal grandparents. Vanderpool was inspired to write about what the idea of “home” might look like to a girl who had grown up riding the rails. She lives in Wichita with her husband and four children.
“Vanderpool illustrates the importance of stories as a way for children to understand the past, inform the present and provide hope for the future,” said Newbery Medal Committee Chair Cynthia K. Richey.

2011 Honor Books

Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm, published by Random House Children's Books, a div. of Random House, Inc.
Sassy eleven-year-old Turtle finds her life turned on end when she is sent to live with her aunt in Depression-era Key West. With vivid details, witty dialogue and outrageous escapades, Jennifer Holm successfully explores the meaning of family and home… and lost treasures found.


Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus, published by Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams.

Shipwrecks, whaling, a search for home and a delightful exploration of cultures create a swashbuckling adventure. This historical novel is based on the true story of Manjiro (later John Mung), the young fisherman believed to be the first Japanese person to visit America, who against all odds, becomes a samurai.

 
Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen, published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Welcoming her readers into the “wild, enchanted park” that is the night, Joyce Sidman has elegantly crafted twelve poems rich in content and varied in format. Companion prose pieces about nocturnal flora and fauna are as tuneful and graceful as the poems. This collection is “a feast of sound and spark.”

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

The voices of sisters Delphine, Vonetta and Fern sing in three-part harmony in this wonderfully nuanced, humorous novel set in 1968 Oakland, Calif. One crazy summer, the three girls find adventure when they are sent to meet their estranged poet-mother Cecile, who prints flyers for the Black Panthers.

Guest Reviewer: This Family of Women, by Richard Peck

My guest reviewer, GG is back, bless her heart, with another YA book she enjoyed:

 

This Family of Women, by Richard Peck

YA/Adult, 1984

This novel spans the 100 years between 1840 - 1940 and the lives of 5 generations of women.

Guest Reviewer GG: The stories of the women interwined in funny, sad, and sometimes shocking ways. Definitely not a book for children, but perhaps a good warning for high school aged girls. No one has a perfectly happy life, and in fact there's a lot of suffering in this book  I was peeved at the ending of the story of June and Andy, and I'm letting Richard Peck know it.

Graded: 3 stars (out of 4)

Guest Reviewer: Tell Us We're Home, by Marina Budhos

Tell Us We're Home, by Marina Budhos
YA, 2010

Jaya, Maria, and Lola are just like the other eighth-grade girls in the wealthy suburb of Meadowbrook, New Jersey. They want to go to the spring dance, they love spending time with their best friends after school, sharing frapps and complaining about the other kids. But there's one big difference: all three are daughters of maids and nannies. And they go to school with the very same kids whose families their mothers work for.
That difference grows even bigger - and more painful - when Jaya's mother is accused of theft and Jaya's small, fragile world collapses.
Guest Reviewer GG:  This was a nicely done story about three immigrant girls and the challenges they face. The story inevitably leaves you hanging, but not without hope. I think it should be required reading for a high school social studies class.
Graded: 3 1/2 stars (out of 4)

Top Authors?

You may (or may not) have noticed that we (or really, I, since Trackgeek doesn't keep tabs like I do) have switched from Shelfari to Goodreads. It was a difficult decision - I felt disloyal and I will miss it, but Goodreads is just bigger and better. For crying out loud, they send me emails when new books are being added from authors I read. And their latest? Top authors I've read.
Now, I must say, some of them it's hard to count. I mean, at one point I added something like 40 Agatha Christie books because I went through a phase in college where that was ALL I read. So, I'm going to ignore those authors whose numbers are so high because I devoted much of my childhood/high school experience to them (Carolyn Keene, anyone?). Not that that's bad, but I wanted to know currently what I seem to be reading the most. So. This list is authors that I have read in the past FOUR (4) years. If you feel that's cheating, go ahead. Yell at me. :)

So, here are the top 10, and in case you're curious, they DO count anything on your 'to read' shelf.

Ahem:

1. Patricia Wrede, with a whopping 14.
2. Lloyd Alexander, 12.
2. Eva Ibbotson, tied to Mr. Alexander with 12.
3. L. M. Montgomery, who yes was a favorite childhood author, but whose books I have continued to read as an adult, so hats off to Ms. Montgomery and her 11.
4. C. S. Lewis, 10. Of course when you remember there are already 7 in the Chronicles of Narnia...
5. Vivian Vande Velde, is a surprising 8.
5. Charles Dickens, 8.
5. Margaret Peterson Haddix, another surprising 8.
And to round out the top ten, here are all the authors that had 7 - sorry, it's a lot!
Margaret Haddix, Anthony Horowitz, J. K. Rowling, John Grisham, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robin McKinley, Sharon Shinn, Sherwood Smith, Avi, and Gail Carson Levine

And for curiosity's sake, the authors that I 'passed' in between the above listed authors:
Agatha Christie
Carolyn Keene
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Roald Dahl

I think there are a few quirks to fix - anything, for example, with Jane Austen in the title was counted towards Jane Austen. And sometimes I found doubles - perhaps I'd read two editions, but when you say you read The Hobbit, for example, you don't count it as two of Tolkien's works, just one read twice. At any rate, I thought it was a lot of fun. Anyone else have a list? Any surprises?