IT’S TIME TO SAY GOODBYE
As we wrap up another season of Heavy Medal, we’d like to thank all of our readers for their contributions. It’s always hard to recognize only a small handful of books every year, but I always feel like we are able to celebrate many more worthy titles here, titles which may now depend on us to carry the torch. And for me, it’s always about the journey as much as the destination. Happy reading during the coming year and we’ll see you again after Labor Day!
ALSC NOTABLE CHILDREN’S BOOKS
At some point today, ALSC will probably post Notables here, and we’ll be able to see many of those titles we had hoped to see on Monday. Keeping my fingers crossed for about a dozen erstwhile Newbery contenders.
2014 NEWBERY READING LIST
Here is an early reading list. Please to discuss these–or bring other titles to our attention–in the comments.
JINX by Sage Blackwood . . . Three starred reviews. I know nothing about this one except that it looks like a longish fantasy that straddles middle grade and young adult.
EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION by Tonya Bolden . . . Three starred reviews. Here’s your friendly writer of color alert! Oh, did you mean writer of color of fiction? Tsk. Tsk.
COURAGE HAS NO COLOR by Tanya Lee Stone . . . Three starred reviews. This one could be called ALMOST PARATROOPERS. I liked it, but I’m trying to decide why my expectations are different from what the book delivered. Was I led to believe that there would be some actual combat in this book? I don’t know.
ONE CAME HOME by Amy Timberlake . . . Three starred reviews. Saw some brief discussion on Betsy’s blog about the ending, but I haven’t read it yet.
NAVIGATING EARLY by Clare Vanderpool . . . Three starred reviews. I like this one a lot, but I think there are an *awful* lot of coincidences that happen in the final stretch of the book, and I’ll be curious to see whether they bother more people on a rereading.
HOKEY POKEY by Jerry Spinelli . . . Two starred reviews. Monica gave this one a positive review and Eric has mentioned somewhere that he liked it, but I’m 40 pages in and finding it unreadable. Does it get better?
