The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox

The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox

Date of Medal: 1974

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 127

Lexile: 970 (according to Scholastic Bookwizard)

What students might like this? Reluctant readers, students interested in history, students who want to see slavery through a personal lens, students interested in sailing.

                This might be one of the smallest Newbery Award books I’ve read to date. The plot centers around a young boy named Jessie. Jessie is 13 year old boy who helps his family by playing his fife on the street. While not a carefree life he seems genuinely happy. Jessie is kidnapped by a slaving ship and forced to join their crew. While sailing, he befriends two sailors Ben Stout and Clay Purvis. Throughout the book, Jessie learns that while someone may be outwardly friendly it is important to discern their inner nature. This is an excellent book for discussing characterization. Jessie narrates some of his confusion over whether Ben Stout is a kind or evil character. Ben Stouts words are kind, but his actions tell a different story altogether.  The author paints a vivid image of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Characterization throughout this book helps young writers to see that characters don’t have to be archetypal but can be painted in shades of grey.

                This book also discusses in depth the emotional turmoil that Jessie faces about slavery. He feels guilt about his actions towards the slaves but then he also expresses hatred and disgust. Page 69 is a very provocative inner monologue in which Jessie describes this hatred. It would be an excellent starting point for how good people can let evils exist in society.  

                The Slave Dancer would be an excellent read during a unit about slavery. One note of caution; though, is that it describes the raw cruelties of slavery and the emotions that accompany it for a thirteen year old boy. Slaves are beaten, starved, thrown overboard alive, and dressed up. This book gets under your skin mentally and emotionally without being overly graphic.

                Other historical fiction about slavery includes Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson,  The Wagon by Tony Johnston, and Freedom Crossing by Margaret Goff Clark. It might also be interesting to read historical documents about The Amistad. The Amistad was a slaving ship that the Africans on board took over. They then had to fight for their freedom in the US court system in 1839. You can find some historical documents on The Amistad here: http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/amistad/.

                The ending of the book is very true to life neither joyous nor sorrowful. The crew dies in a storm. Only Jessie and one African boy, Ras, survive. They are then left to build what life they can for themselves in America. This book is a poignant emotionally charged journey leaving the reader with only a sense of calm at the end.

*Image courtesy of amazon.com

The Hero and The Crown by Robin McKinley 1985

The Hero and The Crown by Robin McKinley

Date of Medal: 1985

Genre: Fantasy

Pages:246

Lexile: 1120 (according to Scholastic Bookwizard)

What students might like this? Students who are doubting their abilities, strong females, lovers of magic, and students who are struggling to fit in.

                This title was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1985. It is the largest Newbery Medal winner that I have read which may be daunting to reluctant readers. This book is very different from current Newbery Medal winners. It is your typical fantasy genre with dragons, swords, battles, and kingdoms. Newbery Medals typically are not as typecast as this book seems to be. It was good, but there wasn’t anything revolutionary about the story line.

                Aerin is the daughter of the king and a witch woman. She has not shown that she has magic; like the other typical royals in the story. She demonstrates the same adolescent angst as most Newbery Medal heroines, by not fitting in. Other royals mercilessly tease her, especially Galanna. Aerin is challenged to eat surka, a plant that enhances royal magic, but kills mortals. Aerin takes the challenge and consumes most of the plant, which makes her ill. While recovering, she finds a potion that is supposed to protect the wearer from fire. Aerin perfects this potion and eventually uses it to defend the kingdom against dragons. This with her new found knowledge of herself allows her to eventually find her place in the kingdom, but it comes at a great cost.

                Here are a few sections of this book that would be worth sharing whole group. On page 60-62, Aerin’s persistence with making the fireproof potion is described. This would be good for a discussion on characterization or personal perseverance. Page 181 would be an excellent section to talk about suspense as a reader or writer. Ms. McKinley builds significant suspense by describing how evil is pressing in around Aerin unseen. One word of caution would be that it does talk about her sleeping with another person in the book. They are actually sleeping but it talks some about their relationship. It is fairly harmless, although Aerin does place her hand on his breast. It unfolds on pages 204-209 if you want to prescreen the book. It might make some immature adolescents giggle but it is not graphic.

                In short, this is a great standard fantasy book. Aerin is a likeable heroine who struggles to fit in and find her purpose in life. In the end, she triumphs and saves her kingdom. If students like this book they might also like The Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling or The Circle of Magic Series by Tamora Pierce.

Image is courtesy of Wikipedia.

The Goal

My goal is to read all of the Newbery Medal Award Books and to blog about them as a I read them. I am an educator who is going into my sixth year of teaching in a suburban district located within Pennsylvania.

Why ALL of them?

When I was at Slippery Rock University a professor has us read many of the Newbery Medal Winner books for her class. Afterwards, she asked me if I would like to participate in a research grant where we would examine the trends in Newbery Medal Winners from 200-2008. This includes the following:

	Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz
	The Higher Power of Lucky  by Susan Patron
	Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
	Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
	The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
	Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi
	A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
	A Year Down Yonder  by Richard Peck
	Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

Simply put, after my research I fell in love with them. I would refer back to them in my teaching and find myself buying extra copies for my classroom. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the newest Newbery Medal Winner when it was awarded. After awhile, I started to study the list of Newbery Medal winners and found it contained some of my favorite books from childhood. Then I realized that this was a very attainable goal. I would read them all. That's 93 in 2014 if you're wondering.

Why a blog?

This is a bit more difficult to answer. I've always enjoyed writing for my children and in university. I was keeping track of the Newbery Medal Award winners I'd read in a word document. Just a few quick notes scrawled about each book. I also would pin them from time to time on Pinterest. At a recent educational conference, we had to share one thing we thought would be unique to only us. When I shared that I was reading all of the Newbery Award books, someone in the conference immediately asked: "Are you blogging about it?" No I wasn't blogging about it, but it got me thinking. Maybe I could use this as a way to reflect on what I was doing and maybe it might even be interesting or helpful to others.

Implications for Teaching and Education
 
I feel that the Newbery Award books are especially, important in education. They tend to contain characters that you can connect with and make students want to know what will happen to them next. Even though the days of the whole class reading the same book are gone (thank goodness) these books can provide a platform to discuss themes, difficult issues, characterization, mood, and setting. They can also be used to help children develop favorite authors or find other books a child might wish to read. In addition, I have used them to help model certain writing techniques or styles during writing workshop. I have assigned them to book groups, read excerpts for both reading and writing, and quietly passed just one book to just one student who I know will fall in love with that book and maybe reading as a whole. Being well read in these books has helped to connect children to books I know they will love across a variety of genres. They keep getting more and more unique and creative as time goes on.