Home/Newbery by Year/Newbery Title Index/Newbery Subject Index/Newbery Author Index

1939

Editor's Note: Many of the books are out of print. The header information will be as complete as I can make it.

Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright (Henry Holt, $14.96, fourth-grade level). ISBN: 0805003061.	The Medalist A farm girl named Garnet gets into trouble without trying because she is so high-spirited. Not too sappy. Both girls and boys would enjoy reading to get a different view on girls in that time period. Would work with Caddie Woodlawn or as a counterpoint to Harris and Me.
Nino by Valenti Angelo (Viking, fourth-grade level). Out of print	Honor Book A four-year old boy in rural Italy circa 1905 enjoy their simple life before joining the father in America. The characters in Nino stop and smell the roses. The only problem is they never get going again. This novel is filled with boring non-event after boring non-event: a church parade, a trip to town, a dinner, catching fish, etc. Nothing happens in this novel: No drama, no conflict, no nothing. Boring.
Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater (fifth-grade level).	Honor Book Mr. Popper lives a quiet life until his obsession with the artic earns him the gift of a bunch of penguins. He turns them into a comedy act that is wildly popular but one day releases them into the wild. Quite funny and silly. Mildest of science information. Has lost nothing over the decades.
Hello the Boat! by Phyllis Crawford (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, sixth-grade level). Out of print	Honor Book A pioneering family sails down the Ohio River on their way to a new life in Cincinnati. This is a wonderful book, despite his rah-rah spirit. Crawford provides much anecdotal experience about the development of early America. The experiences of the family on the storeboat allows the author to provide many snapshots of the pioneer experience. She also has a wonderful sense of humor and is a deft storyteller. I highly recommend this book and wish it weren't out of print.
Leader by Destiny: George Washington, Man and Patriot by Jeanette Eaton (Harcourt Brace, fifth-grade level). Out of print	Honor Book Eaton tries to convey the impact of the powerful character that had such a dominant presence in Revolutionary America. Typical for her time, Eaton creates a breathless Horatio Alger-tone found in so many biographies written for children. On occasion, she gives hint of the conflict and struggle that surely wracked Washington and his co-leaders, but the emotion is muted. Amazingly, she gives great play to Washington's rumored affair with a married woman named Sally Fairfax who was the love of his life. Most irritatingly, and again typical for her time, Eaton invents lengthy conversations between characters great and small. That license skews the perspective to her view, as does the lack of sources or citations.
Penn by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Vining) (Viking, fifth-grade level). Out of print	Honor Book The author gives us a rather boring, well-researched biography of the man who helped shape colonial America. Gray spends the vast majority of her time focused on William Penn's youth in England. It was a formative period but of little interest to modern readers. Penn showed remarkable courage in fighting for his Quaker faith but no emotion is conveyed by Gray. We are left cold and somewhat ignorant of his importance to the development of the philosophy that inspired our nation's founders. His importance to the founding of Pennsylvania is understated, too.

Copyright David Ross 2003