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2007
The Higher
Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illustrated by Matt
Phelan (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson), $16.95, fourth-grade level).
The Medalist Despite this dismal start in life, Lucky is in
some ways an accurate name for the girl. Against all odds, her father’s
first wife moves from France to a god-forsaken desert town in
California to become the girl’s legal guardian when her birth parents
are unable to complete their duties. Lucky grows up in the sun-baked
hamlet of Hard Pan, which is notable for wondrous land formations and a
stunning lack of opportunity. Lucky’s life speeds to a defining moment when she
turns 10 and realizes that her well-founded fears of abandonment may be
realized again when Brigette, her guardian, is beset by sadness and a
longing to return home to Paris. Lucky decides, with the ill-founded
logic of childhood, to force matters by running away from home to gain
proof of how much she is loved. The prose has the dry tone of laconic Western
humor, standing shoulder to shoulder with the work of Richard Peck and
Gary Paulsen. Patron has created sketches of a unique cast of
characters in this aptly named town, population 43. Western gothic, if
you will. The plot itself places the reader on familiar territory, too,
allowing us to experience the emotional troubles of a girl at once
agent of her destiny and victim of parental absence. There have been
many, many Newbery books with similar themes, a troubling trend in
America and the reflective juvenile fiction our authors produce. Penny from Heaven by
Jennifer L. Holm (Random House, $15.95, fifth-grade level). ISBN:
037583687X. Honor Book Penny lives with her mother and maternal
grandparents, two odd birds who have trouble expressing their affection
in words or embraces. Me-me, a profoundly unskilled cook, and Pop-pop,
a partially deaf veteran of World War I, have created a cold, often
silent house that lives in the past. Penny’s paternal grandmother
resides a few blocks away, where she dominates a large, loud loving
clan of Italian-Americans who shun the past. Two links remain between the families: Penny, and
the hidden memory of her father. The narrative focuses its energy on
revealing the truth of her father’s death and on allowing this
wonderful girl to draw the two side closer together. Holm’s humor lies less in her ability to massage
words than in drawing a string of sterling episodes, usually Penny in
cahoots with her cousin Frankie, a boy in a million. In Penny the
author has crafted a complex woman-to-be, much like the spunky girls
who have dominated Newbery fiction since its inception. Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson (Delacorte Press, $15.95,
fifth-grade level). ISBN: 0385733135 Honor Book A 16-year-old girl, an orphan much
underappreciated by the distant relatives who bounce her around,
inherits a homestead in Montana during World War I and learns painful
lessons about life while trying to secure the claim. Hattie has the gumption to head west to make a new
life for herself. She is befriended by the kind folks near her while
trying to fend off an avaricious neighbor who uses trumped up
patriotism as an excuse to scare others off their claims. My gosh. The similarities between this book and
Marian Hurd McNeely's 1930 Honor book, The Jumping-Off Place,
are extraordinary. In both cases, an orphan (or orphans) inherit
homesteads in the high prairie from deceased uncles and must come of
age while showing remarkable fortitude. This is not to charge Larson
with a creative lapse because Hattie Big Sky is based quite
closely on the life of her grandmother. Nor is it intended to point out
to the Newbery committee, which is charged with focusing on the merits
of a book in and of itself, that the past in these selections often
repeats itself. These archetypal themes in juvenile fiction
endure with a ferocity that continues to amaze.. Larson's book, like Holm's Penny from Heaven,
doesn't have to work hard to be relevant. The German immigrants who
shared the prairie with Hattie were brutally persecuted by their
neighbors, who used the excuse of patriotism to further their own
success and assuage their fear. That topic deserves continued
discussion in these troubled times. Teachers looking for literature connections to
World War I could wisely turn here. Hattie is an attractive American
heroine, meaning she learns as we do, always trying to do her best,
humbling herself as she turns to others, sharing far beyond her own
needs. Larson is wise in that she doesn't neatly wrap the end of the
novel, a temptation most would succumb to. We want to read more of
Hattie, and I'm sure that we will. Honor Book A 12-year-old girl on the cusp of adolescence is
confounded by the public perception she and her autistic brother
create. Catherine is desperate for companionship and
normality, but the norms for her harried parents are driven by the
all-consuming needs of her younger brother David. The coping mechanism
that Catherine invents is a series of rules that give David guidelines
on how to behave in public and at home. That careful system is used
more as a crutch by Catherine to control her world than an operating
manual by David. The girl's conflicted feelings about herself and her
brother boil over when Catherine meets a new girl in the neighborhood
and develops a deep friendship with a boy, who happens to be physically
challenged and mute. This is a wonderful book. I say this not because I
want to be politically correct but because Lord, herself the mother of
an autistic child, has poured her heart into describing Catherine's
dilemma. I have taught many kids who have siblings with one disability
or another and I have watched how they attempt to fend off middle
school cruelty while trying to remain true to their kin. Nothing
Catherine and her parents do or say rings false. Lord, a first-time novelist, reveals a pleasing
ability to turn a phrase. Paired with her thoughtful exploration of a
complex subject, that is enough to earn the rewards bestowed
upon this novel. Even better, though, is one transcendent scene in
which Catherine and her friend, Jason, race around a parking lot in his
wheelchair. I have reread it three times, and each time I hold my
breath. Moments like this make me return to the Newberys every year.
A 10-year-old girl ironically named Lucky comes to a crisis in her
life, which has been tragically marked by the death of her mother,
abandonment by her father, and the erratic behavior of her guardian.
This book is the Newbery Award winner for 2007. As such, it upholds a
rich tradition of exemplary fiction for American children. Too much so.
Patron has produced a book that follows a highly successful Newbery
formula. That the novel, really a novella, isn’t formulaic is a
testimony to her skill as a writer.
The Newbery selection committee is instructed not to look to the past,
not to look to the accomplishments of authors, and not to judge current
fiction by past benchmarks. That said, the 2007 committee has made a
solid but safe selection, one that turns away from the bold choices of
past years.
Holm has a precocious ability to write books that earn the attention of
the Newbery committee. She does so by looking backward to a style of
writing more prevalent in the 1950s and ‘60s. This book, more a series
of marvelous character sketches, is driven by the complexity of human
relationships and not so much by a crisp narrative. The plot and many
of its details are in fact drawn from the personal experiences of the
author’s family, which suffered greatly as Italian-Americans in a
xenophobic America during World War II.
This book is of a type, a Newbery type that will not betray its
readers’ expectations. The setting itself, though, and its historical
topic allows the careful teacher to make the reading imminently
relevant. Because of a new war and because of ancient fears there is
another group of hyphenated Americans who fear to live openly in our
midst. Penny from Heaven may be indeed that, a gift that allows
American children to openly discuss issues that our society (and by
extension, our best children’s literature) deems unsuitable for their
ears.
Rules by Cynthia Lord (Scholastic, $15.99, fifth-grade level).
ISBN: 0439443822
Copyright David Ross 2007