More Medal

As I mentioned before, I have been following Heavy Medal's Newbery shortlist and trying to read the titles they selected before the award announcement. The comments on their post have also provided some great suggestions for books that might nab an award come January. I finished two titles this week. I enjoyed both in different ways and would love to see either one honored by the committee.

Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan is five gorgeous stories woven into one: the mythical tale of three orphaned sisters, stories of three children as various points through World War II, and the story of a harmonica that connects them all. At nearly 600 pages, this story drew me and I marked several places where I wanted to read the beautiful words over and over again.

I'm an avid fan of roller derby and anticipated this book from the first review I read. Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson is the story of Astrid as she joins a junior roller derby team. The storyline includes the tough parts of a transition from elementary school to junior high, as well as lessons about friendships. It's cool that Jamieson herself is a roller girl which makes this story more authentic.











Next up are Blackbird Fly by Erin Entrada Kelly and The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. Both of these escaped the official shortlist, but have been mentioned in the comments or earlier in the blog year. I'm also looking forward to My Seneca Village by Marilyn Nelson which just arrived at our main office after being ordered through on-demand printing. I shared this Curriculum Connection from School Library Journal with the assistants at our other middle schools and I'm hoping teachers will be as excited about this title as we are.