FINISHED:
Medina, Meg. (2018). Merci Suárez Changes Gears. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[.]

STARTED:
Johnson, Maureen. (2019). The Vanishing Stair. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[.]

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STARTED & FINISHED: 
Krosoczka, Jarrett J. (2018). Hey, Kiddo. New York: Graphix/Scholastic.

[.]

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FINISHED: 
DiCamillo, Kate. (2018). Louisiana's Way Home. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[.]

STARTED:
Albert, Melissa. (2018). The Hazel Wood. New York: Flatiron/Macmillan.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
Tyler, Anne. (2018). Clock Dance. New York: Knopf/Penguin Random House.

[.]

STARTED:
Kelly, Erin Entrada. (2018). You Go First. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Williams-Garcia, Rita. (2017). Clayton Byrd Goes Underground. New York: Amistad/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Reynolds, Jason. (2017). Long Way Down. New York: Atheneum/Simon & Schuster.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Donoghue, Emma. (2017). The Lotterys Plus One. New York: Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic.

[The Lotterys are far from your typical family, formed when a gay male couple and a lesbian couple won the lottery, bought a giant house in Toronto, and adopted seven multiracial kids together.  Domestic (often chaotic) bliss is disrupted, however, when one of the dad’s estranged fathers comes to live with the Lotterys after recovering from a fire that he accidentally set as a symptom of developing dementia.  Best known for Room (Little Brown, 2010), Donoghue’s first novel for children is written largely from the point of view of 9-year-old Sumac, who has to vacate the room that she’s had since birth to accommodate her grandfather’s stay, directly reflecting the experiences and emotions of the primary reading audience who may relate to feeling put out and ignored themselves.  Her voice and role in the large family, as well as her transition from finding a way to get rid of their grandfather to being the one to convince him to stick around, are center stage here.  Spot art throughout, including a much appreciated – and necessary – labeled family portrait at the front of the book, helps to keep everyone and all of their varied experiences clear.  Filled with rapid-fire dialogue and tons of wordplay (the children are all named after types of trees, the taller mother is nicknamed MaxiMum, and many other family in-jokes) those who have worked their way through the Penderwicks series (Knopf, 2005) will find kinship here and look forward to more adventures with the Lotterys to come.]

STARTED:
Anderson, John David. (2017). Posted. New York: Walden Pond/HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
Mosier, Paul. (2017). Train I Ride. New York: HarperCollins.

[After her grandmother dies and she is without guardianship in Palm Springs, 12 year old Rydr is put on a train from LA to Chicago, where she will eventually live with a great uncle that she doesn’t know.  Along the way, there is an assorted lot of others on the train with whom Rydr interacts to pass the time including Neal, a gay man who works the snack counter and gives Rydr food (she runs out of money early on), a bunch of boy scouts (one of whom introduces her to Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, and her heart to first love), and Dorothea, the Amtrak employee charged with watching over Rydr on her trip.  Mosier crafts for Rydr a personal journey where she not only learns, from befriending bunch of caring strangers, to forgive those who let her down in her past, but also to forgive and accept herself in order to move forward.  The compressed time frame of the slim novel suits the subject well, giving Rydr’s transformation more immediacy and power, as she goes from initially being coy and telling lies, to building relationships and opening up to the truth, a truth that we become privy to as the novel travels along.  Powerful, moving, and perfect for fans of Holly Goldberg Sloan, Lisa Graff, and the like.]

STARTED:
Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. (2015). The War That Saved My Life. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[Rereading one of "my" Newbery Honor books before I read the sequel (due in October) that Penguin graciously sent me an ARC of.]

*

FINISHED:
Wenxuan, Cao. (2017). Bronze and Sunflower. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[.]

STARTED:
Mosier, Paul. (2017). Train I Ride. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Ogburn, Jacqueline K. (2017). The Unicorn in the Barn. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[Reviewing for ACL - it doesn't actually come out until July.  Review soon...]

STARTED:  
Whitehead, Colson. (2016). The Underground Railroad. New York: Doubleday/Penguin Random House.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Eagar, Lindsay. (2016). Hour of the Bees. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[(SPOILER!)  Not bad...  Tuck Everlasting is just one of the most ABSOLUTE classics in my eyes, so anything approaching this territory is under heavy scrutiny.  To me, it's just such a fantastic question to hit kids with:  if you could live forever, would you?  It's the kind of dilemma that can bring up so many fascinating discussions.  This one mines some of the same territory, but comes at it from a much more direct (ok, I haven't read Tuck Everlasting in awhile... so I'm kind of guessing here) message of "live in the now, not for the future".  Since this one takes place in modern day, there are questions surrounding how no one - especially those at the nursing home who surely would've given Grandpa a thorough medical check-up before admitting him - can tell that there are folks in this town that seem to be living a lot longer than usual.  Quibbles aside, this really could end up being one of the better novels of the year.]

STARTED:
Tyler, Anne. (2015). A Spool of Blue Thread. New York: Knofp/Random House.

[I love me some Anne Tyler, and normally I read new ones immediately upon their release.  BUT, last year was my Newbery year so anything beyond what was eligible for consideration of the award had to wait.]

*

FINISHED:
Holm, Jennifer L. (2014). The fourteenth goldfish. New York: Random House.

[.]


STARTED:
Averbeck, Jim. (2014). A Hitch at the Fairmont. New York: Atheneum/Simon & Schuster.

[.]


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