Savvy In Context

Savvy by Ingrid Law received a Newbery Honor this year. Chances are, you can name the Newbery winner already. (Cough, cough: Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book.) But can you name the other books sharing the honor with Savvy? I thought I'd write up a little introduction to some of this year's best books.

Kathi Appelt's The Underneath.

There is nothing lonelier than a cat who has been loved, at least for a while, and then abandoned on the side of the road. A small calico cat. Her family, the one she lived with, has left her in this old and forgotten forest, this forest where the rain is soaking into her soft fur. (1)

The Underneath is about friendship, about love, about hate, about sacrifice, about revenge, about death, about life in all its shades and colors. It's bittersweet but beautiful. It's sorrows and joys are pure and heartfelt.

My interview in two parts: day 1, day 2

Margarita Engle's The Surrender Tree.

The Surrender Tree is well-written, powerful, and bold. Set in the last half of the nineteenth century (1850-1900), The Surrender Tree traces the struggle of Cuba's freedom and independence movements. Told through multiple narrators (Rosa, Silvia, Jose, etc.), the poems are strong, vivid, and powerful. They capture the gritty hardships of a life lived on the run, in hiding.

If you haven't read Margarita Engle before, you really don't know what you're missing! Highly recommended.

Jacqueline Woodson's After Tupac & D Foster.

Some books leave me a bit speechless. This is one of them. This is one of those strange books that is both about nothing and about everything. The book chronicles the friendship of three girls: the nameless narrator, Neeka, and D Foster over the course of a few years--around three years I think. These years--the middle years between eleven and thirteen--are difficult for most, but the friendship the girls share makes it bearable somehow despite their own individual problems--personal and family.

This one is all about friendship, family, and the meaning of life. It's a bittersweet book in some ways. But always well done.

Have YOU read any of these books? (The Graveyard Book, Savvy, After Tupac & D Foster, The Underneath, The Surrender Tree)

What did YOU think?

Do YOU have a favorite among them?

Where there any books YOU would have rather seen get awarded/honored?

Usually I am contrary. I think to myself, that won, really? (I'm almost always always of the opinion that the honor books are better than the winner itself.) But this year there is not a book there that I didn't feel deserved it. True, I would have loved to have Shooting the Moon get some love. But overall, I was really pleased with how everything turned out.

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