10. The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

2022 Newbery Award Winner

listened on Audible (used a credit for it)

2021

336 pgs.
Mid Grade SciFi
Finished 1/30/2022
Goodreads rating: 4.30
My rating: 4ish
Setting: 2060 New Mexico and 2400 Planet in another galaxy

My comments: This book was awarded the Newbery Medal last Monday, which sent me in a tailspin to obtain an audio reading asap.  It was read beautifully.  The cover is gorgeous. And it was an absolutely interesting piece of storytelling.  I'm not a big fan of folk/mythology/storytelling, and there were lots of places in the book where very important stories were told, stories that needed to be listened to in order to understand messages from Petra's grandmother, and then from herself.  I had to force myself to pay attention to these parts.  There seemed to me lots of repetitive places, and sometimes the story seemed to drag a bit. Creepy in places, sad in places, clever and adventurous in others.  Some of the pondering seemed more adult than child-centered. Lots to think about.  Good story, but I wouldn't have chosen it for a Newbery....but I never really like/agree with the Newbery choices, so ....

Goodreads synopsis:  There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.

But Petra's world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children – among them Petra and her family – have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.

Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet – and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity's past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether.

Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?

2021 ALA Awards

Newbery:

**When You Trap a Tiger (Tae Keller) 4.21 - 1177 

All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team - Soontornvat 4.69 - 356

Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom - Weatherford (picture book) 4.07 - 153

Fighting Words - Bradley 4.74 - 2473

We Dream of Space - Kelly 4.21 - 1950

A Wish in the Dark - Soontornvat 4.43 - 1064

Caldecott:

**We Are Water Protectors - Lindstrom/MICHAELA GOADE

A Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart - Elliott/ NOA DENMON

The Cat Man of Aleppo - Latham & Shasi-Basha/YUKO SHIMIZU

Me & Mama - COZBI A. CABRERA

Outside In - Underwood/CINDY DERBY

Coretta Scott King:

**Before the Ever After - Woodson  4.25 - 4549 ratings

Printz

** Everything Sad is Untrue (a true story) - Nayer 4.37 - 975 ratings (flees Iran)

Apple (Skin to the Core) - Gansworth 4.00 * 349 ratings (memoir in verse)

Dragon Hoops - Lang 4.47 - 2930 ratings (graphic novel)

Every Body Looking - Iloh 3.96 - 760 ratings (verse)

We Are Not Free - Chee 4.45 - 1299 ratings

Sydney Taylor (Jewish)

Middle Grades:

**Turtle Boy  - Wolkenstein 4.39 - 317 ratings

No Vacancy - Cohen 4.05 - 80 ratings

Anya and the Nightingale - Pasternack

The Blackbird Girls - Blankman 4.42 - 1130 ratings (Chernobyl)

YA:

**Dancing at the Pity Party - Feder 4.59 - 3114 ratings (cancer/death of mother)

They Went Left - Hesse 4.29 - 3915 ratings (searching for brother after Auschwitz

The Newbery Award

2021 When You Trap a Tiger (Tae Keller) 

Honors: 

All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team - Soontornvat 

Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom - Weatherford (picture book) 

Fighting Words - Bradley 

We Dream of Space - Kelly

A Wish in the Dark - Soontornvat 

2020 New Kid - Jerry Craft

Honors:

The Undefeated - Kwame Alexander

Scary Stories for Young Foxes - Christian McKay Heidicker

Other Words for Home - Jasmine Warga

Genesis Begins Again - Alicia D. Williams

2019 Merci Suarez Changes Gears (Meg Molina)
Honors:
The Night Diary (Hiranandani)
The Book of Boy (Murdock)

2018  Hello Universe (Erin Entrada Kelly)
Honors:
Crown, An Ode to the Fresh Cut (Derek Barnes)
Long Way Down (Jason Reynolds)
Piecing Me Together (Renee Watson)

2017 The Girl Who Drank the Moon (Kelly Barnhill)
Honors:
Freedom Over Me : Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life (Ashley Bryan)
The Inquisitor's Tale: Or, the Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog (Adam Godwitz)
Wolf Hollow (Lauren Wolk)

2016 Last Stop on Market Street (Matt dela Pena)
Honors:
The War That Saved My Life (Kimberly Brubaker Bradley)
Roller Girl (Victoria Jamieson)
Echo (Pam Munoz Ryan)

2015 The Crossover (Kwame Alexander)
Honors:
El Deafo (Cece Bell)
Brown Girl Dreaming (Jacqueline Woodson)

2014 Flora & Ulysses:  The Illuminated Adventures (Kate DiCamillo)
Honors:
Doll Bones (Holly Black)
The Year of Billy Miller (Devin Henkes)
One Came Home (Amy Timberlake)
Paperboy (Vince Vawter)_

2013 The One and Only Ivan (Katherine Applegate)
Honors:
Splendors and Glooms (Laura May Schlitz)
Bomb: The Race to Build - and Steal - the World's Most Dangerous Weapon (Steve Steinkin)
Three Times Lucky (Sheila Turnage)

2012 Dead End in Norvelt (Jack Gantos)
Honors:
Inside Out & Back Again (Thanhha Lai)
Breaking Stalin's Nose (Eugene Yelchin)

2011 Moon over Manifest (Claire Vanderpool)
Honors:
Turtle in Paradise (Jennifer L. Holm)
Heart of a Samurai (Margi Preus)
Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night (Joyce Sidman)
One Crazy Summer (Rita Williams-Garcia)

2010 When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead)
Honors:
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (Philip Hoose)
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (Jacqueline Kelly)
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Grace Lin)
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg (Rodman Philbrick)

2009 The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman)
Honors:
The Underneath (Kathi Appelt)
The Surrender Tree: Poems for Cuba's Struggle for Freedom (Margarita Engle)
Savvy (Ingrid Law)
After Tupac & D Foster (Jacqueline Woodson)

2008 Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village (Laura Amy Schlitz)
Honors:
Elijah of Buxton (Christopher Paul Curtis)
The Wednesday Wars (Gary D. Schmidt)
Feathers (Jacqueline Woodson)

2007 The Higher Power of Lucky (Susan Patron)
Honors:
Penny from Heaven (Jennifer L. Holm)
Hattie Big Sky (Kirby Larson)
Rules (Cynthia Lord)

2006 Criss Cross (Lyunne Rae Perkins)
Honors:
Whittington (Alan Armstrong)
Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow (Susan Campbell Bartoletti)
Princess Academy (Shannon Hale)
Show Way (Jacqueline Woodson)

2005 Kira-Kira (Cynthia Kadohata)
Honors:
Al Capone Does My Shirts (Gennifer Choldenko)
The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights (Russell Freedman)
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (Gary D. Schmidt)

2004  The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread (Kate DiCamillo)
Honors:
Olive's Ocean (Kevin Henkes)
An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 (Jim Murphy)

2003  Crispin:  The Cross of Lead (Avi)
Honors: 
The House of Scorpion (Nancy Farmer)
Pictures of Hollis Woods (Patricia Reilly Giff)
Hoot (Carl Hiaasen)
A Corner of the Universe (Ann M. Martin)
Surviving the Applewhites (Stephanie S. Tolan)

2002  A Single Shard (Linda Sue Park)
Honors:
Everything on a Waffle (Polly Horvath)
Carver, A Life in Poems (Marilyn Nelson)

2001 A Year Down Yonder (Richard Peck)
Honors:
Hope Was Here (Joan Bauer)
Because of Winn-Dixie (Kate DiCamillo)
Joey Pigza Loses Control (Jack Gantos)
The Wanderer (Sharon Creech)

2000 Bud, Not Buddy (Christopher Paul Curtis)
Honors:
Getting Near to Baby (Audrey Couloumbis)
Our Only May Amelia (Jennifer L. Holm)
26 Fairmount Ave. (Tomie dePola)

PICTURE BOOK - Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena

Illustrated by Christian Robinson

2015 G. P. Putnam's Sons

HC $16.99 (Amazon 10.54)

32pgs.

Goodreads rating:4.18

My rating: 4.5

Endpapers Bright yellow with cream drawings of items from the story

2016 Newbery Medal
2016 Caldecott Honor
2016 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor

My comments:  Yes, a wonderful story - full of kindness, positivity, and making a difference in the world.  Lots of good stuff for all - including 4th graders (admittedly my current focus).  However, I'm not happy with it receiving the Newbery Award this year.  Am I old fashioned?  A purist?  I really like that kids' chapter books/novels have such a prestigious award just for them, and awarding it to a picture book (which, I know, has happened before) bother me a bit.  Oh well, it doesn't take away from the wonderfulness of the book, just an itch that bothers me....

Goodreads: Every Sunday after church, CJ and his grandma ride the bus across town. But today, CJ wonders why they don't own a car like his friend Colby. Why doesn’t he have an iPod like the boys on the bus? How come they always have to get off in the dirty part of town? Each question is met with an encouraging answer from grandma, who helps him see the beauty—and fun—in their routine and the world around them.
           This energetic ride through a bustling city highlights the wonderful perspective only grandparent and grandchild can share, and comes to life through Matt de la Pena’s vibrant text and Christian Robinson’s radiant illustrations.

35. Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! - Laura Amy Schlitz

Illustrated by Robert Byrd
For: Children
Pub: 2007
2008 Newbery Award
Pages: 86
Rating 5/5
Finished (2nd time) Aug. 10, 2008

This really is a brilliantly conceived and written book, deserving of the Newbery. Laura Schlitz, a school librarian, created 21 short "plays", so that a class could perform it and all would have relatively equal parts. Each "play" is told from the point-of-view of one of the children living on a generic medieval manor in late13th century England. All but two are monologues, two are poems for two voices, some are prose, most poetry, some rhyme, all are loaded with information, great vocabulary words, and just enough footnotes to help the reader but not overwhelm. Schlitz has inserted six essays that she calls "A Little Background." These follow the child/speaker that she feels needs extra clarification (the Three-Field System, Medieval Pilgrimage, The Crusades, Falconry, Jews In Medieval Society, and Towns and Freedom). You can feel the fleas, smell the dung, shiver in the cold, and become totally absorbed in the village and life of this sobering time.

I would love to sit down and brainstorm with Laura Schlitz! I'd love to share ideas about the numerous ways this book can be used in a classroom. I plan to use it this year with my sixth graders as their central literature for the medieval period - I can imagine it becoming a touchstone text - and I can't wait!