The Wednesday Wars

I read an article not too long ago about the Newbery Awards. I follow "The Unquiet Library" on Twitter and read this article from their blog: "Has the Newbery Lost Its Way?" The article was written by Anita Silvey and was published in School Library Journal, Oct 2, 2008. Here's a link if you want to read the article: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6601546.html?nid=3242. In the article, that author starts with two examples of people who seemingly believe the Newbery Award has lost some of its luster. In case you don't know, the Newbery Award is given every year for the "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children." During the summers, I work on reading through the Newbery books, all of them. I'm about 1/3 of the way through. Every year the ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children, part of the ALA) chooses the Newbery Medal winner and several Newbery Honor books. The Medal winner gets a gold seal, and the honor books get a silver seal. There is a list of current and past winners here: http://tinyurl.com/6cr7xy

I haven't read this year's winner yet, but today I read the Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt, which is a Newbery Honor book. I can't imagine how good the winner must be, for this to be an honor book. It is fabulous! I read a LOT of children's books and this is the best one I've read in a long time. It's so good; I read it all in one sitting. We got back from my niece's soccer game at about 1:45 and I was going to read a little bit and take a nap. I had no nap, but I've finished the entire book already. It made me laugh and cry, all at the same time. It is just a wonderful, wonderful story of growing up, realizing the people we most expect to do the right thing don't always do it, but that sometimes unexpectedly, we find what we need in others. It's about being wrong, admitting it, and loving each other in spite of ourselves, and in spite of them. It's just a great book.

Sorry, ten minutes later. We just had some excitement in our neighborhood. The police, deputies, and state troopers are chasing some guy in a truck, and he chose to drive down my street. He cut through an alley, and hit two parked cars, right across from my street. The Sheriff's department helicopter just flew over, and all my neighbors are out in the street. One guy, in a truck, running from six or eight law enforcement people. Does he really think they won't catch him??? I just hope he doesn't hurt anybody else. . . Whew.