Newbery Award Winner 2013: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

The One and Only Ivan
by Katherine Applegate, illustrated by Patricia Castaloo

I had never before read this book nor heard of it.

PreRead:
Judging the book by the cover, it looks like it will be stressful and sad, but ultimately a happy ending. I don't have a lot of animal (mammal) empathy, I don't know how to feel about this trend (two so far) of making them into the heroes.

PostRead:
So I still don't have all that much animal empathy, but the book did sucha good job of making them not-human that it was far more enjoyable to read than I expected. What can I day? I'm a sucker for freedom stories. And I like very much elephants. So this was pretty good all around!

It also had a shoehorned love plot, but much less egregiously than the other -especially since Ivan finding fellow gorillas was such an important part of plot, so it's lovely he finds a mate.

Author: Female
Illustrator: Unspecified, presumed female
Main character: Male (gorilla)
Cast: Skews female, largely nonhuman
Bechdel Test? Nope. Implied, but not shown between Stella and Ruby
Racist? So few humans it's hard to say, but no.
Rating? *****/5

Newbery Award Winner 2014: Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamilla

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures
by Kate DiCamilla, illustrations by KG Campbell

I had never before read this book, nor had I heard of it.

PreRead:
It looks like a funny animal book, that I feel may embody some of the best parts of Lemony Snickett's irreverent humour.

PostRead:
Aw! That was sweet as hell! I really loved the turn of phrase in it -and I was right, it reads about like what "the luckiest kids in the world" books would. I liked the emphasis on family, I liked how Other it was, and I loved Ulysses's endless love for all the beauty in the wolrd (and best of all, his lists of wordporn, just like mine.)

And (as someone who loves comics and mad magazine and the like) I adore the visual novel format. Very cute!

I do wish they hadn't so very shoehorned in either of the romances, but at least we can take William Spivey and Flora as wonderful were friends. (I think I ship him and Branwell)

Author: Female
Illustrator: Male
Main character: Female
Cast: Fairly gender balanced
Bechdel Test? Yes
Racist? Not overtly
Rating? ****/5

Sorcy reads the what-nows?

So, in the grand and glorious scheme of things, there exists the American Library Association. It has a subdivision called the Association for Library Service to Children, and every year since 1922, the ALSC has gone ahead and chosen the year's best example of Children's Literature and awarded it the Newbery Medal. There's a long and glorious history you can read here.

Well, I read a lot of children's literature (as well as a lot of everything else) but I realized one day as I looked at The List that I hadn't even heard of most of these books. The ones I had heard of? Were phenomenal! Hmmmm...

Once the gears started a'turning, it took very little time for me to conceive of and commit to the project: I am going to read all of the Newbery Medal winners, in reverse chronological order, and write little mini-reviews here. Along the way, I will rant about FEMINISM and occasionally make forays into complaining about why there aren't any characters of colour and speculate on why the majority of winning authors are lady-aligned. It'll be a good time.

Hope you enjoy the ride as well!