Hooked on Books: Part Two – Some Great Newbery Medal Winners

May 7, 2013 · by Claudia Fedarko | in The Necessity of Reading | tagged A Single Shard, John Newbery, Newbery Honor Books, Newbery Medal, The Dark Frigate, The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, The Slave Dancer | 1 Comment

In part one of this blog I related the genesis of the Newbery Medal and the book that created this lifelong reader. In this post I want to describe what makes Newbery books worth reading. The Newbery winners are diverse in theme, setting and level of difficulty, but they share well-structured plots, clear but not […]

Hooked on Books: Part One – The Newbery Medal and How It Changed My Life

May 6, 2013 · by Claudia Fedarko | in The Necessity of Reading | tagged A Pretty Pocket-Book, American Library Association, children's literature, Elizabeth George Speare, Frederic C. Melcher, John Newbery, Newbery Honor Books, Newbery Medal, The Witch of Blackbird Pond | 2 Comments

I was one of those children who could read well but didn’t care much for the activity or lack thereof. I wanted to be outside playing cowboys, riding my bike, or climbing trees. The elementary school readers we used were, in a word, boring. The stories had little plot, and the characters were insipid. My […]