Freewater

Freewater by: Amina Luqman-Dawson 2023 Newbery Winner A story about a family trying to run away to freedom, and finding it in a swamp, but getting separated and the children never giving up hope of finding their mama.
This book made me sad for many reasons. The story itself made me sad because no one should have to feel the way the characters in this book do. No one should ever be “owned” its just cruel. I know things like this book happened, and that will always upset me.
However it also made me sad that the way they solved the situation was with violence. I don’t like how common this theme is in books and movies. I get the whole wanting to beat the bad guys but I wish there was a better, less vengeful way of doing it. I felt the whole wedding scene near the end of the book was a bit overdone and made the book seem less realistic, (yes I am aware it’s fiction) but that is just my opinion. The book also felt guarded somehow, I don’t really know how to explain that feeling, just that some parts seemed overly edited.
I really did like the parts while they were in the swamp and learning how to survive and finally feeling a sense of freedom and belonging. And I felt the author was good at voicing children and making them be children and not just little adults like so many books try to do. I overall liked the book, and probably would have loved it as a kid, because I always did like a good runaway story.

Does someone die? Surprisingly no… at least not that I can recall which I think is one of the things that made me feel like it was guarded. (it took me a while to read it though so if someone did, I forget.)

The Door in the Wall

"The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli 1950 Newbery Winner.

I had mixed feelings about this book, on one hand it was super encouraging that no matter your circumstances, no matter your disability, you can and will be anything you want if you just try hard enough. Which is a fairly common theme of books and life. However it can also be very disheartening to be told it doesn’t matter if something is wrong with you, you should just do it anyway, this kid did it so why can't you? But without going too deep into any of that, it was a story about an underdog child during the middle ages who had so much hope of becoming a knight like his father only to think his chances were blown after a brief illness that caused him to lose the use of his legs.
They talk a lot about the plague and different things that went on during the middle ages and the boy has a lot of help and encouragement from everyone he comes across, but they all expect him to carry his weight regardless of not being able to walk. He is taught to carve things starting out small and eventually moving on to crutches and then a harp, because, and this part I liked, Music is good for the soul and helps to heal.
It was definitely unrealistic, but fun just the same, and I think as a kid I would have loved it because of course I loved a good story about being a hero.

Does someone die? Yep.

Rabbit Hill

“Rabbit Hill” by Robert Lawson 1945 Newberry Winner
This is a book about a community of animals living on a plot of land and how "new folks" were going to be moving into the "big house". I actually thought it might be going in a bad direction when they started talking about the “big house” but fortunately it didn’t.
And honestly I felt like the first half of the book should have been the first quarter of the book, it was very, very repetitive, so much so it was a bit boring, and I wondered if the story was ever going to go anywhere. The second half of the book, once the new people finally moved in went relatively quickly and finally there was a bit of adventure. The moral of the story was sweet and was all about how people and animals can live together in harmony if you just give them a chance and you should treat the animals as friends not as pests. Not a realistic way to look at rabbits and moles and such that ravage ones gardens, but it was a nice sentiment. Its too bad that welcoming them into your garden doesn't make your crops grow better. And I say this as someone who has had a garden and had to put a cage over the carrots if I wanted any. However I am not one to chase the little animals away so its fairly common for me to lose part of my crop. I will say though if you do have plenty of sapling that you simply don't care about and let grow wherever they please without mowing them down the deer seem to like them better than corn, but that is just my experience.
Of course maybe the moral of the book wasn't actually about the animals but rather welcoming all people in your community. in which case I am all for it.

Does someone die? They sure talked about it a lot, but it was all past tense, so sort of.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, by: Laura Amy Schiltz 2008 Newbery Winner

This was actually a bit of an odd book, it wasn’t like your typical book, it was a collection of short stories and none of them really had a conclusion. Which I think is fairly typical of shorts. I don’t particularly care for short stories for this reason. I like my stories to have a beginning, a middle and an end like I was taught in school. The only time I like a book to end without an ending is if there is a sequel and even then sometimes it's annoying, like when the next one isn’t out yet.
This book did hold my interest though. It was like little plays which is what the forward said it was intended to be. I think going into the book reading the forward which tells you its shorts helped me get through it. If I hadn’t known the book probably would have annoyed me. All the stories are set during medieval times and after each story there was a bit of true history to go along with the story. I liked that part. Everything they talked about between the stories I had heard before but that's okay. It's always good to get a history refresh.

Does someone die? Yes but not in every story.

“King of the Wind”

“King of the Wind” by: Marguerite Henry 1949 Newbery Winner.

This was a fun little book about how Arabian horses came to be in Europe and then eventually to America. I didn’t do any research to see if there was any truth to the story or if it's just a fond imagining of how it happened. Either way it was a cute tale about a boy who was chosen to go with a horse who was given to the king of England, and then given to or taken by all sorts of people and how the boy stayed with the horse for its entire life. The boy is a mute who still manages to go far beyond expectations. He does so by sticking to what he believes and trying to always do right by the horse he has been left in charge of. I got the impression the moral of the story was to stick with what you are told to do no matter what and no matter how hard your life is you will overcome and everything will be alright.

Does someone die? Yeah but not till the end and it was of old age.

"The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle"

“The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by: Hugh Lofting 1923 Newbery Winner.

This was a fun little adventure story, set in the late 19th century. I had never read any of the Dolittle books before this and this is the second in the series, so I thought I might be a bit lost but I was able to keep up, probably because I know the basis of the story from seeing some movies. I’m not sure I would have really understood the whole story if I had not seen them, but I may have been able to catch up.
I can see myself really enjoying this book as a ten year old and loving the idea of going on a trip around the world and having grand adventures and learning to speak with the animals,it would have been so much fun to get away from being poor, living in a little cramped house, and to sail away, and have the very unrealistic journey like the little boy in the book. And honestly the idea of riding back home in the shell of a snail would have been so exciting to me, I loved Snails absolutely unequivocally adored them, every kind, land and sea they were my total faves. I also liked the fact that Dr. Dolittle really wants everyone to get along and live long happy lives. but I do wish he wasn’t so into categorizing people into which type are smarter and more superior than others. this is something that at ten years old I may not have noticed but the cringy parts were there, and in your face. Or I may have noticed, I don’t know, it's hard to go back to the ten year brain of not knowing once I know. There was definitely overt racism in the book. but for 1922 it could have been so much worse. And I think this is going to be a common complaint for many of the books just because of the time periods so many of them were written.

Does someone die? there was mention of it, but it was not a character you ever actually met.

“Moon over Manifest”

“Moon over Manifest” by: Clare Vanderpool 2011 Newbery Winner

I actually read this in 2020. I don’t know why I chose this book to read then it just sounded interesting, the story being that of a girl named Abilene Tucker and set during the Great Depression in the 1930’s.
It was set up as a bit of a mystery and went back and forth between her time and back when her father was a child.
Abilene’s father had to make the hard decisions to send her away to live with family while he worked because he didn’t really have a choice in where he worked; he just had to work wherever there was work and that was not always safe for a child. And Abilene just wants to stay with her father and doesn’t really understand why he is sending her to basically the most boring place on earth. She soon learns though that there is some excitement in the town and starts unraveling a mystery of not only the town but also her father’s past.
This was a bit of a hard book to read, although the story did hold my interest. The problem I had with the book that made me have to keep taking breaks reading was actually the timing of when I read it. While the part of Abilene is set in the 1930’s the part of her fathers past is set in 1917 and during the Flu Pandemic, which was eerily close to what was going on in 2020, which made the book at times seem to real. I did really enjoy it though once I got through it.

Does someone die? We are dealing with a flu pandemic in this book so… Yeah.