Booklovers: A podcast for readers

During this episode of the Booklovers Podcast, Vic and I discuss Gaslamp Fantasy. We talk about what Gaslamp Fantasy is and share three of our favorite examples of it.

Laura: Welcome to the Clermont County Public Library’s Booklovers Podcast. I’m your host, Laura, and my guest today is Vic Smith.

Vic: Hi!

Laura: Today, we’re going to be discussing gaslamp fantasy. And just to give you a quick definition, please, Vic, feel free to jump in and add what you think.

Laura: Gaslamp fantasy is a mashup of historical fiction and fantasy. It often focuses on the Regency, Victorian, or Edwardian eras. It creates an alternate universe with magical or supernatural elements. While gaslamp fantasy started off as being very British in setting, in recent years, I know authors have been embracing a more diverse approach.

Laura: There’s definitely crossover with steampunk and Gothic horror. So, with steampunk, you get a similar time period. And with the Gothic horror, sometimes it has a similar vibe, at least to me.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clark is probably one of the better-known examples of the genre. Don’t you think?

Vic: Yeah, definitely. I mean, that was the first big one I heard of that I knew was gaslamp fantasy.

Witchmark by CL Polk

Laura: So now that we’ve got the definition in place, do you want to share your first pick with me?

Vic: This is one of my favorite books, and I didn’t know it was gaslamp fantasy when I first read it.

Vic: But it fits the genre perfectly. It is Witchmark by C.L. Polk. Very, very good book. It is about Miles, who is a doctor in London. He has come back from the war, which is still ongoing in the alternative England that they created for this world. And he is a psychologist, basically, who’s helping the men who are coming back from war. He ends up having a patient die on him from a fatal poisoning. And as a result of that, he gets pulled into the investigation of the patient’s murder. He has a partner who he is kind of investigating with, who he was introduced to when the poisoned man came to him to be healed.

Vic: And it’s a super interesting mystery. It has a fantastic magic system that pulls on the sense of magic as various feelings. So there’s healing magic, there’s storm magic, etc. And the world that has been created here, C.L. Polk did a fantastic job of making it feel like it could be Victorian or Edwardian England, but making it a completely different society.

Vic: So it’s the same basic format. But the system that they have in place has magic as a hidden thing that is still involved in the country. And it’s really interesting to see how these books can take those basic elements of, like, the time period and really make it something entirely different.

Laura: Yes, that is actually that whole alternative universe. You know, what would happen if we added some magic? I love how authors can take the same basic premise and come up with such different outcomes.

Vic: Yeah.

Laura: So CL Polk is one of my favorite writers, too. I’m super excited they’ve got a novella coming out this fall and I can’t wait!

Vic: Really?

Laura: Yes, very excited.

Vic: Witchmark is the first book in a series. I have read the entire series, and it certainly goes in an entirely different direction by that third book. So it’s interesting to read from the first one, which is like this mystery kind of romance book all the way to the third one, which is something very different. You’d have to read it to see what it’s like.

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

Laura: Absolutely. So my pick, it has a similar setting. It’s A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske. And it too is set in an alternate England.

Laura: On the first day of what Robin Blythe thinks will be a boring civil service job, he’s kidnapped, cursed, and thrust into a dangerous plot involving a secret world of magic and the families who practice it. He needs to find The Contract, something his predecessor died to protect. But Robin has no idea what it is or even where to start looking for it. And he’s got a time clock ticking because the curse is going to kill him if he doesn’t deliver it within a certain amount of time.

And the other main character, Edwin, belongs to a magic-wielding family, but he’s always been on the outskirts because his talent is a small one compared to other people’s. So, I feel a kinship with Edwin because books and libraries are his safe spaces. And yet he finds himself drawn into helping Robin, even though he’d rather go be in the library, researching magic.

Laura: So, you get an Edwardian romance crossed with Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.  We get an opposites-attract, very sunshine and grump romance. Plus, you get all of the magical theory you could ever want. You get curse tattoos. and ancient contracts with magical beings. And you get a magical library, secret rooms. There’s a killer animated hedge maze at one point. And lots and lots of political intrigue.

The world-building is super detailed, very satisfying. The characters are complex and engaging and they have a really sweet, sometimes steamy romance.

Laura: So, I love this book. I’m really excited that the sequel, A Restless Truth, is due this fall. So very jazzed about that one.

Vic: Yeah, I’ve heard a lot about A Restless Truth. It sounds like it’s going to be just as good as the first one was.

But this book and Witchmark, they’ve been marked as read-a-likes a lot for each other. But they have such different vibes. I think that they cover very different areas of this genre really well in very similar ways.

But they’re actually, I mean, as good as both of them are, as much as I think someone would enjoy both, they’re very different books from each other.

Laura: Yes. And that’s what I love about authors doing their own take on this.  I mean, it’s such a very sub-sub-genre almost, and yet people can do such different things with the same basic elements. I love it.

Vic: Mm-hmm.

A Natural History of Dragons by

Laura: So, do you have another pick to share?

Vic: Yes. So, we’re going in a different direction with this one. It is A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan. It is the first in the Lady Trent series.

Vic: And it’s such an interesting book because you follow Isabella. Isabella Trent is Lady Trent. And in the first book she’s actually just starting out, she’s very young and you follow her from her childhood as she becomes fascinated with dragons, which are a natural species of creature in her world.

Vic: She lives in Scirland land, which is, again, kind of England. This book has a lot of place names that you can pretty much identify where it’s supposed to be in the real world. From childhood, Isabella is fascinated with dragons and eventually follows that fascination to become a natural philosopher of dragons.

Vic: So, she enters the science field. She goes on expeditions. And the first book follows her expedition to Vistrana, where they are looking into the Vistrani rock wyrms, which is a kind of dragon that lives up in the cold mountains. There’s a little bit of a mystery. There’s a lot of natural history.

Vic: While it is very much a fantasy book, there’s so much just investigation of the natural world in this series that I really enjoy because it makes it feel real in a way that you don’t always get from these fantasy series.

Laura: I love that ability when an author can just draw you in and make you think, yeah, this is actually possible.

Laura: This could be real. I love that.

Vic: And then, the interesting thing about this series is its exploration of women in the time period. Because Isabella faces a lot of blockades due to being a woman. And she gets very lucky that she has a supportive family, that she has a supportive husband in her husband, Jacob, and that she is allowed, despite all of the things that are in her way, to force her way into this career. It’s really cool to watch that happen.

Laura: I love that. That sounds fantastic. Thank you for sharing. Those are two fantastic picks and I’m excited.

Vic: Yeah.

Laura: Thank you for joining me and sharing those. I really appreciate that.

Laura: And thanks to our listeners for joining us. Find the titles that we’ve talked about listed with links to our catalog in the show notes on our website, clermontlibrary.org. Thank you all for listening and happy reading.

If you’re looking for other book suggestions, for gaslamp fantasy or something else, explore our online resource, NoveList Plus. Or sign up for Recommends, our personalized reading suggestions via email service. Or ask Library staff during your next visit.

The post Booklovers Podcast: Gaslamp Fantasy appeared first on Clermont Library.

Andrea: Welcome to the Clermont county libraries book lovers podcast. I’m Andrea and I’m joined by Laura and Kasey. And for this episode, it’s an offshoot of our previous one.

We’re going to talk about the trope of fake relationships, fake dating. And we’re excited to kick it off with Kasey, who knows a ton about this subject in romance books.

Andrea: Ready, Kasey? Do you want to share your first book?

Kasey: Sure. So fake relationship is a popular trope in romance for people who have a need for a date. Something similar to The Duke and I, where they’re in a fake relationship or have an “agreement” that they’re going to be married to increase Daphne’s desirability.

With fake relationships, two people could be like, I need a date for a wedding so that my family doesn’t rip on me. It’s one of my favorite tropes.

Written in the Stars by

My first pick is actually an LGBTQ title. It is called Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur. And this book is on hoopla as an eAudiobook or Ohio Digital Library as an eBook or eAudiobook.

The book is about Darcy. She’s a buttoned-up actuary who isn’t super fun, but she has a really great relationship with her brother and he thinks that he’s going to do her a favor and set her up on a blind date.

And so he does, with someone he’s in business with named Elle who is an astrologer. Which is pretty much the opposite of an actuary.

She tells her brother that the date went great, even though it was a disaster and she’s trying to not hurt her brother’s feelings. She goes to Elle and is like if you could just date me through the holidays to make him feel better about him trying to help me find a relationship, that would be great.

And Elle was like, sure, but my family is terrible. So, I need you to go to family functions with me so they don’t think I’m a failure.

And then lots of cute stuff happens. It’s an adorable book and they end up falling in love – spoiler alert! But it’s a romance, so we’re expecting a happily ever after, but it was a really fun read.

I enjoyed it a lot and the characters are really great. And there was a lot of character development throughout, especially with Darcy who was kind of straight-laced and no fun, but definitely recommend that one.

Andrea: Sounds good.

Laura: Yeah, it sounds like a lot of fun.

Andrea: Reminder that all the titles that we will share in this podcast will be available on clermontlibrary.org in the show notes.

The Love Con by Seressia Glass

Laura: All right. My first book is The Love Con by Seressia Glass. Kenya is a plus-size black woman in a reality competition called Cosplay or No Way.

The final challenge is to create an iconic duo costume with the help of a partner and in a moment of onscreen panic, when the challenge is announced, Kenya names, her best friend and Thor look-alike Cam as her partner. This comes as a surprise to everybody because they are not in fact dating.

So luckily Cam is entirely on board with playing her fake boyfriend because he’s hoping to convince her to be his real-life girlfriend once the competition is over.

They were a very adorable couple and I loved them super hard. Kenya was relatable and authentic. As a white woman, I can’t speak to the constant microaggressions that are in the book, but as a plus-size woman, I can certainly identify with that part of the experience because the other people in the contest are not plus size and she got insulted a lot.

Cam was the perfect cinnamon roll. He was ready to defend Kenya. I hear you laughing, Andrea, but sometimes the cinnamon roll is a legit description. Kasey, back me up on this is a legit romance description of a hero who is warm and gooey.

Andrea: And I love it, but I think it’s, if you read this, you know it, but again, for those who don’t read it, they might be tickled by that.

Laura: It is funny, but who would not want a cinnamon roll?

Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert

Andrea: I mean, I had to look up the cover because it’s been requested in Hoopla and it has a really fun cover. It reminds me of the book I was just reading, which is Take a Hint, Dani Brown, where she’s being held on the cover of that book. But it’s similar artwork.

Laura: I think if you’re a Take a Hint, Dani Brown fan, you’d like The Love Con. They feel similar.

It’s a super-fast-paced, very readable book with very likable and relatable characters. There are great supporting characters. It’s a dual point of view so you get Cam and Kenya’s takes. You also get close proximity, diverse cast, strong woman.

I think if you are a fan of Denise Williams or Jasmine Guillory, you’d totally eat this up.

Andrea: Sounds good.

Laura: Yeah, I really loved it. I can’t wait to read more of her books.

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

Andrea: Great. All right. Back to Kasey. What else do you have?

Kasey: Okay. So another one that I really loved is called The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren. She’s a very popular romance writer.

This one you can get in print and audiobook format in the library, and it’s also available as an eBook and eAudiobook through Ohio Digital Library/Libby. So lots of opportunities to read this if you’re interested.

This book is about Olive and she has a twin.

Olive is extremely unlucky.  She just lost her job. Her twin sister’s getting married and she feels like she’s never going to be happy like her sister is.

She goes to her sister’s wedding and everyone but Olive and the best man, Ethan, eat from a seafood buffet and get violently ill.

Olive and Ethan, who really, really hate each other, decide to take her sister and her new husband’s honeymoon together.

So, they’re like, we’re going to do things separately. We’re not going to spend any time together, but then she gets a call when she’s in the airport, that she has a new job. Who does she run into on this honeymoon vacation but her new boss. And he thinks that she’s newly married. So she convinces Ethan, remember they hate each other a lot, that they should pretend like they’re actually married on this vacation so she makes a good impression on her new boss.

Of course, they don’t actually hate one another.

What I really loved about this book was it was so funny. I listened to the audiobook and just laughed and laughed. I always love a romance that makes me laugh. It was very funny, the shenanigans that they get into, when they are hating each other, are really funny. It was just an enjoyable book.

And Christina Lauren is actually two women that write together and their books are great. I loved every single one of them that I’ve read.

The Unhoneymooners is definitely a really good fake relationship book.

Andrea: It is, it’s a fun, a fun book that I listened to as well. And it was one of those books where I kept wanting to get back to my reading time so I could continue the story because it was just so infectious and fun to listen to.

Laura: I actually read it and it’s funny, and I really enjoyed it because it was a lot of fun. Perfect beach reading kind of a book.

Andrea: Right. I was going to say, I read it over the summer, so yeah.

Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron

Laura: So my second book is Accidentally Engaged by Farah Herron.

And it’s about Rena, who is the middle child of a very – perhaps overly-  involved Muslim family.

She works at a finance job that she hates. Which makes it all the more insulting when she gets laid off.

Her real passion is cooking, but she’s not sure if she wants to take that plunge and pivot to another career.

Her family wants her to marry a nice Muslim man that they’ve chosen, but she is most definitely not into that.

She comes home one night to discover that she has a new neighbor. He is a brown Captain America with a gorgeous British accent and tons of charm, which don’t, we all want a neighbor like that? And then she finds out that Nadeem is the good Muslim man she’s supposed to marry to help her family’s business.

She’s like absolutely not, but she can’t deny the fact that he is super dreamy.

They’re hanging out together one night and after one drink too many, they shoot a cooking video. And he enters it into a contest that she wanted to enter. Because the prize just happens to be a scholarship, to the very culinary school that she was thinking of going to, except that it’s super expensive and she doesn’t currently have a job.

The catch is the contest is about family cooks. So now Rena and Nadeem have to be faux engaged. Her family thinks that they’re really engaged until she says they’re not that they’re just pretending.

This was a super fun book, with lots of laughing and the food descriptions – oh my! The food descriptions were absolutely mouthwatering. It was all about East Indian and African food and traditions, which was just a lot of fun.

if you are a fan of Sara Desai or Sonali Dev, I think this would be right up your alley.

Andrea: Perfect. All right. Kasey, wrap us up with one more book.

Kasey: Okay. Well, my bonus pick was The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood. I read it on a whim because it was on the Lucky Day shelf at the library. I picked it up because I thought the cover was fun and it’s about women in STEM. All the buzz has been about this book in 2021.

It’s been on some charts; it’s very well reviewed and it is about another woman named Olive.

She’s a PhD grad student working on a study related to pancreatic cancer diagnosis. She kisses a professor in the biology department because she wants her friend to go on a date with someone that she (Olive) had previously dated and he agrees to fake date her.

There’s a lot of cute stuff in this book. I read it and then I got the audiobook from Hoopla and I listened to it again just a few weeks ago. And it really made me laugh. Ali Hazelwood, it’s her debut book, I believe. And she has another one coming out in the summer that I’m very excited about called Love on the Brain.

Very funny to listen to, great writer. Definitely, all of her books are now on my must-read lists.

Laura: I read it too and if you’re an Adam driver fan, the male professor is based on him. And if you look at the cover, it even looks like him because I believe it was based on Star Wars, fan art. So should you be an Adam driver fan, this has some dreamy scenes that will make you happy.

Andrea: Yeah. And Kasey talked about it being Amazon’s top romance pick, nearly perfect ratings on Goodreads, and a book that was all over TikTok and Instagram.

So it’s an out-of-the-park book, and then the next one is done in the same artwork and just that illustration. You kind of think it’s leading toward a series so that’s exciting for readers like Kasey, who have that on their to-be-read lists.

Laura: Absolutely. Well, it’s nice to see something where not to harsh on other books, but the woman doesn’t own a bakery or interior design firm or a florist shop. It’s nice to see an actual scientist in a romance book.

Andrea: Right.

Laura: I mean, that made me happy.

Kasey: Yes. And the author herself is a scientist. So, everything felt true. Like when you were reading it, she definitely is very knowledgeable. And that really came through in the book and I really enjoyed it. I read it before it blew up, so that was fun to read it. And then I recommended it to a few people and then it blew up and I was like, yeah, this book that I love so much is becoming popular.

Andrea: And it’s funny, we had that book, we put it in the Lucky Day collection and when we did branch visits back in the fall, we saw it sitting on a lot of shelves. We’re like this book has so much buzz. It shouldn’t be sitting here and sure enough, the way it goes out to the guests.

So it’s great to see everyone loving the book.

Kasey: Absolutely.

Andrea: Well, thank you for joining us, listeners. We hope you’ve enjoyed learning about some of our favorite books with the fake dating trope.

Remember to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. You can find all the books we talked about in the catalog or in our digital collections via Libby, hoopla, or Freading.

Until next time reader, read on.

The post Booklovers Podcast: 5 Fantastic Fake Dating Romances to Read Now appeared first on Clermont Library.

Andrea: Welcome to the Clermont County Public Library’s Booklovers Podcast. I’m Andrea and I’m joined by Laura and Kasey. And during this episode, we are going to talk about historical romances because we are so excited for the next season of Bridgerton. Kasey, do you want to start us off?

Kasey: Sure. The first book that I’m going to recommend is actually listed in NoveList Plus as a readalike specifically for The Duke and I, but I think that it really has a lot of parallels with all the other books in the series.

The book is To Have and to Hoax by Martha Waters and it is a part of the Regency Vows series. So, I just finished this one. It is filled with witty banter, and it is very funny. I laughed out loud multiple times while I was reading it, and my family was like, “what’s going on?”

So, I’m going to read a description. “An estranged husband and wife in Regency England, feign accidents and illness, in an attempt to gain attention and maybe just winning each other back in the process. Five years ago, Lady Violet Grey and Lord James Audley met, fell in love, and got married. Four years ago, they had a fight to end all fights and have barely spoken since. Their once passionate love match has been reduced to one of cold, detached, politeness.

But when Violet receives a letter that James has been thrown from his horse and rendered unconscious at their country estate, she races to be by his side. Only to discover him alive and well at a tavern and completely unaware of her concern. She’s outraged. He’s confused. And the distance between them has never been more apparent.”

As the book goes on she’s upset because he didn’t tell her that he was injured and then she pretends that she has consumption.

She knows that he knows that she knows, and it’s a lot of back and forth and the banter is great.

The second book in the series was just released last year.

And then the third book is coming out this summer. So, I will definitely be reading the other two in the series,

Essentially, in The Duke and I, a lot of their disagreements and misunderstandings are related to his terrible relationship with his father. Which as we know is a major plot point in The Duke and I.

For anyone who has read The Viscount Who Loved Me, which is the second in the series, the second season of Bridgerton is based on that book.  The back and forth banter reminds me of a lot of that one. So definitely recommend.

Andrea: Kasey, Can I back up a minute and ask you, if I was a guest coming into the library and I’m looking for historical romance, am I going to paperbacks or am I headed to fiction to find it?

Kasey: Well, it varies across the series. This one specifically we have in regular print, soft cover, and it’s also available through Libby/Ohio Digital Library as an e-book and e-audiobook.

Andrea: I will say if you are an eBook lover, there are a lot of the historical romances in Libby/Ohio Digital Library. I think because they read quickly for a lot of us.

People are voracious readers of that genre. So, there’s a lot in there. In the past, we used to talk about the Harlequin romances, and I think a lot of people got an idea like that’s trash. They looked down on it.

Over the years, people have looked down on historical romance or the paperback, the bodice rippers, as we call them. But then Bridgerton showed people like, oh wow, that’s what’s really going on in these books. I could get into that!

Laura, I feel like you want to say something.

Laura: People who are rude about romance just haven’t read it. They’re super complex. There’s delightful, witty banter. And the authors who write them actually do serious research.

Andrea: For sure. Because when you talk about Regency romances, it’s a specific period of time. So you can’t just wing that. You have to have those historical elements. And I agree with you, Laura, that the people who kind of trash the historical or just the romance genre are just not reading it or afraid to admit they’re reading it. Which again, back to the eBooks, nobody’s going to see the cover of the book you’re reading

And a lot of these come in audiobooks. I’m an audiobook lover. I just listened to Suddenly You. Which was one of those books that came up recommended: “If you liked Julia Quinn’s books, try this…”

And I agree with you, the writing, the language, the wittiness of their exchanges, it just keeps it moving along.

I don’t want to say it’s fluff, but if you need to kind of zone out for a period from life, you can dive into these books as an adventure in your mind.

Laura: I think there’s a comfort level to romance which, goodness knows, we can certainly use. We know there’s going to be an HEA – Happily Ever After at the end of the book.

Andrea: Right!

Laura: Reading thrillers, there’s always that tension of how’s it going to end? Are people still going to be alive at the end? What happens? But I think romance is a real comfort read because it’s going to be okay.

Laura: It’s interesting that you should mention audiobooks because my first book is one I listened to as an audiobook.

Andrea: Yeah.

Laura: It’s A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem by Manda Collins. And this is a Victorian romance instead of Regency, but it’s still got that historical feel. And this is a fast-paced story, intricately plotted, lots of witty banter, sparkling banter for days. there’s a series of mysteries to solve.

Our heroine, Lady Katherine, is a widow and after her husband died, she inherited his newspaper and she’s very much a hands-on owner. At a dinner party she brings up a series of murders that have been happening and the men are all, Tut tut! That’s not for women to hear or talk about.

And she’s like, I think women deserve to know that there are dangerous things out there so they can protect themselves. She decides that she’s going to write a column in her newspaper called A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem. She writes about these murders. It gets the public all riled up and the lead investigator, Detective Inspector Andrew Eversheds accuses her of inflaming the public opinion, and she’s all it’s on now.

It’s a race to see who can solve the murders first. sparks fly hydrants and Sue. There are lots of smoldering, dark looks.

I listened to the audiobook, the narrator did a fantastic job. Her name is Mary Jane Wells. She’s also narrated books by Lisa Kleypas and Tessa Dare. If audiobooks are your jam, check those out.

There’s a sequel to A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem out called An Heiress’s Guide to Deception and Desire. And I do believe there’s a third book coming out later this year.

Andrea: That is a great thing about these books is that there’s often a series.

If you get into one and you like it and you’re craving more there are probably another one or two coming or already out, depending on what series you start.

Kasey. Do you have any other recommendations? Cause I feel like this is your wheelhouse.

Kasey: I have read hundreds of historical romance books, so I can talk about them for hours.

Andrea: Perfect.

Kasey: You mentioned series. The next thing that I’m recommending is actually a series of books called the Bedwyn Saga. They’re written by Mary Balogh. They were published right around the same time as the Bridgerton series. And they also follow a family.

So, a short description about the series itself, “Meet the Bedwyns, six brothers and sisters, men and women of passion and privilege, daring and sensuality… Enter their dazzling world of high society and breathtaking seduction where each will seek love, fight temptation, and court scandal.”

So, the first book in the Bedwyn Saga is called Slightly Married, and it is a marriage of convenience, which is one of my favorite tropes in historical romance, where two people come together and they get married for a specific reason.

In this case, Aiden Bedwyn promised a dying soldier during a battle that he would protect the soldier’s sister. So, he meets Lady Eve. And she’s trying to save her homestead or her house that she lives on. It’s going to go to the cousin who is inheriting, since her brother’s dead.

And if she marries within a year of her brother’s death, then she gets to keep the house for herself. So, Aiden takes this very seriously about protecting Lady Eve and he decides that he’s going to marry her. And they fall in love by the end of the book. So sometimes the marriage of convenience can be really fun.  Sometimes it’s not as well done, but in this case, I really liked it in this book.

There are six books in the series, so it’ll keep you busy for a little while. And these are solidly regency. As it was mentioned previously, regencies are a very particular time period. 1811 to 1820, although they do stretch it out to 1830.

And in this series, part of it actually takes place during the battle of Waterloo. And because of this series, I got a Jeopardy question correct. So, if you’re interested in the historical aspect, that’s really strong in the series.

Andrea: it’s good to know. It’s great. If anyone is interested in the books, we’ve mentioned the show notes with all the links to the title will be available on Clermontlibrary.org.

So you don’t have to write them down. As we talked, we will give you the full to-be-read pile with this episode. Laura, do you have anything else to share?

Laura: My next book isn’t due out until the summer. It’s definitely one to put on your To Be Read list. It’s called Reputation and it’s by Lex Croucher.

Imagine Bridgerton crossed with Mean Girls. This Regency era, new adult romance starts with Georgiana being sent to live with her aunt and uncle. Because her mother is unwell, her father is taking her mother to the seaside to recuperate.

George has led a very sheltered bookish life with no expectations of marriage. Her father was a headmaster of a school. So libraries and books are her comfort zone. She feels kind of awkward around people. She hasn’t gone to many parties.

When she’s at a party that her aunt’s taken her to, she meets a wealthy, popular girl named Francesca, who befriends her. George is immediately seduced into a life of rowdy parties, drinking, debauchery and being an absolute mean girl.

George has this delightful, dry sardonic wit about her observations. Everything from people’s clothes to their conversations is fodder for her snark.

The romance is very light. Although it’s present, the story is far more about George figuring out her priorities.

And even though she makes some bad decisions and she’s not always very likable, by the end, I was solidly on board with George and her decisions.

Extra points to the author for including characters of color. I feel like historical romances set in England are often very white, so I appreciated the representation.

Andrea: Great. All right. Do we have anything else as we wrap it up anymore, like just a snippet to add to your reading list or mentions?

Kasey: I have a bonus series. So previously mentioned was Tessa Dare. She has a series of books called Spindle Cove, and it is about ladies that go and stay by the seaside to protect their delicate constitutions.

Or that’s what everyone thinks, but they’re actually going there to pursue their own interests that they enjoy. And they do activities, not suitable for ladies, such as shooting and bathing in the sea. And the first book in that series is called A Night to Surrender, and the lady who runs the house where all of these women stay, Lady Susanna, has her schedule disrupted by someone who recently inherited a title and has come to set up his soldiers at the seaside to keep a look-out for Napoleon’s forces.

There are hi-jinks and they like to rankle each other. There’s a lot of banter. Tessa Dare is really good at banter and she’s just really funny. And she has several series, some of them are more outlandish, like the Castles Ever After series, but I’ve loved every one of her books that I’ve read.

So, I would definitely start with Spindle Cove and then branch out to some of her other series, if you get a chance.

Andrea: Perfect! Alright, so we’ve gotten a great overview. I think historical romances will be ready for Bridgerton to welcome more people to the bandwagon. There’s always room to jump aboard and keep pushing this genre along.

Thank you, lady Kasey and lady Laura for joining me on today’s podcast.

Thank you, listeners. Remember to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. You can find all the books we talked about in our catalog or in our digital collection via Libby, hoopla, or Freading.

And again, we will put the show notes on clermontlibrary.org.

Thank you, reader. Read on.

The post If You’re a Bridgerton Fan, Read These 4 Romances appeared first on Clermont Library.

Kristine: Welcome to the Clermont County Public Library’s Booklovers Podcast. I’m your host Kristine and I am joined today by Youth Service Librarian, Cara and Collection Development Librarian, Stacy.

We’ve been talking about the Newbery award. And today during this episode, Stacy is going to share some fun Newbery trivia, and we’re going to discuss a few more of our favorite Newbery books from the past.

Remember that show notes with links to all of the titles we talk about is available at clermontlibrary.org. And Stacy, I’m going to turn it over to you. What fun trivia do you have for us today?

Stacy: Okay, well, I feel like we’re just on our fourth hour of talking about the Newbery. There’s so much to say about it. And there’s so much that we aren’t even saying about it because there’s well, obviously a 100-year history, and then there’s just so much that goes into it. We’re doing all these podcasts because we are getting ready for the 100th anniversary of the Newbery awards, which is awesome.

So, we’ve talked a little bit about the history of the medal. We’ve talked a little bit about like how it came to be about the committees that are formed every year, the Newbery committee that’s formed and the criteria that they’ve used. So, if you’re interested in all of that, you can check out our other podcasts.

But I’m going to talk a little bit about John Newbery, who the award is named after, and then I’ll just do a little bit of trivia. So, John Newbery and that is spelled with just one ‘r’. Just one, not a berry, like you’re going to eat a strawberry and that’s how I have to remember it because before we got so in depth about Newbery, I would always have to look up and see. But I’m going to remember from now on, that’s just one ‘R’.

He in his time was considered the father of children’s literature. Not because he was the first to publish children’s books because he wasn’t. But he was the first to turn them into a truly profitable business.

In, mid-18th century England, a new and growing middle class had money to spend on their children and Newbery gave them something to spend it on. So, beginning in 1744, he published about 100 story books for children plus magazines and what they called ABC books, which we would just call alphabet books today.

And he therefore became the leading children’s publisher of his time. So, the Newbery award didn’t come to fruition for more than 175 years after Newbery. And that is when Publishers Weekly editor Frederick Melcher suggested that the American Library Association create an annual award for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

And they loved the idea. So, Frederick Melcher asked that it be named for Newbery, who was an Englishman that actually never set foot in America, which I find so interesting that the award is named after him. And it is limited to American residents. You have to live in the country at least, is it six months out of the year? Thank you, Cara. Yes. She knows all that great history.

So, I find that so interesting. You can’t be English and live in England and have published a book even though, then the award was named after an English man.

So anyway, the first book that John Newbery authored for children was called A Pretty Little Pocket Book. And it consisted of simple rhymes for each of the letters of the alphabet. And to market the book to children of the day, the book came with kind of like a toy or a little keepsake. I find this really funny, but you have to remember it was the mid-1700s. So, the book either came with a ball for a boy or a pin cushion for a girl.

Yes, you’re pulling the same types of faces that I would pull and that children today would pull. Actually, I mean, a ball is not as bad a gift still, I guess, for a boy or a girl, but a pin cushion? I think that would be like a hard no from parents. They’d be like, no, please don’t give my child something they can stick needles into. Again, mid-1700s—but a pin cushion for a girl. I thought that was a fun little bit of history there. So that is just a tiny little snippet of history about John Newbery that I found very interesting.

So, three, quick little trivia facts that you can pull out of your pocket if you’re ever playing trivia at a restaurant or something, and they happen to ask you about Newbery awards.

So, Cara mentioned this one in our last Newbery when she talked about Laura Ingalls Wilder. So, if you don’t know, she authored the Little House on the Prairie series and she received five Newbery awards, but never the top medal. So, she is received five Newbery honors or in her time they were referred to as runners-up. But not, the medal. She never won the Newbery medal, which I found very interesting.

There are six authors who have won two medals each; two that our listeners and readers probably know by name. One is Kate DiCamillo and she won for the Tale of Despereaux in 2004 and Flora and Ulysses in 2014. And the other is Lois Lowry who won for Number the Stars in 1990 and The Giver in 1994.

And then my last little piece of trivia is my favorite that I came across. And that is of the 100 Newbery medals that have been awarded since 1920, two thirds of them have gone to women, which is awesome. So, if you think about 100 years ago, you know you were thinking about the year, like 1919 after women won the right to vote, or that was 1920. I’m getting my dates mixed up. I’m sorry. It was right around that time. You know, women truly weren’t acknowledged for a lot of their accomplishments. So, within the past 100 years to have the most distinguished book for American literature for children to go two thirds to women that’s awesome.

So, yay. All right. we’re going to jump into talking about more of our favorites or classic personal best Newbery medal winners or honors. And I think Cara is going to get us started with her first pick.

Cara: Mine are both by women. I don’t know about you, Stacy?

Stacy: No, they’re both by men.

Cara: I’m sitting here wondering, talking about the history of it, we know that the committees were made up of librarians and teachers, which are generally professions that are made up mostly of women, so that might’ve had something to do with it, as the people who were picking the books as well. But that’s interesting; I’d never heard that.

My first book is The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, and this one is a newer Medal winner. Both of mine are Medal winners today; in our last podcast, both of mine were Honor books, but these are the true Medal winners. Both of them, I’m very excited to talk about.

This one won the Medal in 2013. It’s hard to believe that it’s been that long; it was published in 2012. But it’s definitely only gained in popularity since then. I know a lot of schools use it for assignments, which I really give them kudos for, picking a newer book that’s really engaging and interesting to kids. And then of course, Disney just came out with a movie for it a couple of years ago. It’s only cementing its place in history even further.

If you’re not familiar with the story, it’s about Ivan the gorilla. It’s based on a true story.

He was a gorilla that was raised by humans and ended up at a roadside mall where he was an attraction there. But it’s written from his perspective in this book, so anthropomorphized in this case, but he really was a real gorilla. In this story, he has friends that live at the mall with him.

It’s an elephant named Stella and then Bob, who’s a stray dog. This story’s turning point comes when Ruby, who’s the other animal on the cover, comes to the mall. She’s a baby elephant who’s been taken away from her family, and it kind of makes Ivan realize how bad their conditions are and makes him want something better for Ruby.

He’s trying to save the animals that are living there at the mall. The real Ivan was moved to Zoo Atlanta after people petitioned for him to be moved out of his conditions at the mall. He lived there until August 2012, so right around when the story was written is when he passed away.

What I love about it is the way that Katherine Applegate is able to portray his voice through her really spare text. If you open the book up and look at it, there’s a lot of white space. This is the large print version, so it’s a little bit harder to tell, but there’s a ton of white space around the text.

I read an interview with her where she talked about how she was actually a struggling reader as a kid, so she really identifies with reluctant readers and understands how valuable this white space is to them, to be able to still feel like they’re reading a true chapter book and feel like they’re a real reader, even if they might be struggling.

And of course, the illustrations are just fantastic in this. There’s one of Ivan’s art with his hand print. They’re just sprinkled throughout the text, but they’re just lovely illustrations of the animals and what’s going on with the story.

I would say that this book is important to me professionally a little bit more than personally. I remember reading it at the start of my career as a librarian and just loving the book and booktalking it to kids when we were going out to promote Summer Reading to schools, so this was the summer that it was published, before it was awarded the Newbery. I actually remember saying to a packed cafeteria full of elementary school kids that I thought it was going to win the Newbery Medal that coming year, and it actually came true, which is the only time my Newbery prediction has ever been right for a Medal winner, so that was pretty exciting for me.

Then I actually had the honor of attending the Newbery banquet where Katherine Applegate accepted the Medal for The One and Only Ivan and gave her acceptance speech, which was just a once-in-a-lifetime experience. If you ever get the chance to go to a Newbery banquet, if you’re ever in the city where it’s being hosted, I would highly recommend it.

Something that some people don’t know is that you actually don’t have to pay the ticket price to get in, which I did, just to have the full experience. It’s a little bit pricey, but you can actually just go in and stand in the back and not be at one of the tables, but you can still attend for free and hear the speeches.

But they do publish the speeches afterwards, so you can read that. I would definitely recommend looking up her speech. It’s just full of a lot of humor and was given in a very down-to-earth way. I really admire her as an author, and I’m looking forward to seeing her new book out this year. I haven’t read it yet, but I always look forward to seeing what Newbery authors come out with next.

Kristine: That’s really interesting, Cara. I didn’t know that the public could go to the banquet still, so that’s really neat. And I agree. It’s a great book. Definitely a well-deserved honor.

Stacy: I think her new one it’s sort of along the same lines of like kind of animal conservation awareness and human impact on the animal world. I also loved The One and Only Ivan, it made me cry. So, if you’re picking it up for the first time, just be aware that it is a tear jerker, for sure. But it’s ultimately a heartwarming and uplifting book. Good choice.

Kristine: Stacy you have our next title for us.

Stacy: Yes. I have Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian McKay Heidicker. And this is a newer book as well. Quite new, actually it won a Newbery honor in 2020, so it was published just a couple of years ago in 2019.

And this was just kind of out of left field for me, at least personally. I didn’t read this until after it won one of the honors in 2020, because it just really wasn’t on my radar. Looking back, it got great reviews, but not being a huge middle grade reader myself, it just wasn’t something that caught my attention even though when I was a youth librarian, I knew that children and especially, mid elementary up through middle school, just clamor for the scariest book possible. We would have kids come in and say, give me the scariest book you have.

And this is definitely one of those where I’d be like, are you sure that you actually want a scary book? That is still appropriate for their age because this one yeah, it was quite scary. I thought, just look at that cover. Look at that fox there on the cover. The illustrations throughout were just fantastic in my opinion, but basically this story is a set of interconnected stories with breaks in between that focus on an old vixen who is a storyteller and these seven kits who are lured from their den with the promise of being scared by this storyteller vixen here.

So, it starts out with the seven fox kits leaving their den there. They had heard from their mother that there’s an old vixen who lives in her own den. And if you go there that she will just scare their little tails off with different stories and she does. She starts in on her story, and then after each story one of the seven little foxes get too scared and then runs back home.

The interconnected stories focus on two different foxes from two different litters. And one is a little female Fox named Mia, and another is a little male Fox named Uly. I hope I’m pronouncing that correctly as U-l-y. So, I’m going to say Uly, and they encounter dangers from predators, humans, and other foxes. And the two of them, Mia and Uly eventually meet and the stories and their separate stories are, in my opinion, just expertly woven together to create one story that is just very scary good. And I do actually mean scary that both the texts and the illustrations do not shy away from disease, dismemberment and even death. So, I’ll show you a spread where here’s the worst one, in my opinion, it’s House of Tricks. It will ruin Beatrix Potter for you.

You know, it’s not for kids who say they want to be scared, but they really don’t want to be scared. In my opinion, it was pretty scary. So, I think perfect for fans of Grimm’s fairy tales or the series Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and even readers of Neil Gaiman.

So, a companion book called Scary Stories for Young Foxes: The City was just published this past August. And that story is set several years after this original one with a different group of main characters. And this time they face dangers in an urban setting. But this one is all about foxes in the forest.

I love it because it’s kind of an unusual pick for the Newbery. We talked about in past podcasts where the committees tend to choose historical fiction and realistic fiction, that in my opinion, don’t always have great reader appeal. Especially for the age that they’re written for. I think they get a lot of accolades from adults and librarians who are like, yes, this is the most distinguished book for children, but children are like, give me something scary. So, I love that this fits that, but it was also beautifully written, expertly written. And I think the committee did a great honor that year and chose a good horror story for one of the honor titles.

Kristine: It sounds, and the picture is a little disturbing, a little scary. So I think, kids that want to be scared will enjoy that book.

Stacy: So the story that features Beatrix Potter was based a little bit on her life, obviously she wrote wonderful animal stories, and I don’t want to name the time frame cause I can’t say when she was alive, but people hunted back then and they trapped and stuff. And I think she did a little bit of that as well. I, don’t know whether she hunted to you know if she did catch and release, if she caught to kind of study animals to study their behavior and stuff for her stories. So the author Christian McKay Heidicker definitely takes some liberties with that. But it makes for a good scary storytelling as well.

Kristine: So, Cara, I think you have another title to share with us.

Cara: I do. My second book is Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, which won the Newbery Medal in 1978. We had two fairly new books, and now we’re going back quite a bit, but a book that is definitely still around. It’s still popular and still used in schools as far as I know.

The basic story is about two friends, and there’s a tragedy that happens. Jess Aarons is the main character who’s narrating the story, and Leslie Burke is the character who comes to town. She’s new, she’s really different. She beats all the boys at the races in the schoolyard, so none of them like her. But Jess actually ends up befriending her. She’s his neighbor, so they’re close by, and she has this idea to build this kingdom in the woods that she calls Terabithia, where they can rule their own little kingdom and not have to worry about school bullies or siblings or any of that.

But then there’s a tragedy that happens. And I’m going to say this is not a spoiler, because this book has been around for so long. I guess if you haven’t read it, it is. But Leslie ends up dying. I personally love this story because I remember reading it in sixth grade and I feel like it was the first book that I had a huge reaction to because I remember just sobbing when Leslie died.

I found it really relatable as a kid. I was surprised when I read it a couple of years ago that I felt like it was more dated than I remembered. It’s interesting if you’re a re-reader; I don’t reread too many books. But especially when I go back and reread my favorite books, which I will do occasionally, that you bring new life experiences to it.

I feel like, after the birth of each of my children, when I would go back to one of my favorite books that’s about a relationship and a couple that has a child, every time it was a little bit different, which is really interesting. So obviously our life experiences influence our reading of a book.

And I didn’t get to read [Bridge to Terabithia] fully before we did this recording, but I did kind of glance through it. And I feel like it felt a little different this time too. I didn’t quite get through all of it, but I didn’t feel like it was as dated. I think what I was remembering, the first time that I read it as an adult, was the music teacher is kind of a prominent character and she’s considered to be a hippie by the rest of the community, and they kind of shun her for that. So I think that was part of it. But as I was reading it this time, I really felt like Jess’s voice stuck out. I feel like that must be one of the distinguishing qualities that the committee decided on, because he just has such a unique voice that really does feel authentic.

So that part, for sure, I feel like is distinguished. I would say that this book is her most popular out of all of her titles; she has quite a few that are very well known. But it might be considered her most controversial. At one point, it was the third-most challenged book in the country, and that’s cited as being for its use of curse words. It does have quite a few in the text. When [Paterson] was interviewed about it, she talks about how it’s most often used in schools and it’s kind of the most visible [of her books]. So anytime a book is used a lot in a curriculum, but also as a Newbery Medal winner, that just ups its visibility considerably.

She thought that that was probably why it gets attacked so much. But she also said that she really thinks that it’s not about the curse words. It’s about a fear of death and a fear of talking to children about death, that’s really what’s behind all the uproar over it.

I haven’t really heard of any challenges to it recently. I don’t believe it made ALA’s most recent lists of books that were most challenged, but it definitely has been in the past. Interestingly enough, Katherine Paterson was also at the Newbery banquet that I attended, accepting the 2013 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, which is now known as the Children’s Literature Legacy Award, for authors who’ve made a substantial and lasting contribution to children’s literature. Along with this one, she also won the Medal for Jacob Have I Loved in1981.  She’s part of that two medal-winner club that you were talking about, Stacy, only one of six people who’ve ever done it. And then she also has one Newbery Honor to her name, for The Great Gilly Hopkins in 1979.

I can’t remember if I mentioned this one was 1978. She definitely deserves her many accolades.

Stacy: Yeah. I remember reading this one too, and it just destroyed me because going into it, especially like I do you believe I was assigned this in school? Going into it, your teacher doesn’t really tell you what it’s about, or at least mine didn’t then. And then you get to the part where she dies and you’re like, oh my God, you had no idea this was coming. Such a strong, like she said, such a strong reaction. Definitely one that I think probably ended up on the top eight titles, if you remember from our staff picks. It’s definitely one of those where so many people have a special place for it in their heart.

Kristine: Well, thank you Cara for sharing those. And I think Stacy, you have another one, a unique one to share with us.

Stacy: Yeah, I chose this one, I think partially because it is so unique and it is Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel. And it was a 1973 Newbery honor, which if you can tell by the cover, it looks like a very seventies cover with the muted color palette. That kind of burnt orange color that showed up everywhere, I think in the seventies, like on carpets and furniture and everything and artwork. I did choose this one because it’s just nostalgic for sure. But also, because I don’t want to say this for sure, but I think it might be one of the only easy reader type of books that have won.

Maybe it’s the only one that has won a Newbery honor or medal. So, this was an honor winner, not the medal. So, if you’re in the library, you’ll find it in our beginning reader section, which is an introduction in between easy picture books and juvenile chapter books. So, they’re much smaller. They have short chapters and this is one of those I Can Read books. So, it is ideal for sharing with emergent readers. But I think adults love Frog and Toad just as much as kids do who have never read it before. In these stories, there are four stories and frog and toad of course are best friends.

They do everything together. When toad admires flowers in frog’s garden, he gives him seeds to grow a garden of his own. When toad bakes cookies, frog helps him eat them. And when frog and toad are scared, they’re brave together. So, everyday situations everybody can relate to, but it’s fanciful because it’s frog and toad and they’re dressed so snazzily here on a double-seater bicycle, which just adds to the charm, I think of frog and toad.

So, I just wanted to read this little bit School Library Journal, which is one of the professional publications that we as librarians refer to all the time to learn about the best titles for children. They called this story collection, “a masterpiece of child-styled humor and sensitivity” and when I looked at it on Goodreads, it has a 4.21 average star rating out of five stars with over 42,000 ratings, which I think is amazing.  Everybody loves Frog and Toad.

I’ll read you my favorite piece. Which I have marked here and it is from the story Cookies. So, here’s our little spread here. Look at them sitting, just enjoying cookies as we all love to do. I’ll read, it says:

Frog and Toad ate many cookies, one after another. You know toad said with his mouth full, “I think we should stop eating. We will soon be sick.”

And they go back and forth and say, yes, you are right. We should stop eating, but let’s eat one more. And then frog and toad eat another one and they’re like, we should stop eating and let’s have one very last one. The best part is when he says we must stop eating, cried Toad as he ate another.

I just think that was the epitome of both childhood and adulthood. Like just having the willpower to say no to one more cookie. And I think that actually turned into a meme that I saw surface during 2020. And it just like captured people’s mindset very well during that time where there wasn’t a lot to do and you just didn’t have willpower to say no to one more cookie.

Just like I was saying, the very seventies vibe and the nostalgia invite adults to read it again and again, and it just, I think has an endless appeal for new generations. So, I definitely wanted to highlight this kind of an unconventional pick but just one of my favorites. So, Frog and Toad Together.

Cara: That’s one of my favorites too. I’m glad you picked that one. Cookies is my favorite story out of that one. There’s another volume that has a story about ice cream that I’ve used a lot in storytime. I definitely think they’re relatable, like you’re talking about, trying to have the willpower and not to eat cookies.

I think most people are either a Frog or a Toad. I’m definitely a Toad. He’s a list-maker, he’s a worrier. That’s me.

Stacy: For sure. They’re very relatable and I just find them so charming and just adorable illustrations.  One of my favorites.

Kristine: Thank you for sharing that.

Stacy: Yeah.

Kristine: I have one more title for us.

And this is probably one of my favorite juvenile books that I’ve ever read. And it is The War that Saved my Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. And this is the only an honor book. And I have to say I’m a little disappointed by that.  This won the honor, I believe in 2016 and was beat out by a picture book.

The picture book is great, but I’m just a little bit disappointed that the picture book squeaked by this one, I’m not sure how or why, because it is a fabulous, fabulous book. Very well-written, distinguished in so many areas.

So this book follows Ada, who was born with a club foot. So she can’t walk.

And her mom is really embarrassed by her and therefore she does not let her leave their apartment ever, not even to go to school. So in 10 years, Ada is 10, in her 10 years she’s never been outside.  Her only knowledge of the outside world is what she can see through the window.

Kristine: And then World War II happens.

She lives in London, in the city, which is very unsafe with all the bombings. So families start sending their children out to the countryside where it’s safer. Well,  Ada’s little brother Jamie is supposed to be sent, but Aida’s mom doesn’t think Ada needs to go. So she is not planning to send Ada.

Ada decides that she is going to.  So she sneaks out with her brother in the night to go to the train and with her brother’s help and some help from others she makes it.  And so they go to the countryside.

There are so many things that she’s never seen or even imagined just like the grass and seeing ponies and having enough to eat. These are all brand new experiences for her.

She meets a woman named Susan who takes in her and her brother. And, even though Susan doesn’t want these two kids from London coming to live with them, she still takes them in. And It’s just a really heartwarming story to see how even though, she didn’t want to take these two kids and these two kids leave an impression on her and she on them.

She gets Ada, her first pair of crutches. She teaches her to read. It’s just a really heartwarming story where we see a lot of growth and transformation in the characters. The setting is beautiful. It’s a really unique plot. Its historic fiction, so it’s set during world war two, but that’s not the main part of the story.

It’s the relationship between the characters, it’s the transformation of the characters. I think the author did a great job of looking at how a 10 year old girl would feel and react in the situation that she’s been placed in. I would highly recommend this book. I think adults, as well as kids would enjoy it.

And like I said, I’m a little bit salty that it did not win the Newbery award, that it just got the honor. It was definitely deserving. So that is the title I wanted to share with you today.

Cara: I agree. I love that one too. I can see why you’re upset about it not winning the Medal. It was definitely one of my favorites that year to win the Medal, and it’s stuck with me still, after all this time, which the Honors don’t tend to. When you’re talking about within the past couple of years, thinking about all the ones that you’re looking at [that are eligible] for the Newbery Medal or Honor.

Historically, as we’ve talked about, some of the Honors really stick out more than the winners. That one’s definitely stuck with me. I think it’s because of the juxtaposition of her horrible, abusive life that she had beforehand, and then the love and the comfort that she experiences with her new caregiver when she makes it out into the countryside, it’s just totally different.

She’s just experiencing life in a different way. That really stuck with me.

Stacy: That’s not one I read, but I just think like with any award, doesn’t matter if it’s a book award or the academy award or whatever, it’s all subjective. So, it’s a winner in your heart.

So, you can always recommend that title to others and like you said, the picture book that did win that year was wonderful and definitely deserving of all the other accolades that received, but yeah.

Kristine: the gold or bronze in my heart.

Kristine: All right. Well, I thank everybody, Cara and Stacy for joining me for our Newbery podcast today. As we’ve mentioned, be sure to tune in to our Facebook page to vote for your favorite Newbery.  Make sure you keep an eye out for that.

And as always, we will be anxiously waiting for the announcement of the Newbery award for 2022. You can watch that. It will appear live virtually on January 24th, 2022 at 8:00 AM. A live video stream will be available at ala.unikron.com. Thank you for joining us listeners. Remember to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. Viewers, follow the Clermont Library YouTube channel for this and other great library content. You can find all of the books we talked about in our catalog or in our digital collection via Libby, Hoopla or Freading.

The post The Newbery Award: Trivia and History appeared first on Clermont Library.

Kristine: Welcome to the Clermont County Public Library’s Booklovers podcast. I’m your host, Kristine. And I’m joined today by youth Service librarian, Cara and Collection Development librarian, Stacy. If you are not aware, January 2022, we’ll mark the 100th anniversary of the Newbery award. So during today’s episode, we’re going to talk about the history of the Newbery, the impact of the award, and some Newbery classics and favorites of ours from the past.

Remember that the show notes with links to all of the titles we talk about is available at Clermontlibrary.org. And with that, Cara is going to get us started with some Newbery history.

Cara: Thanks so much, Kristine. Thanks for having us today.

Kristine: We’re glad to have both of you with us today.

Cara: If you’ve listened to our previous podcasts, you’ve heard a little bit of history about the Newbery award.

I’m going to talk about some other bits of trivia, not so much a full history since we’ve already covered some of it. We’re recording these podcasts to celebrate the 100th anniversary. It’s the first and oldest prize for children’s literature. Interestingly enough, when we think of it, I think we think of those little stickers that we see on the book covers once they’ve won, and we see the gold stickers for medal winners. It’s actually a bronze medal for the medal winners, and these are actual medals that are given to the winners every year. They get them at the awards ceremony at the American Library Association’s summer meeting.

It’s pretty cool that they get an actual medal, along with seeing their shiny sticker on their book cover for all of eternity. And yet in 2022, we’ll actually see the 101st Newbery Medal winner, which is a little bit confusing because it’s the 100th anniversary, but because it’s awarded to a book from the previous year, from when it’s awarded, the 100th book was chosen in 2021.

So at the time of this recording, there are one hundred Newbery Medal winners to take a look at. Some of them would be considered classics, while some of them are definitely not. They’ve fallen out of popularity and pop culture, and definitely most people haven’t even heard of them. And then of course, if my quick count of the Newbery list is correct, there are over 300 Newbery honor books as well. So we’re not discounting those; we’ll be talking about some of them. Both winners and honors, we’re going to talk about our favorites that we would consider to be classics, from more of a personal angle.

I think trying to analyze it critically and decide what’s the “best” Newbery book, especially of these books that are already the best of the best, would be extremely difficult. But if our guests would like to try to do that, they can check out our contest on Facebook. We chose a list of 81 titles. These are Newbery Medal and Honor winners from past years, spanning from 1938 all the way through 2021.

We sent them out to our library staff as a survey, and over half of them voted on their top eight favorite Newbery books of all time. Then we’re asking for our guests’ help in determining the overall winner. We’ll include that list of top eight favorites in our show notes, and then you can vote when the contest is open on Facebook.

Like I mentioned, we decided to take a little bit of a different angle today, looking at ones that are books that are important to us personally, rather than trying to truly evaluate what’s the best. We’ll be talking about why they’re important to us, but I think our guests will recognize a lot of books that they grew up with and loved as well. I think these are kind of perennial favorites that people will recognize.

I’m actually going to start with the first book. The one that I chose is Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary. I feel like this is especially relevant to recognize this year since she’s such a legend in the world of children’s literature, and she sadly passed away in 2021 at the age of 104 – just amazing.

It was a Newbery Honor book in 1982. In spite of, I think, most or all of her books really standing the test of time – I think they’re probably all still in publication, and a lot of people are familiar not with just the Ramona books, but a lot of her other books about animals like Socks; that was one of my favorites growing up – so a lot of them are still around, but she only won one Newbery Medal, which might be a little surprising to people, for Dear Mr. Henshaw in 1984. Then she has two Newbery Honors, for Ramona and Her Father, which was 1978, and then this one, Ramona Quimby, Age 8, in 1982.

From a personal perspective, I read her books over and over as a child, just absolutely adored them. To me, her books are those nineties covers, if our listeners are familiar with that version, that’s the version that I think of. But I’m glad they keep redesigning them. This one’s very cute. I think this one is an early 2010s version of the book covers; there’s since been a new version, I believe.

But I give her a lot of credit for making me into a reader and definitely a librarian, so her books are really important to me. But I think just for any reader, she manages to capture the feelings of childhood, like of being overlooked or having to do things that you don’t want to do, that really speak to child readers.

But also as an adult – I kind of skimmed this one before this recording so I could talk about it – and I think it reminds us as adults how we once felt. We kind of forget sometimes those feelings of being a child, like those everyday injustices of having to play nicely with your annoying, younger neighbor or having to eat a meal you don’t like. So it’s kind of simple things, but we all have dealt with them in the past. I identified with Ramona so much that when we had a day in second grade where we could pick a different name for a day, I wanted to be Ramona, so that’s what I chose.

In this book in the series, Ramona’s family is going through a transition period. Her dad is going back to school, so he’s not working, so that means her mom has to work full time. Ramona’s job becomes being kind to her neighbor Willa Jean and playing with her while she’s babysat at her house after school. And then we hear a lot about her adventures in school as well.

So it’s kind of a mix of home life and then all of the things that are going on at school, where she’s being made fun of by a boy in her class, she feels like her teacher doesn’t really like her, and she has these tragic things happen to her that embarrass her, which I mean, as a child, anything that makes you stick out can be really embarrassing.

She has an incident where she wants to bring a hard-boiled egg for lunch, but it’s accidentally raw. And she cracks it on her head because that’s what all the other kids are doing, and she gets raw egg all over her. She gets sick and throws up in front of her whole class, which I can imagine would be really traumatizing.

So lots of things happen to her, but I think as with all of Beverly Cleary’s books, it’s just a heartwarming story that shows the challenges that her family has but how they get through them together. Even though they aren’t happy all the time or not everything goes right all the time, but they still manage to make it through. Definitely one of my all-time favorites.

Kristine: I remember we set up a display when she passed and how many adults and kids commented when they would pass it on reading her books and remembering them from when they were kids and now their kids were reading them. And I definitely her books stand the test of time for sure.

Kids today encounter a lot of the same things that kids did when we were little.

Stacy: Yeah, for sure. I know all the Ramona books I feel are very relatable. Like you said, it’s kind of just everyday occurrences, things that happen to almost every family. So yeah, nothing like huge usually ever happens in the books, but they’re just like kind of slice of life, relatable stories.

Kristine: Thank you for sharing Cara, or should we now call you Ramona?

Stacy? You have our next title for us?

Stacy: Yeah, so I have maybe not such a relatable, but I have, maybe this award would go to the like longest title in Newbery history. I’ll have to figure that out and see if it’s the longest title. It might be. Yeah. It’s From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg. And this actually won the Newbery medal in 1968.

Cara was talking about covers. This is still an older cover, but it is updated from the original version, for sure. I don’t know that any of our branches currently have the original version from the late sixties, I feel like those older covers even if, like you say the greatest things you can about the book, I feel like it would be a really hard sell to kids these days. Like if the cover looks like super outdated, this one’s getting there. This is, the cover I remember it’s the Metropolitan Museum of Art and then our characters, Claudia and Jamie, and they’re standing with all their belongings. Getting ready to walk up the stairs.

So, the cover itself brings back memories of when I read this book. So, the premise of the book is Claudia Kincaid here; she feels very bored at home and very under appreciated by her parents. And so, she decides to run away. Which I do feel like a lot of kids can relate to at least having those types of feelings, but she decides to run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, which I feel like at least a lot of kids around here in the Midwest, like probably don’t even know what that is or like, maybe they’ve heard of it, but they really don’t know like the cultural significance of the Met. But anyway, so she decides to run away and she’s successful at it.

So, she ends up bringing her little brother, Jamie, who she, you know, is not crazy about, but she decides to bring him because he’s like a bit of a miser and he saved some money and she thinks it would be a good idea to bring him along because he has a little bit of money. And so, they devise a plan where they go into the Met, and then they sneak into the bathrooms at night to evade the security guards.

And somehow that works, the security guards are well, nobody’s here. I guess we’ll just leave. And they, end up staying in the Met, a good deal of time, several nights, at least. And they end up just kind of like wandering this huge, like beautiful space with all of these works of art.

And, my favorite scene is when they bathe in the fountain, they take their bath in this giant fountain and they sleep in this antique bed that’s on display. And then the rest of the plot is they end up kind of stumbling upon this mystery of a statue of an angel and they want to find out who the sculptor is.

Nobody knows. And it was donated anonymously to the Met. But Claudia and Jamie ended up kind of going on this hunt for the sculptor and it leads them to the eponymous Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, who was the person that actually donated the sculpture to the Met. So, it’s kind of a fanciful story.

Like it is set in realistic fiction, but it’s quite fanciful. If you can imagine, there would likely be an Amber alert out for children who ran away from home these days, like with security cameras and everything. And everything’s so high tech now, you can’t imagine that two children would be able to run away and stay in this beautiful museum in a huge city and just not get caught. But when you’re like that age, like 10 or 11, 12 years old, you’re thinking about running away from home. How exciting would that be to like, be able to live in a museum and bathe in a fountain and all this stuff. So, I read this when I want to say I was in fourth or fifth grade.

So, around the age of the character of Claudia and I ended up doing a video project about it for school, and I was a reporter and I interviewed different members of my family who were pretending to know something about the mystery surrounding the statue. So, I’m sure that VHS tape is in my mom’s basement somewhere.

I would love to watch it. You know, sometimes books from our childhood, even if they are required reading, which this was when I was in fourth or fifth grade, they can just really stick with you. And for whatever reason, I guess it just evoked like so many, like fun, good feelings.

Maybe the mystery really excited me, but it has just stuck with me for such a long time. And I think it adds like more detail and heart to the story. The fact that the brother and sister are together and then they go on this hunt to solve this mystery. It’s just has stuck for me for so long and has continued to be a favorite of mine. So, that’s my first pick.

Kristine: Thank you Stacy. I have to say I’ve actually not read that one, but I think now I need to go out and read it. It sounds like a great little story.

Stacy: It is. I feel like it would be a great read aloud because it was written in 1967, I guess so it won the metal in 68. So the language is a little bit dated.

So, I feel like if you just gave this to a kid now they would maybe not be like super into it, but I feel like it would make a really good read aloud in a classroom or at home.

Cara: Yeah, I’d be interested to hear a modern-day reader’s perspective on that, a child’s perspective, because like you mentioned, with the lack of technology. I was just talking about that last night; we were watching a movie that was filmed in the seventies, and I said to my husband, “That never would have happened if cell phones were around,” but they didn’t have any in the movie. You know that context as an adult, but giving that book to a child, or a child picking up that book, do they realize when it was written, why the technology’s missing, and how that impacts the story? That would be really interesting to talk about.

Stacy: Yes, for sure. Yeah. I mean, the kids wouldn’t even get halfway across the city before their parents were tracking their location on their phones, you know? So that’s a good point.

Kristine: Once they came out of the bathrooms, I’m sure they would’ve set off some kind of alarm now in the museum.

Stacy: Yes, exactly.

Cara: Well, going to a book that has absolutely no technology, my next book is also a Newbery Honor winner. Somehow I picked two honor books for this round, and then for our next podcast, I picked two Medal winners. I don’t know how that happened, but it’s interesting too, to look at the medal books versus the honors and whether those have stuck around or not. We usually use the classic example of Charlotte’s Web, which won an honor, but people don’t even recognize the winner from that year. So yeah, it is interesting to see which ones stand the test of time.

My second choice was On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and this was a Newbery honor winner in 1938. I feel like it may even be older than people realize it is. This was her first Newbery recognition, and I would say this series is extremely important in the world of children’s literature, and I think its Newbery recognition reflects that, because Laura Ingalls Wilder is actually the person with the most Newbery honors of any author.

She has five. This was the first one, and then I believe it was subsequent books in the series after this, but she never won a Newbery Medal. So kind of interesting that she got all that recognition, but never got the gold, or the bronze.

In this volume of the series (this is the fourth book in the series), her family is relocating once again, this time to Minnesota. Before Pa can build a house, they’re living in a dugout. So that’s kind of the quintessential cover image from this story. I think that’s probably what people remember, is that they at first lived in this dugout, which is literally a room carved out underground, but Laura is careful to explain that it was very clean. They swept it, they kept it clean; Ma would never stand for anything else. The ground above actually insulates it, so it was fairly warm, and I guess a good place to live until they built their little house.

It’s just a story about the continuation of their life. Their life has always been a mix of the everyday things that she explains that the pioneers did and then the extreme things that happen to them. Laura and her sister Mary go to school, and they endure bullying from their classmates who see them as uncultured because they live out in the country as opposed to the town.

Then it tells of the struggles of being pioneers. In this volume, they deal with grasshoppers eating their crops, prairie fires, and dangerous blizzards. As always with this series, it ends on a hopeful note. It’s Christmas Eve at the very end; Pa had been stuck in a snowstorm and they thought maybe he was lost forever, but he ends up coming back.

So they’re all together and they’re just enjoying being alive, being together, celebrating simple things like music, which is one of the threads that runs throughout this, is appreciating the simple things in life that we should be grateful for, like family and having a place to live.

This series is surrounded by a lot of controversy, especially lately. I think a lot of people would still claim to love these books, myself included. But they’ve somewhat fallen out of favor. The text makes derogatory comments about Indigenous people, mostly in the volume of Little House on the Prairie, and of course glorifies the settlers who took their land and killed them. And then there’s also an illustration of Pa in blackface in Little Town on the Prairie. So there’s definitely some problematic aspects to this series, and recently librarians have had a lot of discussion about what to do with classics in general that have racist content.

Some of the suggestions have been that teachers and parents can offer alternative titles, maybe alongside the text or in place of it. For this series, that could be Louise Erdrich’s Birchbark House series, which I’ve never read. I don’t know if either of you have, but I hear it’s very good.

I need to pick it up, but it’s from the Indigenous point of view and of the same time period. And then to make sure to have a conversation with the child readers of what’s problematic in the books and why. I think for a long time, we’ve had a discussion about recognizing that the books and the author are from a certain time period.

I recently read an interesting quote that talked about how there’s actually two historical periods that you’re dealing with, when looking at a book like this. It’s not just the time it’s written about, but it’s also the time it was written in. This was written in the thirties, which was still a time of segregation that the author was living in.

And then of course, she’s writing about her childhood, where unfortunately, even though these are considered to be fiction, it’s largely based on her life, and it’s things that unfortunately she saw happening around her, she heard happening or being said, all the comments that she records, so she was recording history as she knew it.

In response to these criticisms, the American Library Association (ALA) did change the name of one of its awards, which was known as the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal until 2018. It’s now known as the Children’s Literature Legacy Award, which is given to writers or illustrators of children’s books published in the US who have made substantial and lasting contributions to children’s literature. It was named after its first winner, Laura Ingalls Wilder. ALA wanted to acknowledge that Wilder’s books are culturally insensitive, and to align the award with its own values, which they call “inclusiveness, integrity and respect”, by renaming the award.

But they did make it clear that they didn’t want to censor this series. They just wanted to encourage adults to think critically about. But the problematic content isn’t the only controversy about this series.

They’re also controversial for their authorship, which maybe not a lot of people know about. Laura’s daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, was an accomplished author in her own right. We know for sure that she helped edit all of the Little House books, from letters between Laura and Rose we know that, but the question is, how much did she alter her mother’s stories about her childhood? Was she really just an advisor and editor, or was she actually the ghost writer of the series? There have actually been multiple books written about the authorship of these books, but we’ll probably never know the true extent of Rose’s involvement.

For myself, I would say that I can recognize the books as problematic while still holding onto my childhood attachment to them. I have a memory of reading Little House on the Prairie to my mom while sitting in a little child-sized rocking chair. That kind of is a symbol of the series. It’s just comfort and homeliness. What I love about the series is the exploration of a world that’s completely different from our own. I like all those little details of daily life, like making butter, but also the fantastical elements, like the blizzard that just never ended in The Long Winter and how they lived through that.

This was the oldest book on the Newbery survey to staff, being published in 1937. If you go back any further, you might recognize a handful more titles, like Caddie Woodlawn is one of them. But I would say the majority of people are definitely familiar with Little House. So they’ve definitely stood the test of time, for good or bad.

Kristine: Yeah, I, I enjoyed the Little House books growing up and I have some of those memories. My grandparents had a bookshelf in their kind of sitting room and they had all the little house books. And I remember sitting on the floor beside that bookshelf reading those when I was a kid.

And yeah, I kind of feel the same way. So you know, it brings back good memories.

Stacy: Yeah, I think it’s hard for people, especially librarians. When you’re talking about books to separate their feelings of nostalgia especially around something so huge as you know, the impact Little House has had on the literature world and then, you know, acknowledging all of the issues that have come to light in the past. I think the controversy has really ramped up around Little House in the past probably five years, but I want to say like, people were probably calling it out way before then.

That aspect of it has gotten the attention it deserves just within the last several years. But I do think it’s important to point out that as public librarians, we don’t censor these materials for our public.

We leave it up to them and do what we can to highlight other works by BiPOC authors. We can update classics lists, which is something Cara and I have worked on before. So, you can still hold those near and dear to your heart with taking it with a grain of salt and saying you’re not denying that it has controversy around it.

So, I think, I do think that’s important. I’m kind of on the opposite end. I never loved Little House. I have family members who did. My sister loved the TV show, she made me wake up early and watch it with her. And I just thought it was so boring.

I don’t know why. But it just never caught my attention. Like it has so many other people, but I definitely can appreciate the lasting legacy it has made for sure. Well, I’m going to jump into my next title here and definitely not the same height of Little House at all, because you know, Little House has been around for so long.

My next choice is actually quite a new title. It was 2020 Newbery honor, and it is Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams. And this was a debut book by Alicia D. Williams which I think is an amazing, and she’s also a teacher, which is very cool. So, it was wonderful that she was recognized.

So, my earlier pick was a medal winner and this one is an honor winner and this one actually doesn’t even have a sticker on it. It needs its sticker. I don’t know. Maybe up here, it would go. We were talking about that in an earlier podcast of where does the sticker placement go? Because you don’t want it to cover up to the title.

And I don’t want to cover up her beautiful hair. So maybe right here, if it can stick in the corner, so I’ll have to get a sticker around there. So, this book was just so beautifully written and so very moving. And taking some of this from some reviews and publishers’ content, because I read it and I thought, well, I can’t say it any better than that.

There are 96 things that 13-year-old Genesis hates about herself. And she knows the exact number because she keeps a list of things that she hates about herself. Like number 95 is because her skin is so dark that people call her charcoal and eggplant, even members of her own family. And number 61 because her family is always being put out of their house.

Belongings laid out on the sidewalk for the world to see because when your dad is a gambling addict and an alcoholic and loses the rent money every month, eviction is a very regular occurrence. So, what’s not so regular is this time when they get thrown out of their place, they don’t have anywhere to crash.

So, Genesis and her mother actually stay with her grandma. So, her mom’s mom. And it’s not that Genesis doesn’t like her grandma, but her grandma and her mom always fight. Her grandma is trying to tell her mom she needs to go back to school to get a better paying job. She needs to leave her husband because he’s just a no-good alcoholic.

But things aren’t all that bad. Genesis actually comes to like her new school. And she’s made a few friends and her choir teacher says she has some real talent and she even encourages Genesis to join the talent show. But for Genesis, she has just heard so many criticisms about who she is and how she looks all her life, that even her teacher telling her these wonderful things about her, how can she believe them when her dad says the exact opposite?

So, how can she stand up in front of all of those people, with her dark skin, knowing that even her own family thinks lesser of her. And she even resorts to using these fancy bleach creams and lemon and yogurt remedies in the hope that they will lighten her skin.

So, when she finally reaches number 100 on the list of things she hates about herself, will she continue on with this list? Or can she find the strength to begin again?

So, like I said, this is a debut novel by Alicia D. Williams, who is also a teacher and it landed on so many best-of lists last year.

And it won several awards, including the Coretta Scott King John Steptoe for New Talent author award. It is, like I said, it’s heartbreaking and it has very raw emotions, but it depicts real relationships and real problems. And it definitely doesn’t shy away from difficult subjects like race and bullying.

It is kind of a thicker book, I would say, but I sped through reading this because it was just so beautifully written and such a good, great heartfelt story. And I’m really excited to see what she comes out with next. Hopefully she is continuing writing children’s fiction because I think she has really just like found like a true natural voice writing middle-grade fiction.

So definitely one of my favorite books that I’ve ever read.

Kristine: I have not read that it’s on my TBR list, my to be read list. So I will definitely have to pick that one up soon.

Stacy: Yeah. Then I read it. But I also heard it was a great audio book, so, and I’m not sure who reads the audio book. I don’t believe it’s the author, but it has a really great blurb praise from Sharon Draper on the back. So, you know, it’s good if Sharon Draper had some praise for it.

Cara: Yeah, I’m glad you picked that one, Stacy. I’m glad you picked a newer one. I love that one. Like you were saying, I just found it absolutely heartbreaking, but I think it’s really important.

We talk about windows and mirrors, and you’ve either got a kid who’s gone through those situations, or you’ve got a kid who maybe has no concept of what that might be like, to have that many things about yourself that you don’t like, especially because of how your family treats you. So to be able to have a window into that kind of life and develop empathy for other people who are going through that is just as important.

Stacy: Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Reading it as an adult. I mean, it’s, some of it is a bit shocking, but you know, that as an adult, you know, that people have experiences like that.

But thinking about, you know, how I was as a child, I wouldn’t have known anybody who went through these similar experiences. And so, for kids today to have the opportunity to read more books that feature Black characters written by Black authors you know, kind of writing or celebrating their own experiences. I think like you said, is really important. So yes, definitely. One of my favorite picks.

Kristine: Well, thank you, Stacey, for sharing your title. I had one I wanted to share and that is Hatchet. And I didn’t read this one as a kid. I actually read this a few years ago with my son. And I think that might be part of why it’s one of my favorites.

So Hatchet is written by Gary Paulsen and he actually just won the honor for this book, but I think he won the honor for two other books.

And if you’ve watched our previous podcast he has another book that came out in 20 21; one of his memoirs that has the potential for winning another Newbery award.

And unfortunately Gary passed away this year. So it’d be great to see him honored again.

But this is one of my favorites from the list. My son and I read this, it is a survival story. The main character Brian, he is on his way to visit his dad who lives in Canada and he’s on a little plane and the plane crashes and the pilot dies.

And so the plane crashes in the middle of the Canadian wilderness. And so this is a story of how he has to learn to survive.

He’s in the wilderness, I believe for 53 or 54 days before he is finally rescued. So he has to figure out how, what he could eat, how to make a shelter, how to start a fire. You know, he can kind encounters all kinds of critters.

He eats berries that worked so good. I think he ends up calling them, gut berries.

So it’s a great survival story. It’s got a lot of action and venture, which I think my son really enjoyed very, very great for reluctant readers. But as we talked about before when I talked about Gary’s book that just came out in 2021 he does just a great job of describing the setting and the environment.

And even the feelings that Brian is going through.

I really enjoyed this story. My son really enjoyed it too, and it actually got him to read some of the other books that Gary Paulsen had written. This is one of my favorites, again, not from my childhood, but from a little more recent past.

Stacy: So that’s awesome. Hatchet is definitely a perennial favorite for required reading in schools. There are so many copies and so many additions of that book. I think and at any time during the year, when I look up to see because I would order replacements if needed there are so many checked out all the time, so it’s definitely a perennial favorite.

And I think it’s awesome when like your son, Kristine when somebody reads an author’s work and then it just opens doors to all of their other titles. I think that’s awesome.

Kristine: well, I thank you, Cara and Stacy for joining us for today’s podcast, be sure to keep an eye on our Facebook page.

As Cara had mentioned for our Newbery contest, that we’ll be hosting.

And also we’ll be anxiously awaiting the 2022 announcement for the Newbery award. So you can watch the 2022 American Library Association, Youth Media Awards live virtually on January 24th, 2022 at 8:00 AM. A live video stream will be available at ala.unikron.com

Thank you for joining us.  Listeners, remember to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. Viewers, follow the Clermont Library, YouTube channel for this and other great content. You can find all of the books we talked about in our catalog or in our digital collection through Libby, Hoopla or Freading.

Thank you.

The post The Newbery Award: Staff Favorites appeared first on Clermont Library.

Stacy: Hello, and welcome to Clermont County Public Library’s Booklovers Podcast. I’m your host today, Stacy, and I am joined by two youth services librarians, Cara and Kristine.

Stacy: During this episode, we’re going to talk about nontraditional winners of past Newbery awards, some predictions of possible nontraditional winners for the 2022 Newbery awards and exactly what we mean by nontraditional.

And that’s probably the best place to start. Remember that show notes with links to all of the titles we talk about is available at clermontlibrary.org. Cara is going to get us started today.

Cara: Yeah. Thanks so much for having us, Stacy.

Stacy: Thank you guys for being here. I’m excited to talk about this because it’s kind of a weird – I don’t know what to call it, not a phenomenon, but it’s just, it’s just kind of fun to talk about something nontraditional.

Cara: Right, exactly. And we should probably point out that nontraditional is our term that we came up with, so that’s not an official Newbery term. When we look at the history of the Newbery award, the vast majority of the medals and honor winners have been awarded to middle-grade chapter books. So that’s fictional titles that are marketed at readers ages nine to 12.

Cara: But the committee is technically welcome to consider, or charged with considering, any book that’s written for children ages zero to 14. So that’s a much broader spectrum than what we usually see. As long as those fall within their criteria, so books that are original, they have US authors, things like that.

Cara: So what we’re considering nontraditional titles are anything that’s not a middle grade novel, so picture books, graphic novels, nonfiction titles, those are all eligible. And they have all been recognized before for Newbery, especially in recent years; we’re definitely seeing more nontraditional choices and more diversity of authors and characters, which is very exciting to see, that the committee’s branching out.

Cara: But because the Newbery’s an award for literature, they have to consider the text of a book. So that means that they’re considering any form of writing, but only the writing, as far as we understand. Now I did recently hear a Newbery committee member talking about this, and he was kind of dancing around, “what is the definition of text?”

Cara: So that really intrigued me because we typically think of that as the written words, but he seemed to be insinuating that you might consider something else to be text, in books that have illustrated components. So I’m not exactly sure what he was getting at there, but it’s an interesting concept.

Cara: So all forms of writing, including nonfiction, poetry, plays, and the text of graphic novels and picture books, and the manual for the Newbery award is clear that they can only consider illustrations if they detract from the text. So they make the book less effective. And I’ve always wondered how they can truly separate the text from the illustrations, in those cases, to consider them separately.

Cara: But he’s kind of, the person that I heard speaking, seemed like he was alluding to the fact that maybe they are considering the illustration sometimes, in some form or fashion. But since their meetings are confidential, we don’t know how they consider those. And we’ll probably never know.

Stacy: I know, is this the panelist that we heard talk on Friday?

Cara: Yes.

Stacy: We all watched this webinar, this great webinar about the Newbery awards.

Cara: I think that’s right.

Stacy: So, he was talking about, I forget which book was he talking about? Was it The Undefeated maybe that he was talking about?

Cara: It might be. I know he mentioned Crown specifically because I thought it was interesting that he said that he never saw the pictures. He said he got a typed manuscript and I’ve never heard anyone refer to how they’ve seen a book with illustrations as a committee member. So I thought that was really interesting.

Stacy: So that’s what I was thinking about too. And then I thought, well, in their line of work, they’re librarians, they would have had to see that book at some point altogether the text and the illustrations in circulation in their library. So, I’m like, how do you, after seeing that and before awarding the Newbery, how do you still differentiate those in your mind?

Stacy: Like, is that even humanly possible?

Cara: Is that how they read that many books?

Stacy: That part, I think of all like the rules, that’s the part that fascinates me the most.

Cara: Yeah.

Stacy: Traditional titles have won picture books, graphic novels.

Cara: Yeah. And I think graphic novels may have been maybe what he was trying to refer to with, “what can we consider text that’s not necessarily text?”, not traditionally text, because obviously you have illustrated words in graphic novels usually.

Cara: But he may have even been going further, because how can you read the text of a graphic novel without the illustrations? I don’t see how it’s possible. So I don’t really understand how they separate them to consider it for an award either.

Stacy: Yeah. Interesting.

Cara: Yeah. So I’m going to try though, I’m going to try to analyze them in that way, because I’m going to talk about a couple of graphic novels and picture books that have been recognized in the past, and Stacy and Kristine are going to talk about some nonfiction, both from the past and current. And then we’ll try to make a couple of predictions for this year in regards to nontraditional categories.

Cara: So I’m going to start with graphic novels. They do not have their own award from the American Library Association, so they kind of get lumped into other awards, but obviously these awards have been around a lot longer than the format of graphic novels have. Personally, I don’t think that they should give them their own award because then they won’t be considered for the major awards, probably.

Cara: They’ll just figure, oh, they have their own award. And, you know, people talk about, they already have too many awards for ALA. So I don’t think that they’ll be considering that. There’s a couple that have been awarded in recent years. So probably the most famous is, the only graphic novel that has ever won the Newbery Medal, New Kid by Jerry Craft.

Cara: And that was awarded in 2020, so pretty recently. It’s the story of Jordan, who is at a new middle school where he’s one of the only kids of color. But that’s kind of the opposite of his neighborhood where he doesn’t feel like he sticks out in that kind of way. So it’s just his story of trying to navigate this new world and bridging between both worlds, which is kind of a popular theme when you’re looking at diversity in children’s literature, I would say. The main character is a person of color and the author/illustrator is also a person of color. So definitely a very diverse and forward-thinking choice in the first graphic novel to win the Newbery.

Cara: Personally, I really enjoyed this book, but it wasn’t on my list for the Newbery that year. As we’ve been talking about, I feel like it’s really difficult to separate the text from the illustrations. I think all librarians were excited when it won, just because this format was breaking into winning an actual Medal.

Cara: But the book itself I wasn’t particularly enamored with. But I know Stacy is a huge fan. I don’t know if you want to chime in at all since you love it so much.

Stacy: I do. I don’t know if I love it so much because I love graphic novels or because it was just such like a stellar book. I don’t know. It’s just, I thought it was so well done. It’s kind of like Kristine was talking about in our first podcast that we did our earlier podcasts that we did, like, I just feel like middle grade readers, everybody can relate to not feeling like you fit in. And then those readers who you know, really don’t have the same experiences that the character did in the book.

Stacy: Like it’s a good way to see how to show empathy, how to treat others, how you want to be treated. I just thought it was a great book and kind of not a sequel, but a follow-up book to this one came out this year actually. And the title is escaping me. I can’t think of it.

Cara: It has a red cover, right? That’s so helpful, we get that all the time. It was this color.

Stacy: I can’t think of it, but it’s in the same vein.

Kristine: Is it Class Act?  Is that the title? Yes, that’s right. Good memory stuck in my mind.

Cara: Awesome. Yeah. So yeah, that one’s definitely notable just because it was the very first to win an actual Medal. Now we’ve had other ones win Honors before. So this one is El Deafo by Cece Bell.

Cara: This was an Honor in 2015. It’s the author’s graphic memoir of her childhood, growing up as a child who was deaf, although the characters in the book are bunnies. The way that she writes it, it can almost make me understand how they can separate the text because she has so much narration.

Cara: If I can find a good example, you can see all the yellow boxes there, are all her narration, and then you’ve got all the dialogue. To me, I would think that the narration is kind of the backbone of the text when you’re looking at just the text. And I feel like you need a lot of that for it to stand alone and to be seen as distinguished.

Cara: So this one does a really good job with that, but also the dialog is fantastic and the illustrations too. I mean the whole package, that’s the thing. You have to look at the whole thing. But I definitely agree with this one being recognized for Newbery, so I would highly recommend checking that one out.

Cara: And then Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson. This one won an Honor in 2016, and I absolutely loved this book when it came out. I remember book talking it when I was visiting schools. It just has a great story. The main character Astrid, her best friend has decided that she wants to do, I believe it’s ballet camp, for the summer, so she kind of just dumps her friend for the summer.

Cara: And so Astrid’s kind of left, just kind of casting about, she doesn’t know what to do, and she decides she’s going to go out for roller derby, even though she doesn’t know how to roller skate. So kind of stepping out on a limb there. But she gets there eventually, and it’s a coming of age story, that very classic, like finding herself.

Cara: But the illustrations are absolutely fantastic. It’s got a lot of action in there, as you can imagine with roller derby. And again, this one has quite a bit of narration that goes along with the dialog, so I can see how the text is distinguished there. So yeah, another one I recommend. And then I’ve got some picture books, so those were all the graphic novels that I wanted to highlight.

Cara: Traditionally, picture books are recognized for the Caldecott Medal, which is awarded yearly by the American Library Association for the most distinguished American picture book for children, and they’ve definitely expanded that over time as well to include other formats. So it’s interesting to see how that Medal has kind of gone forward in time, keeping up with new formats and things like that, but I think that’s a whole other podcast on its own.

Cara: So if the text is truly distinguished, Newbery’s age range does include picture books. There’s nothing to exclude them. But, of course, they can only consider the illustrations if they negatively impact the book.

Cara: They say, “make the book less effective.” So again, not sure how they do that. But for the 2021 awards, so just this past year, we saw a picture book honored. It’s called Box: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom by Carol Boston Weatherford. The whole book is just fantastic, because you can’t discount the illustrations.

Cara: They’re just gorgeous. They’re done in mixed media. But I think what made this one most successful and able to kind of separate the text and show how it’s distinguished is because it’s poetry. I think that that really helps it stand on its own. I think it’s even more impactful when it’s combined with the illustrations, but it can stand on its own.

Cara: So I think it has an advantage in that. It just goes through his life; it’s his biography. Each poem is, you have to read the information in the book to read about how they’re set up, but from what I understand, all of them are six lines and she was trying to mirror the box that he’s in.

Cara: So six sides to a box, six lines to each poem. It’s really interesting how well thought out it is. But the text is just fantastic, the way that she portrays his life and goes through all the hardships he went through as a slave. I think a lot of people have heard at least this portion of his story, where he decides to mail himself to somewhere where he can be free.

Cara: All around just a wonderful book and definitely worthy of, this one doesn’t have a sticker, of its Newbery honor. And then we’ve seen a couple other picture books get Honors. And then there’s one that’s gotten the Medal. So this one [Crown by Derrick Barnes] was an Honor as well. And this one was cool. We were talking about sticker placement in our first podcast.

Cara: Sadly, this one does not have any stickers on it, but it was really cool because this one won a lot of awards. So they kind of put them along the crown on the top. And it was really neat to see that when they lined them all up. It’s called Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick Barnes. And this one is also, I don’t know if they technically consider it a poem, but it definitely feels like a poem.

Cara: So again, I feel like this kind of text really lends itself to separating the text out and seeing how it’s distinguished for an illustrated book for the Newbery. It’s about an unnamed black main character who’s talking about his experience in a black barber shop. So it’s very specific. But I think it can be generalized to people.

Cara: So he’s just talking about how his haircut gives him his identity, makes him feel important and powerful. So I think a lot of us can relate to that. We were actually talking about each other’s hair before we started this podcast. So definitely relatable for a lot of people, I think, and just really lyrical.

Cara: I love the way that it’s written. And of course, I’ll open it so you can see the illustrations, which are also fantastic, but not considered for Newbery.

Stacy: I don’t understand. I know I could never serve on the committee

Cara: We’re having a tough time. We just can’t separate them.

Cara: So I’ll finish this section up on picture books with the only picture book that’s ever won the Newbery Medal, which is Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena, who is a fantastic author.

Cara: I’ve heard him speak. He’s a wonderful person. Very much admire his works, but I was definitely confused when it won the Newbery. And I still don’t know that I agree with it. Now, this book also won a Caldecott Honor for its illustrations, which were done by Christian Robinson, who I absolutely adore.

Cara: And I think it’s well-deserved for that. I just, looking at the text on its own, I don’t see how it’s distinguished. The two of them together, absolutely. But the text is just very, very simple. The story is, CJ and his Nana are going on a bus trip to serve at the soup kitchen. And CJ is learning how to look at everything around him in a different light, kind of seeing it in a new way.

Cara: His Nana’s helping him do that. So I love the theme of the story. I just had a hard time. Maybe I need to type up the text and just look at it by itself, and see if I can get on board with just the text. But yeah, so I think there was a lot of, like, “what??”, when that happened.

Stacy: I agree with you. I think together the book is magical together. It’s just such a wonderful story and the illustrations are so kid-friendly and just, I mean, they’re just beautiful, but yeah, on its own, not that it’s not deserving of you know, any other medal or maybe even a Newbery honor, but of all the books published that year, not one other book was more deserving of the most distinguished for children’s literature. I just don’t know. I didn’t read as many books as they did that year. Of course. So maybe it was, but yeah, it’s just, it’s that’s hard.

Cara: Yeah. I don’t know if I mentioned, it was 2016, and I do not have my list here, my comprehensive Newbery list.

Cara: I do have one, but don’t have it here, to see what other books, I can’t remember what got Honors that year or what else was published, but yeah, I don’t know, but every committee kind of comes up with their own thing and of course they didn’t know what the Caldecott committee was doing either, so.

Stacy: So, it’s so interesting that there’s overlap though, and several choices and several different years there’s been some overlap.

Cara: Yeah. So I’m going to turn it over to you guys for nonfiction.

Stacy: So I’m going to talk about my favorite non-fiction Newbery. It’s actually an honor book. It wasn’t a medal. But it is this one here. If you guys can see it, there’s a whole horrible glare on it, but Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin. And it won a Newbery honor in 2013. So being librarians, I feel like Steve Sheinkin is an author that we always go to when we’re recommending great narrative non-fiction for people who just like want adventure stories, but they have to read a nonfiction book for school.

Stacy: I feel like Steve Sheinkin is a go-to because he has several that are kind of in this vein. So this one here Bomb. So in December of 1938, a chemist in a German laboratory made a shocking discovery: when placed next to a radioactive material, a uranium atom split in two, and that simple discovery launched a scientific race that spanned three continents.

Stacy: So in great Britain and the United States, Soviet spies worked their way into the scientific community. And in Norway, a commando force slipped behind enemy lines to attack German heavy water manufacturing and all the while deep in the desert in New Mexico, one brilliant group of scientists was at a remote site at Los Alamos.

Stacy: So, this is the story of the plotting, the risk-taking, the deceit and the genius that created the world’s most formidable weapon. It is the story of the atomic bomb. This is one of my all-time favorite books I’ve ever read all the books I’ve ever read, not just non-fiction. And like I was saying, I recommend it heartily to both teens and adults, as it reads like a thrilling fast paced spy novel.

Stacy: It is wonderful narrative nonfiction that will have you on the edge of your seat while simultaneously learning about the cold war. It won numerous awards, including the Newbery honor, and it was actually a national book award finalist as well. So it’s perfect for those who enjoy spy thrillers and war accounts and even reluctant readers.

Stacy: So, it has a really wide range of appeal yet it is meticulously detailed and expertly written. So to me, no wonder it won a Newbery honor. I think the bibliography in the back is like, not just as long as the text, but it’s pretty close. Like it was pretty expertly researched and written and it has like we were saying about illustrations, the photographs have no bearing on it, winning a Newbery, honor, but you have all of these like wonderful, like first and secondary sources with these photographs and stuff.

Stacy: And it tells you exactly what you’re seeing in the photographs. It was just so interesting for someone who doesn’t really know anything me about the cold war, or really like, that’s not something I would normally just pick up. Like if there was a fiction title about the cold war, I’d be like, eh, but this was actually one of the first kids non-fiction books that I read as a student in library school.

Stacy: So, we had this class where we, all we did was read and write a reviews, but we had to read from specific lists. And of course, this was on the list as a Newbery honor. So I chose it and it was my first, I think it was my first Steve Sheinkin book I read. And I’ve read several others of his and his writing is just fantastic. So I love this one very much.

Kristine: I also really enjoyed that book. One of my favorite genres is historic fiction. And it reads just like historic fiction. Like you said, it’s, you know, if you like spy thrillers, if you like history if you like science, that one definitely have a lot of science in it. It’ll keep you on the edge of your seat.

Kristine: And with that I’m going to talk about some of the 2022 contenders and I have the sequels. So that book here is called Fallout:  Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown. So it basically picks up where Bomb left off.  Bomb was about building the atomic bomb during World War II.

Kristine: And this one then goes into the cold war where they are building the super bomb or the hydrogen bomb, which is immensely more powerful than the atomic bomb that they used in world war II. Now I must say I have not finished it yet. But it is just as good as Bomb. You know, it keeps you on the edge of your seat wanting to read and find out what’s going to happen next.

Kristine: And just the fact that it is all true. All of the things that it’s talking about really did happen. I just, I think makes it that much more appealing and just like Bomb. He’s got pictures that kind of aid in the story. And I really like how he he’ll show pictures of the, all the different characters of all the people that are involved in the story that kind of can help keep things straight as you read, because you know, it’s talking about all of the different spies in the U S and in Russia.

Kristine: So I think that definitely helps, but I think this definitely has a good shot of being at least in honor book. Like I said, it is right up there with Bomb. If you haven’t read it, I, again, I would highly recommend reading it. It will keep you on the edge of your seat. And I’ve learned a lot that I didn’t know.

I like to read historical fiction, but I haven’t read much about the cold war. So I’m learning a lot that I did not know. So I think this is a great one. It’s recent, I’m trying to think. When did it come out? Just within the last month or two, so it’s a little bit newer on the Newbery list for 2021, but I hope that people have a chance to read it.

Stacy: I have a copy checked out right now and I haven’t had a chance to start it yet, but I knew it would be wonderfully written because of the author. But I’m, I’m so glad to hear you say that its just as good as Bomb.

Kristine: What I’ve read so far, I’ve really enjoyed. And like I said, it’s, it’s one of those where I tend to stay up a little later than I should because I keep reading.

Kristine: A couple other non-fiction titles that I want to mention that are getting a little buzz this year. And I actually, the next one, I don’t have a copy of, they were all checked out and I’m actually listening to it through Libby, one of our apps and that is called, Gone to the Woods, Surviving a Lost Childhood by Gary Paulsen.

Kristine: This is his most recent memoir and it basically chronicles his life from about the age of five up through the, I think the end that he’s about 16 and this one again I think tends to lean on the older side. There are parts of it that I think would appeal to a wide range of ages, but there are some parts that I think are a little bit more mature.

Kristine: So, you know, I don’t know if this is one that’s considered by the Newbery, If they consider that. But I really enjoyed this book. I think it will appeal to kind of the upper middle grade boys. It’s got a lot of outdoorsy adventure and Paulsen just has a way with words.

The way he describes the setting and the encounters he has. I mean, it’s not just what he sees, but he talks about how it feels, how it smells. I feel like there were a lot of parts of this book where he was talking about smells and not always pleasant, smells. And how things feel. I think he just really has a way of giving really vivid, detailed descriptions.

Kristine: And he just had a really when you look at his childhood and the things he encountered It just really unique and interesting life. So I would highly recommend this book. Again, I think a little bit older audience but I thought it was, it was great. And it gives you some perspective if you’ve read any of his other books like Hatchet as to where those stories came from.

Stacy: Yes, I read it. I loved it. I definitely agree with your assessment that it’s for a little bit older age group, as, like you said, he does not really sensor anything and it is based all on his childhood. It’s all true. And it’s heartbreaking. I just like, can’t imagine that like a little five-year-old boy was put on a train all by himself and sent hundreds of miles away across the country.

Stacy: Like just what he went through and how he lived was just amazing. But like you said, has a way with words. Like just love to have his aunt when he goes and lives with his aunt and uncle on their farm and she makes biscuits and stuff and he talks like, he just, like you said, the way with words, he talks about how they smell, how great they taste.

Stacy: He’s never tasted anything like that before. And I would just love to have her recipe for those biscuits. But I think my favorite part of that book is like, kind of towards the end and I won’t spoil anything, but he just has this beautiful, like ode to libraries and librarians because reading and books is what, like, kind of saved him and inspired him to become this wonderful author.

Stacy: And we miss him very much. We’re so sad to hear about his passing, but yeah, such a good choice, Kristine. I hope it gets some good accolades in 2022.

Kristine: Me too. All right. So I do have one more nonfiction and this actually is going to kind of hit what Cara was talking about with picture books. So it’s a picture book, nonfiction, it’s called Runaway, the Daring Escape of Ona Judge and this book it’s actually a poem as well.

And it reflects on the true story of Ona Judge who was actually a slave in the Washington family. So George Washington, our first president, she was a slave in his family and it reflects on why she wanted to run away.

Kristine: It’s one poem and it revolves around the phrase “why you run away Ona Judge.”  It keeps coming back to that and looking at why she wanted to run away, even though she was the slave in the Washington house and it seemed like she had a good life and it keeps coming back to why she wanted to run away.

Kristine: It boils down to the fact that she, even if she had a good life as a slave, she was still a slave. And the words that the author uses just kind of build on that fact that she was a slave, that she was property, even though she was treated well. But we see at the end, she actually does run away.

Kristine: And again, this is a true story and she’s able to have the life that she always dreamed of, her own life. And I think that again, because it’s poetry, if you take away the words or I’m sorry, you took away the picture. It’s not the word that will definitely not work. If you take away the pictures and you just look at the text, it’s very, very powerful text.

Kristine: And that I think can stand on its own now, compared to all the other books that we’ve talked about for the Newbery, does this one have a chance to win? We’ll just have to wait and see, but I thought it was a great story. And again,  it’s very powerful. The text is very well-written.

Kristine: So again, another kind of very nontraditional, non-fiction picture books. So  that’s the last non-fiction title I had. But I do have one more.

I want to mention that is nontraditional in a sense that we haven’t really talked about. And that is this adorable book called Harry Versus the First 100 Days of School.

Kristine: And this is by Emily Jenkins and it is nontraditional. And most of the ones we’ve talked about in our traditional Newbery award podcasts are aimed at kind of eight to 12 year olds. And this is an early chapter book that is geared more towards the five to eight year old age range and writing a, what Newbery would consider a distinguished book for that age range can be really difficult.

Kristine: You know, trying to make something that is engaging yet, still readable for those younger kids. It can be really hard. So in this book, as the title tells Harry is going to first grade and it chronicles each of his first 100 days. It’s written in very short chapter each day is a chapter.

Kristine: So I think that definitely helps to make it readable. But those chapters are far from simple and boring. It does a great job of capturing what the classroom is like, the setting of a first grade classroom. She captures his personality really well, the challenges and fears that he goes through, how he relates to his classmates.

Kristine: Gradually throughout the course of the book you learn about their personalities. She just captures all that in a very realistic, funny, heartwarming way that I think kids will love. And I think adults will enjoy this as well. Kind of give them a little trip down memory lane, remembering what it was like to be in elementary school.

Kristine: So I think she does a great job of with the text in this book and for this age group, I think it is very distinguished and should at least get a second look. So again, Harry Versus the First 100 Days of School, very cute. I would highly recommend this book and think it could have some potential for Newbery.

Kristine: I think Cara, and you may know this, I think there’s only maybe been one other early chapter book that’s gotten a Newbery. Was it one of the Billy Miller?

Cara: Oh, yep. Yeah, that one did win an honor. So yeah, it’s kind of hard to know what they, how they consider those, because I’m sure they look at them. I would hope. But yeah, we don’t really see them mentioned or recognized hardly ever.

Stacy: I haven’t read that one, Kristine, but it’s gotten so many good reviews. I think it’s gotten a couple starred reviews and just saying how well it’s written. So I never really thought of it as a contender for Newbery, but I feel like it, I mean, that’s a good possibility and I think that’s a good prediction on your part.

Kristine: Yeah, we’ll see, but I see, I would highly recommend it. It’s a quick read for, you know, for an adult, but it’s very cute. So, you know, who knows for Newbery, but I would highly recommend it and it would definitely be one that I would promote to, to kids in that age and to teachers.

Cara: I was just going to say, hopefully that’s something we’re doing with all of these, is promoting them. Even if, you know, they might not win or we might not think they’ll win, because the rest of my books, I don’t necessarily think they’ll win, but we wanted to look at some other nontraditional ones.

Stacy: I was just going to say let’s, I think we’re flipping back to Cara to talk about a couple of maybe other predictions.

Cara: Yes. So, as I said, my predictions are that they won’t win the Newbery, but I think they’re fantastic books in their own right, and since we were talking about nontraditional titles, I wanted to look at some with visual elements.

Cara: So I took some of the best graphic novels and picture books that I’ve seen this year. So obviously I have not seen all of them, this is just from what I’ve read, but from what I’ve read, the best of the best in these categories, I don’t think will win the Newbery, but I would still recommend checking them out, taking a look at them.

Cara: And it might give you an indication for Caldecott. So we’ve been talking about Caldecott a little bit, just because we’ve looked at so many illustrated books. That’s typically what we think of for illustrated books is Caldecott, and it’s not unheard of for books for a middle grade or upper audience to win a Caldecott or an Honor, at least.

Cara: We’ve seen a graphic novel, it’s not in any other categories, called This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki, which is very much on the upper range. I actually don’t know what the age range for Caldecott is. They just say it’s for a picture book for children.

Cara: But that one’s recommended for ages 13 and up, so definitely on the upper end of Newbery. But it wasn’t recognized at all for that. It got a Caldecott Honor in 2015.

And then of course I think most people are familiar with The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, which is what I would call a hybrid middle grade novel.

Cara: It’s got definitely the middle grade audience in the text part, but it’s heavily illustrated and was actually awarded the Caldecott Medal in 2008.

Stacy: He does whatever he wants and it works for him. It really does.

Cara: Yes, definitely. And his new one, I’m sure the committee will consider it. It’s called Kaleidoscope. It’s one of the many books that, I don’t know what kind of reading slump I’m in, but I picked it up and put it back down. So I did not read that one, but I’m sure they’ll consider it. We’ll see what happens with it. So I’ve got two graphic novels and two picture books.

Cara: This is my favorite graphic novel that I’ve read all year. It’s called Garlic and the Vampire by Bree Paulson. So it’s authored and illustrated by the same person. And it’s just precious. It’s a group of vegetables that are animated by this witch to help her in her garden. Which if you think about it too much, it’s a little disturbing because they’re gardening, like Garlic gardens garlic, and then takes it to the farmer’s market to sell.

Cara: So it’s a little strange, but those aren’t animated, they’re just vegetables. So if you think about it that way. What happens, the plot of the story, is that they notice that there’s a vampire in town. And so of course, all the other vegetables nominate Garlic to go take care of the vampire.

Cara: And she’s very worried about it. You can see she’s got her stake here. But of course, being garlic, they feel like she’ll be naturally protected from a vampire. So it’s just a very sweet story, and I love the earth tones that it’s done in, and it definitely reflects the gardening theme and the vegetables.

Cara: But I don’t feel like the text on its own is distinguished enough for Newbery because it’s all dialog. It has no narration. And there is so much emotion that the author/illustrator puts into it. You can see her [Garlic’s] face; Celery, he goes with her. And then he’s like, “I’m out of here” and abandons her.

Cara: But you can see how much emotion she puts into their little vegetable faces. So you have to have these illustrations, you really can’t separate them. But they’re just precious. So I would definitely highly recommend this one and I believe this is, it says it’s her first traditionally published book.

Cara: So she did have another book about a vampire that was a web comic and she self-publishes them, but this is her first [physical] book. So I would definitely check that one out.

Stacy: So cute. I love the illustrations. I hope it’s not her last book. I hope she keeps publishing.

Cara: For kids too. I haven’t looked at her other one. I think that one’s targeted at adults, but she does a fantastic job for kids, so I hope she will keep coming out with them. My next one, my other graphic novel, is Delicates by Brenna Thummler, which is the sequel to Sheets, which was her first graphic novel as an author/illustrator. She also illustrated the graphic novel version of Anne of Green Gables, which has a special place in my heart.

Cara: She did a fantastic job with it, so I love her illustrations. And again, I feel like you can’t do without them in this book. So it’s a really wonderful book. I love the themes that are going throughout it, of the main character Marjorie. She’s trying to figure out how to fit in. And then the other main character, I can’t remember her name, Eliza.

Cara: She’s the one on the cover with the camera. She’s also kind of on the outskirts of her classmates. And so it’s kind of about how are you a true friend, and how do you help the people around you? And of course, it’s got this fantastical element with the ghosts that were part of the first one, Sheets. So kind of a couple of different genres in there.

Cara: I love her color palette with these pastels that she uses and the pinks and the greens and the blues. It’s just really beautiful. But again, tons of dialog, lots of wordless panels, so I just feel like you have to have the art. And the dialog does a good job of distinguishing between the characters.

Cara: But I don’t feel like it’s distinctive enough by itself to win a Newbery just for text. So again, I would recommend it as a graphic novel. For Newbery, I don’t think it’s going to go anywhere, but you never know.

And then I’ve got two picture books. The first one is The Secret Fawn by Kallie George, and it’s illustrated by Elly Mackay.

Cara: And when I opened this one, I mean, I was just astonished. It’s cut paper illustrations backlit by light and they’re just gorgeous. So I’m very much hoping that the Caldecott committee will recognize this one. The story is this little girl whose family sees a deer and she really wants to see a deer in their yard.

Cara: So she goes out before breakfast and she’s looking for the deer. So it’s a very quiet story. Just really lovely, along with the illustrations, but I feel like for a Newbery committee who’s looking for distinguished text, it’s just very simple. I don’t think there’s enough there for them to say that it is distinguished in plot or character development.

Cara: There’s just not enough there, but for the Caldecott committee, for them to look at these illustrations, they’re just gorgeous. There’s the little fawn at the end. It’s very sweet. If you like quiet picture books.

Stacy: I think cut paper illustrations might be my most favorite media or form of illustrations. They’re just so delicate. And I’ve watched a couple of videos of the artists who make them I mean, everybody does it a little bit differently, but the one I was watching and I can’t think of her name, but she makes like little dioramas almost and sets all her paper pieces up. And, and like you said, they’re backlit. And then she takes photographs of them. And the photographs are what ends up as the illustrations in the book. And that just blows my mind.

Cara: Yeah. And it gives them such texture. I think maybe that’s why they’re so appealing, because they don’t feel like illustrations. You know, they’ve got that tactile element to them.

Stacy: Good choice.

Cara: I’m sure you probably ordered this, so good choice on you, because I wouldn’t have seen it if you hadn’t ordered it.

Stacy: I ordered this one too.

Cara: Yay! I love the Fan Brothers; this one is their newest, It Fell from the Sky. Last year, they had The Barnabus Project, which I adored; my oldest kid, who’s six, adored it. So I would highly recommend checking them out. This one is the story of what happens when a marble invades this community of bugs.

Cara: So it literally falls from the sky and they don’t know what it is and they’re trying to figure it out. So the text in this one is pretty straightforward, but I feel like you just have to have the illustrations. They’re very detailed and then they’ve got these pops of color, so the very selective use of color with the marble, but just gorgeous, all these bugs.

Cara: So they’re all kind of exploring it, and then the spider takes over. I love the frog. He tried to taste the marble; he thought it looked like food. So the spider decides to commercialize the marble. He’s charging leaves for them to come see it and kind of takes over, and then everybody stops coming.

Cara: And so it’s kind of this message about being selfish, and what happens when you try to commercialize something. But then the marble gets taken away. Just gorgeous illustrations. And the text is a little bit lyrical, I would say, but just not to the degree that it needs to be to be distinguished.

Cara: And then at the end, it’s in full color; they decide to take all these other things that fall from the sky and they’re free for everyone to look at. So very, very sweet story. I loved the bugs. I just don’t think it’s there for Newbery, but hopefully Caldecott. I’ve been hoping for them to be recognized for a while and they just haven’t been. So we’ll see.

Stacy: Hopefully all of our predictions come to fruition. We don’t know. We won’t know until they’re announced, which is next year. So we will be anxiously waiting the announcement of the Newbery award and all the other youth literature awards, including the Caldecott. So viewers, you can watch the 2022 American Library Association Youth Media Awards live virtually on January 22nd, 2022 at 8:00 AM. Eastern time. A live video stream will be available at ala.unikron.com.

Thank you two for joining us and thanks everyone for watching. Listeners, remember to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. Viewers, follow the Clermont Library YouTube channel for this and other great library content. You can find all of the books we talked about in our catalog or in our digital collection via Libby, Hoopla, or Freading.

Cara and Kristine, thank you both so much for joining us and talking all things Newbery.

The post Newbery Award: Nontraditional Winners and Predictions appeared first on Clermont Library.

Stacy: Welcome to the Clermont County Public Library’s Booklovers Podcast. I’m your host today. My name is Stacy and I’m joined by two youth services librarians, Cara and Kristine. Hi guys. During this episode, we’re going to discuss the Newbery award. We’re really excited! We’re going to talk about the criteria used by the Newbery committee and our two guests are going to discuss their predictions for the 2022 Newbery award.

Stacy: Remember that show notes with links to all the titles we talk about are available at clermontlibrary.org.  And I’m going to kick things off and talk a little bit about what the Newbery award is and about the exciting anniversary coming up. So, this is the first in a series of four podcasts that we’re doing to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Newbery award.

Stacy: So just a little bit about the creation of the award. First of all, the Newbery medal is given by the Association for Library Service to Children, which is a division of the American Library Association. And it is given to the author of “the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.”

Stacy: And it’s given to books that were published the previous year. So, the 2022 awards will go to books published in 2021. Some quick history: in 1921, Publishers Weekly editor Frederick Melcher proposed the award to the American Library Association meeting of the children’s librarian section and suggested that it be named for the 18th century English bookseller, John Newbery. The idea was enthusiastically accepted by the children’s librarians and Melcher’s official proposal was approved by the American Library Association board in 1922. The Newbery award thus became the very first children’s book award in the world. From the beginning of the awarding of the Newbery medal, committees could and usually did cite other books as worthy of attention.

Stacy: So, such books were referred to as Newbery runners-up, but in 1971, the term runners-up was changed to honor books. And actually, a lot of my favorites are not Newbery medals. They’re Newbery honor books. So, we’ll be talking about that a little bit too. So that new terminology was made retroactive and that allowed all the former runners-up to now be referred to as Newbery honor books.

Stacy: So, listeners if you heard me say at the beginning and you paid attention to the date of the first Newbery Medal it was awarded in 1922. You’ll realize that 2022 marks the 100th anniversary. So, the Association for Library Service to Children says about this anniversary, “This anniversary commemorates not only a century of captivating books, it celebrates the longevity and evolution of the award. The world has changed in the last 100 years. And with it, the Newbery medal seeks to recognize stories that represent and respect all youth.” I think all children’s librarians are excited for this historic anniversary and perhaps none more than our two guests today. So next Cara has some great information about how each year’s Newbery committee is formed and the criteria that they use to choose winners.

Cara: Thanks so much for having us, Stacy, and for saying how excited we are about the Newbery. It’s true. I consider myself a Newbery nerd. I always read all the books that might be up for the Medal every year. So I love to talk about the Newberys. The process and information about the committee is pretty complicated, so if anybody wants to delve into that, that is on the American Library Association’s (ALA) website.

Cara: You can check out the Newbery manual there, which is about 70 pages of dense information, so I tried to narrow it down into just the basics, to give an overview. Every year they pick a new committee to choose the Newbery Medal, so you never really know what you’re going to get, because they all kind of start from scratch, other than that manual.

Cara: Because everything’s confidential, you don’t know what the previous committee talked about or how they made their choices, which is a really cool way to go about it, because every year’s awards are really different based on that committee.

Cara: So they start the process over every year in January at the ALA’s mid-winter meeting; that’s when the new committee meets. And that’s also when they’re awarding that year’s awards. So that committee is kind of ending their term, and the new committee’s coming on. And every committee is made up of 15 members.

Cara: They’re all members of that group that Stacy mentioned, the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). They make nominations all year long for books that they think should be considered. So they’re kind of in constant communication with each other, whether that be, in the past, they communicated by mail; recently they’ve had to do it virtually because of the pandemic.

Cara: Usually they’re meeting in person if they can, but of course they can be from all over the country, so I think they’ve probably always done a mix of different ways of communicating. But they do have a couple of meetings that are required.

Cara: So that first Midwinter is not required, but the one where they’re announcing the award is required for them. And then they also have one in the summer, which is kind of their midway point where they’re really getting into their year and about to start their formal nomination process.

Cara: So there are more details about how complicated that is in the manual if you care to take a look at that. And then at their mid-winter where they’re announcing the awards, they have their formal balloting process where they vote on books. They’re assigned a number of points based on what rank they choose for each book.

Cara: And so that decides the winner. And then for the honors, they don’t have to name any. If they felt there were other books that were distinguished, they could use those. They don’t have to be books that were runners-up in the balloting process. They can start the voting process over. So that’s interesting.

Cara: And then when you’re talking about the runners up, those were listed not in alphabetical order but in order of preference. And now that they’ve gone to honors, they’re actually just listed in alphabetical order. So they all have equal weight, which I thought was an interesting point that they made, that none of them are ranked better than the others.

Cara: They can consider all eligible books that are published in that year that they’re working with for ages 0 to 14. So that includes over 5,000 trade titles, according to the manual. I think they read a lot less than that. I’ve heard committees say that it’s hundreds. I don’t think they’re able to read thousands.

Cara: So they probably kind of give a cursory overview of different books and then decide which ones they actually want to read in full. The author has to be a US citizen or a resident for at least six months out of the year, and it has to be an original work. They cannot consider the author’s previous works.

Cara: They can only consider illustrations and other features if they detract from the text. So the text is really what they’re considering. Because of that, they can consider all forms of writing. So it doesn’t necessarily have to be a novel; it could be poetry, plays; as we’ve seen, it can be picture books and graphic novels, because those contain text as well.

Cara: And then they specifically state in the manual that it’s not an award for didactic content or popularity. So they’re really looking for, as you mentioned, Stacy, the most distinguished, which they do give a definition of, they do have some guidelines to go by. It says that it has to be marked by eminence and distinction, noted for significant achievement, excellence in quality, and individually distinct.

Cara: And then when they’re looking at the distinguished contribution they have further criteria. So they have to consider the interpretation of theme or concept; presentation of information, including accuracy, clarity, and organization; development of a plot; delineation of characters; delineation of a setting; and appropriateness of style.

Cara: But it’s interesting that it does point out that they do not expect the committee to find excellence in all of the named elements. So it’s not necessary that it has all of those things, just some of them. But still, any way you look at it, it’s an enormous undertaking. I don’t know how even 15 people can look at all of the children’s literature, just for a year.

Cara: I’ve heard that they spend the entire year reading, rereading, and evaluating, and probably taking time off work. A lot of them work full-time as librarians, professors, teachers, but having to take vacations just to read, which sounds fantastic. But I’ve heard committee members say you really get into a different mindset, so it’s really not reading for enjoyment. They really do take their tasks seriously. So that’s a lot of work.

Stacy: Hopefully that would count as continuing education. Maybe. I can’t imagine that they have to take their own vacation days. That doesn’t sound like fun at all. Sounds like work, like you said.

Cara: Yes. So we’re going to spend the rest of the podcast sharing our predictions for the 2022 Medal, which is awarded for a book published in 2021.

Cara: So that counts up through December 31st. There are books that are still coming out that could be considered, and that poor committee’s scrambling, as they do every year, to try to get their hands on all these books. Publishers do send them books, but I’m sure they still try to seek out others. So today we’re going to look at traditional Newbery books, which are middle-grade novels, meaning that they’re published and intended for children ages 9 through 12.

Cara: And then in another podcast, we’re going to look at what we consider nontraditional titles, such as picture books and nonfiction, which are just as eligible but have historically been considered far less often for Newbery recognition, although we’re seeing them a lot more often in recent years, so the committee is definitely widening their net. But I’m going to turn it over to Kristine for her first pick.

Kristine: So as you mentioned, Cara, there are so many books out there and I have been reading voraciously, but I feel like I have barely scratched the surface. So I’m going to talk about some of the books that I chose that I think are strong Newbery contenders, but at the same time, I keep running across new titles that I’m like, Ooh, that one could be a possible contender as well.

Kristine: And so the first book I chose today is called the Lion of Mars by Jennifer L Holm. And this is a science fiction book. Hence the title Lion of Mars. The story follows a boy, 11-year-old Bell who has basically spent his entire life growing up on the planet Mars. He lives with a very small group of other kids and adults on the American colony on Mars.

Kristine: Other countries like France have colonies as well, but the Americans are forbidden from having any contact with the other colonies. So they’re kind of isolated by themselves. And as the story goes, we see that presents a problem. When all of the adults in the American colony start becoming ill with some mysterious virus and it’s up to Bell and the other kids to try and figure out how they can save the adults, how they can keep the colony running, and essentially save themselves.

Kristine: And they soon realize that they’re not going to be able to do it alone, that if they want to save the adults, the colonies, and themselves, they’re going to have to venture out and make contact with those other colonies, essentially breaking the rules. I think this is a great book. I think the author does a fantastic job of describing what life on Mars would be like.

Kristine: Obviously nobody has actually set up a colony there, but she just gives great descriptions of what Mars looks like, what their colony, which is actually in underground lava tubes, looks like, and how it functions day to day so that they can actually survive in a very inhospitable climate.

Kristine: So I think she really does a great job among other things of describing that setting. And so this is my first choice. We’re going to talk about today for Newbery contenders.

Stacy: Interesting. I feel like that’s a good pick for reluctant readers too, because it has, like that sci-fi spin and maybe a little bit of adventure.

Kristine: It’s definitely got a good bit of adventure. A little bit of mystery even. There’s a cat persistent throughout that in my mind is quite adorable. So I think there’s a lot of things that would appeal to a lot of readers, including those reluctant readers and awesome.

Cara: Yeah, I agree. I loved that one. I thought that it definitely had kid appeal, which is something that I always look for when I’m reading Newbery picks, even though that’s not something the committee looks for. So it’s kind of the distinction between, they’re supposed to look for, you know, it’s written for a child audience, which it can be, and also be very boring to a child, so it’s written on their level, but it’s not necessarily appealing to them.

Cara: They don’t need to look for child appeal, but I always look for that when I’m reading, because I feel like it can be great, but then at the same time I need books that I can promote to actual kids, too.

Kristine: I think of several that I’ve read and I’m going to talk about I think that one has maybe the widest range of appeal.

Kristine: I think a lot of kids that are interested in different things would really enjoy that book.

Cara: My first book is totally different, I would say because it’s a very heavy topic. And it’s realistic fiction, which is what I tend to read, and we’ve seen is what the committee tends to award, is for realistic and historical fiction, which are two of my favorites, so maybe that’s why I love the Newbery, or part of it.

Cara: But Jasmine Warga was awarded the Newbery Honor a couple of years back for the 2020 award for her book Other Words for Home, which is actually set in Cincinnati; it’s a novel in verse. If you haven’t read it, I would highly recommend it.

Cara: So she definitely has the chops for it, but because the committees can’t consider their past works, it doesn’t mean she’s a shoo-in at all. But I just think she’s a fantastic author.

So as I mentioned, this story [The Shape of Thunder] is very heavy. I think it’s really timely for sure. It deals with the aftermath of a school shooting.

Cara: And I think having that kind of distance in the aftermath is probably one of the things that makes it appropriate for a middle-grade audience. Although we know, any student who’s in school is dealing with active shooter drills on a yearly basis, so that you know, it’s their reality for sure.

Cara: But you’re not seeing the actual shooting in the text; it’s been a year since it happened. And these two friends on the cover, Cora and Quinn, used to be best friends. They’re next-door neighbors. But they’re so closely involved in the shooting that that’s caused a rift in their friendship.

Cara: So Cora’s sister Mabel was shot in the school shooting, and then Quinn’s brother is the one who committed the crime. And she feels guilt about it because she saw him with guns and didn’t say anything about it. So definitely very heavy topics. It does have a little bit of a sci-fi twist.

Cara: So the plot of it is that they haven’t spoken in a year, but Quinn reaches out to Cora because she wants to try to be friends again, and she thinks maybe they can try to fix it with time travel. So they’re trying to figure out how they can get back and change what happened. I think the way that she develops the characters is really distinguished and also her writing style is just wonderful, but they each have their own distinct voice, and it goes back and forth between their perspectives. So I would recommend this one for ages 11 and up.

Stacy: Wow. I feel like that would be a really good pick for middle school book clubs.

Cara: Yes.

Stacy: Even early high school book clubs. I mean just the content, so, yeah. And she’s a Cincinnati native, right, Jasmine Warga?

Cara: Yeah, as far as I understand, she doesn’t live here anymore.

Stacy: That’d be very cool though if she won another award.

Cara: Yeah, definitely, I’m rooting for it.

Kristine: I think it would be great for a book club. I think there’s a lot of points for discussion in that one, but I thought it was a really strong book. I would hate to be on the Newbery committee because all of these that we’re talking about I think are great.

Kristine: And you kind of have different things that they excel at, but I really enjoyed that one. It’s a little heavier topic, but I thought she, she handled it really well.

Kristine: All right. Well, my next book kind of goes off on a completely different genre and it is Amber and clay by Laura, Amy Schultz. And I tend to read more realistic and historic fiction. And so I put this one off for a long time. It’s not my typical genre. And as you can see, it looks like a pretty thick book.

Stacy: It is huge.

Kristine: But it kept getting a lot of buzz and I was like, I’m going to read it, I’m going to read it. I’ll get to it. And so I finally did, and I have to say, I really am glad that I did. I thought this was just a really unique and interesting book. So this is what they call an epic story.

Kristine: It really is epic. It’s set in ancient Greece, and it follows the lives of a boy named Rhaskos who is very artistic, but he is a slave boy in Greece and it follows another girl named Melisto, who is actually part of an aristocratic family in Greece. So it kind of follows their two parallel lives that don’t seem like they are going to have any connection, but they become linked together by the gods in this story.

And it’s just, Laura did a fabulous job of researching this story. Pulling on that ancient Greek mythology. And she did it in a really unique way. This story combines verse and prose.

It starts with an artifact that’s been discovered and there is a picture of the artifact. And so she shows the artifact, she describes the artifact kind of like you would see in a museum exhibit. And then she goes on to tell the story behind that artifact. And there’s a lot going on in this story, but she does a great job of linking it all together.

Kristine: It’s a very compelling story. I think it will keep your attention. I would say this kind of leans more on the older end of the Newbery, as Cara said, Newbery considers anything from zero up to 14. So I think this is going to lean more towards that older end, 10 to 14, maybe. But she did a great job in how she presented her information in a really unique way. it’s fiction, but it still has a bibliography.

Kristine: So very well researched with accurate information. I think she’s got a strong shot. Again, just because of really the uniqueness and the way she laid it out. I thought she did a really excellent job at that. So that is another one of my possible contenders, Amber and Clay.

Stacy: That’s awesome. I feel like that’d be a good choice for those readers who really want like an epic read, like you said, and they want to like really be immersed in the story and the world, and they want a lot in, you know, into the meat of the story. So it sounds like it’s a good pick.

Kristine: I enjoyed it. If I wasn’t trying to read for the Newbery, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up. So I’m glad, glad that I did.

Cara: You’ve maybe convinced me. I don’t know. Well, it was on my radar. I picked it up and looked at the first couple of pages and I was like, I don’t think I’m the reader for this.

Kristine: It took a little bit to get into, but once I got into the story I had to keep, I actually listened to it. I had to keep listening to see what was going to happen next.

Stacy: Give it a chance.

Cara: Well, my next one is The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo. So this is her brand new book that just came out, I believe in September of 2021, so toward the end of the year, but I’m sure the committee will take a look at it.

Kate DiCamillo is absolutely no stranger to the Newbery. She has won two Newbery Medals in the past, which is the most that anyone’s ever won. She’s not the only person to have done it; she’s one of six people who have won the Newbery Medal twice, but no one’s ever won more than that.

Cara: She was awarded the Medal in 2004 for The Tale of Despereaux and again in 2014 for Flora and Ulysses. And she also has a Newbery Honor to her name for her first book, Because of Winn-Dixie, which I think is probably her most beloved, which was all the way back in 2001. So she’s been around for a really long time.

Cara: She’s one of my favorite authors. I always feel like she can do no wrong. I mean, she’s branched out into early chapter books, picture books. She’s got all kinds of stuff out there. Kind of in different genres too. But you know, she just keeps coming up with new stuff, because this one’s totally different for her, I would say. Maybe a little bit of flavor of Despereaux to it.

Cara: It feels like it’s set in the past, although I saw an interview with her and she kind of said, it’s timeless. It doesn’t really have a setting. It definitely feels medieval. So the title, The Beatryce Prophecy, refers to the main character, Beatryce, who is a girl who’s not supposed to be able to read and write, but she can; her family taught her how it was important to them.

Cara: But society says that she’s not supposed to, so that makes her very dangerous. She was actually supposed to be killed. Some of her family members were, but she escaped and she finds herself at a monastery. So there’s a monk that’s a character and there’s also this demon goat Answelica.

Cara: She brings a lot of humor to the story as well. So I think she always does a really good job of balancing that; she usually has some kind of serious bent to her story, but she always works hope in. There’s definitely not any that I feel like are dark stories. And humor as with the goat in this one.

Cara: And I always find it interesting, she always seems to work in some kind of food. I feel like that’s a way of comforting her characters. They kind of always go back to that. So in this one, there are these maple candies that the monk has and he keeps giving them to Beatryce, and then she goes off on her journey and he packs some for her and she finds them later.

Cara: So just kind of a simple way, and I think a lot of us use food for comfort, right? So it makes sense to a lot of people, I think.

Of course, this one is illustrated by Sophie Blackall, who I absolutely adore and she’s a Caldecott Medal winner, so that’s kind of the Newbery equivalent for illustrations. So this one has illustrations of the characters and the goat.

Cara: Here are two of the kids, there’s Jack Dory and Beatryce; so Jack’s a boy that pops up in the story, that Beatryce finds on her way. And then there’s the goat trying to get to them. So the goat adores Beatryce, but other people, she’s not so fond of, so they have to be careful of the goat.

So yeah, the only concern of mine, which I mentioned earlier, is kid appeal on this one, which the committee doesn’t look at it at all.

Cara: So they don’t care. It’s definitely written in a style for a child audience. I worry that kids, I mean, obviously Kate DiCamillo, a lot of them will know who that is, so that’ll help, but you know, for me, if you tried to sell it to me, and you said, well, it’s set in medieval times and there’s a monk who’s a character, and they go on this journey, I’d be like, I don’t know about that.

Cara: So that’s the only thing that kind of made me hesitate. To promote it to kids, I think you really just have to talk it up. Teachers and librarians will have to sell it or read it aloud. It’s definitely a way of getting them engaged, once they get into it.

Cara: Her language is always very economic, I would say. Her sentences seem simple, but she just manages to put them forth in such a way that there’s a lot of emotion in them. And she just always does a great job. So, I definitely recommend that one.

Kristine: I think to sell to the kid, you just got to sell among the goat.

Kristine: The kids will be hooked and they’ll go, want to find out more about that demon?

Stacy: Did I hear you correctly? Did you say demon?

Cara: Yes, that is what they call her at some points because she likes to headbutt people. So she sends them flying and she’s dangerous. The monk actually says that he has a hoofprint that’s stayed on his chest, like it’s a permanent mark on him from his encounter with the goat in a beautiful meadow that he describes, all the flowers and stuff. But then he had the encounter with the goat. It was very dangerous. So yeah, she’s definitely scarred people, but she loves Beatryce. She’s a good goat at heart.

Stacy: If all else fails if you can’t hook a reader with any of the other wonderful things you said about the book, just say demon goat and see how many children will want to read it then. So awesome.

Kristine: All right. Well, my final choice today is called Red, White, and Whole, and this is realistic fiction. So this is kind of more my typical genre, but it’s also considered historic fiction because it is set in the eighties.

Kristine: Which I don’t know how I feel about that. But I think this, the three I’ve talked about this is probably one of my favorites.

Kristine: So this story follows 13-year-old Reha and she is an Indian American girl and she’s trying to fit in. She wants to be a typical American teenager. She’s in junior high and just wants to, you know, kind of fit in with all of her friends at school.

Kristine: But yet at the same time, she wants to please her Indian parents who are very, very strict, especially compared to typical American parents. And so while she’s trying to kind of navigate all of this and figure out where she fits in her mom becomes very ill and it’s diagnosed with cancer. And so now she’s got to try and deal with that on top of everything else.

Kristine: And this book is, it’s just a really powerful book a bit of a tear-jerker it’s much shorter than most of the other ones I’ve talked about, but the author Rashani Larocca just expresses things in such a beautiful way. And she draws from her own background. She is Indian, she was born in India and she’s also a medical doctor.

Kristine: So she, she draws on that background to kind of tie it together. All these themes of trying to figure out who you are, a family, friendship, loss and grief using different metaphors with blood. And she ties in some Indian folk tales as well. Just to show how even though we’re all made up of many parts we can still be whole. And I just thought this was a great book.

I know a lot of books this year for the Newbery are written in verse. So it’ll be interesting to see how they all compare. But I really enjoyed this book.

I think kids kind of middle-grade kids will be able to relate with that whole idea of fitting in, even if, you know, they may not be from another country or their parents from another country, just that middle grade.Those middle-grade years, I think all kids kind of deal with that. Where do I fit in? So so I think this is a great book. I hope it gets some Newbery attention.

And I think as Cara had mentioned the little circle there in whole would be a great place to put the Newbery medal that is red, white, and.

Cara: I loved that one too. I listened to it and I feel like it feels very current, even though she definitely sets it in that eighties time period; there’s a lot of references to songs from the time period. So it’s got that eighties flavor to it, but it has enough there that it’s just kind of universal things, like you were saying, of fitting in, that today’s kids will definitely relate to it as well.

Stacy: Maybe the cover designer thought about that for the new sticker, sneaky. I like it.

Cara: You never know. It’s interesting to see. I’ve seen blogs and things where they talk about where are they going to place it on the cover.

Stacy: Well, you don’t want to cover up something really important.

Cara: Yep. You got to leave space for that potential Medal.

Cara: So my last one is also in verse, so kind of a good way to compare two choices. I know there’s been a lot of talk about this one this year; this one’s Starfish by Lisa Fipps. It’s a contemporary story about a girl named Ellie, who’s been bullied for a very long time for being overweight by her classmates but also probably more disturbingly by her brother and her mom.

Cara: So it goes into how they’ve treated her in the past and then the current storyline where everything’s all kind of coming to a head, but she’s also going through therapy. So that’s helping her kind of come to terms with what’s happening and know how to cope with it, through that therapy.

Cara: And then, you know, she has some confrontations with her classmates, with her family. She does have some support. Her dad is supportive, but he’s also kind of stuck in between, obviously, the family members. And then she has some good friends who are supportive as well. So it’s not without hope, like I said. I think that’s kind of the main thing about middle grade is that there has to be some kind of hope in the book; it doesn’t necessarily have to have a happy ending.

Cara: I feel like YA can get away with being ultimately dark and not having any hope, but middle grade can’t; the kids aren’t there yet. So the chapters written in verse are just gorgeous. I have seen some pushback on this book. I’ve seen quite a few librarians say that they feel like it’s not realistic, like it goes too far in how she’s bullied.

Cara: But the author’s note at the end says that everything in this book happened to the author as a child; it’s inspired by her life. So it’s not unrealistic; it all happened to her, which is terrible to think about. But also, you feel like there must be kids out there that really need this book.

Cara: And kids that aren’t going through it, but need it in order to be able to relate to people that might be going through that. I thought it was really fantastic in the way that she develops the characters and just the way that it’s written in verse, I think is probably the most distinguished part about it, I would say.

Cara: And some definite kid appeal there. I think a lot of kids will really like how her voice is; it’s very straightforward and modern, but it does kind of have a little bit of a poetic twist to it too. So I think that makes it the perfect method of delivery for this story.

Stacy: I’m not a huge reader of middle grade fiction, but I did read Starfish this year and I loved it. I was like cheering by the end. And just that, like you said, the message of hope, just ultimately like at the end, like kind of how you said it it’s modern. Like the trend right now is like, it’s okay to be who you are own who you are, take up space. And that was just totally the message of this book, which I loved.

Cara: Yes. Thank you for mentioning that. I forgot to mention where the title comes from, taking up space. She calls it starfishing, taking up the space that she deserves.

Stacy: So, it’s wonderful. Yeah. Wow. Okay. How on a scale of one to 10, you two, how hard was it to pick only three titles to talk about today?

Cara: Very difficult.

Kristine: very difficult. Keep coming across. I was looking at some things this

Kristine: morning and I was like, oh, there’s another one I want to read then there’s another one. So it was, it was definitely a challenge.

Stacy: Yes, for sure. And it’s a challenge whenever we recommend books to readers too, because you’re like, I think they would really love this, but also this, and you don’t want to bog them down too much, but hopefully they just keep coming back and you can keep recommending them.

Cara: You know a good librarian when they get too excited about books and they give you too many. We try hard not to, but I’m always picking up piles and piles of books. You just can’t help it.

Stacy: Yes. Well, we will be anxiously awaiting the announcement of the Newbery award and all the other youth literature awards as well. So viewers, you can watch the 2022 American Library Association Youth Media Awards live. It’s going to be virtual on January 24th, 2022 at 9:00 AM Eastern time. So I’ll be right at work that day, which will be wonderful. It’s exactly what I’m going to be doing, making sure we have all the winners, probably ordering extra copies.

Stacy: A live stream of the Youth Media Awards will be available at ala.unikron.com. Thank you guys for joining us. Listeners, remember to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode and viewers follow the Clermont library YouTube channel for this and other great library content.

Stacy: You can find all of the books we talked about in our catalog or in our digital collections, via Libby, Hoopla or Freading. Thank you, Cara and Kristine for joining us today. We had a wonderful time and we’ll catch you all on our next Newbery podcast. Thank you.

The post The Newbery Award For Children’s Books Explained appeared first on Clermont Library.

[00:00:00] Laura: Welcome to the Clermont County Public Library’s Booklovers Podcast. I’m your host, Laura. And today I’m joined by Jordan and Shayna.

So Jordan, since you’re our resident horror fan, do you want to go first?

[00:00:23] Jordan: The one I’ll be talking about first is called The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky. And I was really drawn to this book because the description talked about horror films and horror film fans. So I really connected with that personally.

I have the synopsis right here. New girl, Rachel Chavez is eager to make a fresh start at Manchester. But I was one of the few scholarship kids, Rachel struggles to fit in. And when she gets caught up in a prank gone awry, she ends up with more enemies than friends to her surprise.

However, the prank attracts the attention of the Mary Shelley Club, a secret club of students with one objective, come up with the scariest prank. Orchestrate real fear. But as the pranks escalate, the competition turns cutthroat and takes on a life of its own.

When the tables are turned and someone targets the club itself, Rachel must track down the real-life monster in their midst, even if it means finally confronting the dark secrets from her past.

So I had the day off yesterday and I’ve just finished this book yesterday and it takes a lot to really get me super engaged in a scary story and really feel what the author wants me to feel. And this one really did it. It was very, very well-written, constructed very, very well. The characters were very lifelike, which I always appreciate.

And Mary Shelley is one of my idols. I want to be her when I grow up So the title attracted me right away. And then just the characters in the club like, oh, I love these things. And I have no one else to talk about with them. And that’s me. I love it so much. And it usually just freaks everyone out.

[00:02:20] Laura: who doesn’t love a good secret society, especially if it involves scary, secret societies? Because that never goes wrong.

[00:02:26] Jordan: Yeah, it was a really fun read.

Most of it takes place around Halloween. So this is definitely a great Halloween read.

[00:02:33] Laura: Good pick. All right, Shayna, are you ready to dive in? Get your spooky book on?

[00:02:37] Shayna: I am. So this one, The Perfect Daughter by DJ Palmer, it’s spooky to me, it’s more of like a psychological thriller mystery and what really drew me into it is because it has a character who has.

Multiple personality disorder. So it’s really good.

Here’s the summary: Grace never dreamt she’d visit her teenage daughter, Penny, in the locked ward of a decaying state psychiatric hospital, charged with the murder of a stranger. There was not much question of her daughter’s guilt. Police had her fingerprints on the murder weapon and the victim’s blood on her body and clothes, but they didn’t have a motive.

None of this was conceivable. The day Penny came into Grace’s life, it seemed like a miracle. Penny was found abandoned with a mysterious past, and it felt like fate brought Penny to her and her husband.

But as Penny grew, her actions grew more disturbing, and different personalities emerged. Arthur and Grace took Penny to different psychiatrists.

Many of them believed that she was just putting on a show to help manage her trauma. But Grace didn’t agree. The personas were too real, too consistent. It had to be a severe multiple personality disorder. Penny’s doctor, a determined psychiatrist, discovers a new personality insight of penny and young girl named Abigail.

Is this the nameless girl who was abandoned in the park years ago? Her doctor thinks Abigail is the key to Penney’s past and to the murder, but as they dig deeper, they uncover dark and shocking secrets.

[00:04:10] Laura: That sounds good and twisty.

[00:04:12] Shayna: It was very good in twisty and I mean, it just had all the good components of a good thrilling book.

So you’ve got brutal murder. A mental hospital theme, unreliable character is it was very good at making you question your own reality, which to me is scary. Just as you go through the story with the characters and a lot of the story takes place in the psychiatric hospital. Which is an intense setting for a story, I think, and this particular hospital houses, mentally ill people who are dangerous to themselves and to others.

So Penny, one of the characters, is caught at a murder scene and it looks as if she killed the person. I mean, there’s no question about it. She did it, but she has, three or four different personas that they know of. And so when they find her, she’s saying, my name is Emily.

 They’re like, who’s Emily, your license says your name is Penny, you know, so, and the mom knows, she’s like, oh gosh. And Emily Is the one that is like the most aggressive, the most disturbed persona, So it was really good. It definitely spooked me out.

[00:05:25] Jordan: I love a good scary. Those are really, really effective

.

[00:05:31] Laura: All right, Jordan, I know you have to have another one and share it with us.

[00:05:34] Jordan: So the next one I have is called House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland. It’s also a fairly new book.

So the synopsis – Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Gray, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, she learned just how weird her life could get. Horned men shadowing her and a corpse that falls out the ceiling. And ugly impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind.

As Iris retraces Gray’s last known steps and follows the increasingly bizarre trail of breadcrumbs she left behind. It becomes apparent that the only way to save her sister is to decipher the mystery of what happened to them as children. The closer Iris gets to the truth. The closer she comes to understanding that the answer is dark and dangerous, and that Gray has been keeping a terrible secret from her for years

[00:06:35] Laura: More terrible secrets.

[00:06:40] Jordan: And this is another thing about this book, I did not know what was going on. I thought I was figuring it out. Every chapter I was like, oh, okay. I see what’s happening here. And then something else would be thrown in like, oh, never mind. So I had no idea what was really happening.

It’s one of those books. You cannot put it down. It’s one o’clock in the morning, you have to keep reading..

[00:07:04] Shayna: Your eyes are heavy. You’re like, no, I can do it. I need to keep going.

[00:07:10] Jordan: It was so good. And even at the end, like, I think it’s all resolved. They’re still more, there’s still more until the very last page of, so it was just really, really dynamic.

And in addition to that, like the writing. So beautifully done and precise. There’s a lot of nature elements like we’ve seen in other horror novels recently. Like Mexican Gothic incorporating nature and the more grotesque sides of nature and to horror, and also in addition to the beautiful sides of nature.

And it was kind of grotesque at times. So just to be aware of that. It was a very intense body horror thrown in there.

[00:07:56] Laura: Shayna, I think she’s trying to say that this book might not be for us.

[00:07:59] Shayna: Well, when she said a corpse falls through the sisters’ feeling, I was like, oh no!

[00:08:10] Jordan: It was way more intense than I expected. For the stuff that I read that, doesn’t bother me that much, but it was just unexpected. Another thing that I loved in addition to the writing and the construction, I loved the character. So much, they were so lifelike, everyone had a very distinct personality, which is really important to me when I’m reading a book.

I don’t want flat characters. I don’t want characters that all have the same voice. And just the way that these characters were presented as like, oh yeah, I know this person. I get this person. How they’re going to react to this situation. And then one of my notes I have about this book is that it is the definition of a page turner.

It’s one of those books that if you have to stop at some point or you get interrupted, it’s so frustrating. You just want to keep going.

This book just checked all the boxes for me. It was so engaging. It was so beautifully written. The horror elements were there. The family drama, mystery was all there.It was five stars. Five out of five. It was, a great book!

[00:09:17] Laura: Sounds good.

[00:09:17] Shayna: I love when a book is so good that you can’t stop and then even when you do finish it, you’re a little mad at yourself because why did I speed through this book? You know, you want it to last forever.

And I love books like that.

[00:09:30] Laura: Shayna, got another for us?

[00:09:32] Shayna: I do. So this one I really enjoyed.. It’s Survive the Night by Riley Sager. I listened to the audio book on this one but we do have copies in the system of the book. So the audio though, I highly recommend because the narrator does a really good job of bringing you into the main character whose name is Charlie, and just putting yourself in her shoes and what she experiences in the book.

And it’s a really interesting book because it takes place in just a mere 24 hours. So it’s definitely a page turner, a very fast paced story. I really enjoyed it.

Here’s the summary. It’s November, 1991. George HW Bush is in the White House. Nirvana’s in the tape deck. And college student, Charlie Jordan, is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer.

Charlie meets Josh at the campus ride board, where they were both looking to share the long drive home to Ohio.

Both of them have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it’s guilt and grief over the recent murder of her best friend and roommate. She was a third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. Charlie cannot bear to stay in her half empty dorm room without Maddy another day. So she is heading home.

Josh is heading home to help care for his sick father who recently had a stroke. Or so he says. After Charlie gets into the car with Josh and they head out onto the interstate, she begins to doubt his story. There was something suspicious about Josh and Charlie begins to suspect that he is in fact, the campus killer.

The night takes a sudden turn of events and Charlie has to do everything she can to survive the night.

[00:11:14] Laura: That sounds intense.

[00:11:15] Jordan: Yeah, I also read this recently. I love Sager fantastic. I also read this recently and this was another one where I was up reading way too late and that it left off of this giant cliffhanger. So upset that I have to go to bed. It’s definitely like Shana said, the very short timeline that we have in the story is, like a ticking clock the whole time, and everything has to fit in that time frame, and everything’s just counting down.

The end it’s a fun one. That was another one I thought I had it figured out.

[00:11:52] Shayna: And then yeah, it, the author did a fantastic job in just keeping it so suspenseful, I mean the whole time, like you said, you’re kind of on the edge of your seat and you’re in the car with Charlie and Josh and it’s at nighttime.

So you got a picture it’s 1991. So there are no cell phones, to contact somebody, you know? Charlie depends on a payphone, when they stop at a diner or a gas station. And of course the first payphone they get to when she first starts having issues with Josh doesn’t work, the patient’s out of order.

So then she’s just kind of like, Well, I could ask the gas station worker if they have a phone inside, but it’s not, you know, it’s not like today where it’s like, oh, I have my phone or someone has a phone in their pocket, you know? And so that was eerie and it’s November. So it’s cold, it’s snowing, it’s dark.

And she’s. Weirdo and trapped in his car. And there’s just so many weird things that he does. But the fun thing about this book is that Charlie, they don’t really say exactly what she has. She calls a movies, so she sees movies. In her mind. So what she’ll do is let’s say she’s sitting there and she’ll envision like a whole scene between her and someone else or between two people.

Then she’ll like snap to back to reality. And that, that never happened. So it’s almost like she has. delusions or hallucinations. But they don’t really say what she has and she’s a movie major to like a film major. So she’s really into movies. because of her knowledge in that she picks up on things with Josh like this isn’t right.

His story isn’t adding up, he lying to me, but then she second guesses herself. Cause she. Did I just imagine that, like, was that a movie in my head or, you know, is he really just a normal person? So she just keeps getting back in the car with him and you’re sitting there like, oh, don’t do it.

And then things take a turn. You think, you know, what’s happening, you don’t and things just take a turn and it gets wild. And then the very last chapter. It’s interesting. I don’t want to give it away. So definitely a good book. It was definitely unexpected in a very good way

[00:14:19] Laura: I love when I can’t figure it out.

[00:14:28] Shayna: Yeah. There’s actually a part where she does get to a payphone and she calls her boyfriend who’s back on campus and they set up like a code. He tells her if you need help, we’ll have a code word. And so their code is things took a detour.

And so she sends that to him on the phone and it was kind of ironic because like the whole book. Things are taking a detour the whole time I’m reading this. I have no idea who is telling the truth. What is real? What’s not real. So it was good.

[00:14:59] Jordan: Yes. Soon as Charlie started talking about

her movies and when she gets detached from reality, just to cope with the trauma that she’s still experiencing, I was like, yay. Unreliable narrator,

[00:15:12] Shayna: She is, she’s definitely an unreliable narrator and character. Cause it looks only told from her point of view. I mean, there’s a couple of chapters from Josh’s point of view, but they’re very brief, like a few paragraphs maybe.

So, it’s a good one.

[00:15:27] Laura: I’ve read some of his other books, but I’m definitely going to have to put this one on my list because it sounds really.

[00:15:31] Jordan: Yeah, I think this is Riley Sager’s, fifth or sixth novel, and I’ve read all of them and I really enjoy his writing and he takes very classic, horror tropes, like the cabin in the woods, the haunted house, the final girl, but he makes it his own thing and really takes it places you’ve never know.

What about to take it? So I’m a big Riley Sager fan.

[00:15:57] Laura: Does it lock every door?

[00:15:59] Jordan: Yes. I love that one.

[00:16:03] Shayna: This is my first by him. So I’ll have to, you know, it’s not my typical John Rob, I’m trying to branch out. I’ll definitely have to check out another book by him. Cause I really liked how he made it Erie.

And he made it disturbing, but not in a super gruesome way, I guess, or something that makes me definitely, I don’t want to read this. I’m uncomfortable, you know, just very like chilling. There’s a part where, the police know it’s the the same person committing these murders is that he’ll take a tooth from the victim.

Charlie and Joshua and the car and they’re on the highway and it’s nighttime and, you know, road trip and they start to play 20 questions. So she has to guess what Josh is thinking of. And she asked very basic questions, you know, and this is the way he answers it’s creepy.

Then his item that he was thinking of is a human tooth. Charlie just kind of sits there and she like shivers and. What of all things. And then he immediately is like, oh, I’m so sorry. Isn’t that the campus killers, trademark. I’m so sorry. I know you’re still grieving from your friend and I’m thinking who would go there then, you know, so very disturbing.

[00:17:19] Jordan: Yeah, that part got me figure it out as I was reading. And then I got to that and that was like, wow, scary.

[00:17:29] Shayna: I was like, oh, no creepy, creepy, creepy.

[00:17:34] Laura: I have a readalike if you read and enjoyed Mexican Gothic called The Death of Jane Lawrence and it’s got a very similar Gothic vibe, although it’s more historical.

[00:17:52] Jordan: That’s been on my reading list for a while,

[00:17:55] Laura: I can see you absolutely loving it. Shayna, I’m not sure it’s going to be your cup of tea. There’s a lot of body of horror in it.

[00:18:02] Shayna: Oh!

[00:18:02] Laura: And I’ll just say that the grossness of what Silvia Moreno-Garcia did with mushrooms, The Death of Jane Lawrence does with eggs.

[00:18:56] Laura: This seems like you’re kind of a thing, Jordan.

[00:19:02] Jordan: Yeah. It’s been on my wall on my reading list for a while and I keep watching for it to see if it’s going to pop up.

[00:19:09] Laura: Well thank you both for some awesome, spooky, creepy book suggestions.

Thank you to our listeners. Remember to subscribe to the Booklovers Podcast so that you don’t miss an episode. And if you’re so inclined, please hit the like button.

You can find all of the books that we talked about today in our catalog or in our digital collection via the Libby, Hoopla, or Freading apps.

Happy reading!

The post Podcast: Spooky Books To Give You Chills appeared first on Clermont Library.

During this episode of the Clermont County Public Library’s Booklovers Podcast, Shayna and Laura share their four favorite books of the year – so far!

Andrea: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Clermont County Booklovers Podcast. I’m Andrea. And today I’m joined by Laura and Shayna, and today we’re going to discuss your favorite books from 2021.

So Laura, what has really rose to the top of your list?

Laura: [00:00:17] I have two choices.

One is dark and the other one is light and fluffy. I’m going to start off by setting the tone to be a little dark. And then Shayna, I know, is going to bring us back up.

Andrea: [00:00:29] Great. I love a roller coaster.

Laura: [00:00:31] My first pick is All the Murmuring Bones by Angela Slatter. It came out in the spring and I’m still thinking about it.

A once-powerful and prosperous family has fallen on difficult times because they’ve broken a long-ago made bargain with dark powers. Mirin’s grandmother is determined to restore the O’Malleys to what they once were. And to do that, she’s willing to sell Mirin into marriage to a distant, but wealthy cousin.

Of course, Mirin has other ideas.

This book is full of sea creatures, but these mermaids are from nightmares, not sweet stories for children. These are terrors of the sea and they’re angry with the O’Malleys. They’re willing to make Mirin pay for her family’s many transgressions.

The writing in this book is gorgeously Baroque. It’s ornate, it’s polished, and it’s paired with a very Gothic sensibility.

There’s the traditional Gothic, shadow-drenched, decaying mansion. Full of long, hidden, terrible family secrets. We get murder, ritual sacrifice, incest. Plus witchcraft and the terrible magic of these sea creatures.

So exquisite world-building, I’m really hoping that she chooses to set another book in this world because it’s beautiful.

Obviously, I loved it. It is the book equivalent of a very dark chocolate torte. It is gorgeous and rich. You have to consume it slowly and let the words just melt on your tongue

Shayna: [00:02:01] I love that metaphor. And now I’m hungry for the book and for a dark chocolate torte.

Laura: [00:02:10] Really, really good. I love it.

Andrea: [00:02:12] Excellent. Well, thanks for sharing that, Laura. It’s not as dark as I was thinking. You know, dark could be like violence and murder, true crime darkness.

Laura: [00:02:20] Oh right. This isn’t real-life murder.

Andrea: [00:02:24] Dark fantasy.

Shayna: [00:02:26] I feel like a lot of authors when they write about mermaids and sea creatures, take the dark route. There’s just something so alluring about it, where it’s like, “Ooh gosh! An evil mermaid or creatures…like, what’s down there?” So, that sounds good.

Laura: [00:02:43] The cover is beautiful. Once we get it dropped into the video or if you go to the show notes, you can see it. It’s a mermaid tail. And then you read the description and you’re like, oh, that’s not all pretty or light-hearted. No singing crabs in this book.

Andrea: [00:02:57] All right. Well, Shayna, what is on your list, your favorite standouts for the year?

Shayna: [00:03:02] My first one that I’m going to talk about…I love this book so much. It’s called The Guncle by Steven Rowley. And it’s Guncle –  G U N C L E. So not really a real word, which I guess now it could be a word.

Andrea: [00:03:17] Isn’t it a word? Maybe not in the dictionary yet.

Shayna: [00:03:19] It’s a feel-good book. I really, really enjoyed it.  It’s hilarious.

So, if you want to laugh while you’re reading, which I find it really hard to find books that can make me laugh while I’m reading. You may read a funny scene and you’re like, “Huh…?”, but this one made me laugh out loud.

Andrea: [00:03:36] So, did you LOL?

Shayna: [00:03:39] Yes! I laughed out loud.

I’ll read the summary: Patrick loves his niece, Maisie, and his nephew, Grant, with all of his heart. Well, he loves spending time with them when they come during the summer for a weeklong visit at his home in Palm Springs. Or when he visits them in Connecticut for the holidays, no matter how adorable the children are.

Patrick is out of his league when it comes to caring for them. Tragedy strikes the family and Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian for the entire summer. Maisie and grant adore their Guncle, which stands for “Gay Uncle Patrick”, and his funny Guncle rules, but they also are figuring out how to grieve the loss of their mother. Patrick stumbles along not really knowing what he is doing, especially after losing his own partner a few years ago and dealing with his stalled acting career.

Plus, his lifestyle doesn’t really suit having a six and nine-year-old around all the time. Quickly realizing that parenting, even if temporary, isn’t solved with treats and jokes, Patrick’s eyes are opened up to a new sense of responsibility. Having Maisie and Grant around isn’t so bad after all. And he will actually miss them terribly once summer is over.