To find more of Kari’s book thoughts, you can find her on instagram @checkedoutbooks.

Our website at perksofbeingabooklover.com.

This week we chat with Kari Heggen, a bookstagrammer from Iowa who set herself a goal to read all the Newbery Award winners from the past 102 years. Originally she had planned to read 10 a year but she ultimately decided to just get her done. She read 49 of the winners in 2023 and got a jump start on 2024 by reading this year’s winner, The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers.

Kari talks about the highs and lows of her Newbery Award challenge. Books from the early days of the award were decidedly not great. But by the 1960s, Kari got into a better groove and found herself enjoying books for the first time and often the second time which brought back some childhood nostalgia.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Erasure by Percival Everett

2- Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach

3- Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

4- Holes by Louis Sachar

5- The Giver by Lois Lowry

6- Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien

7- The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loom

8- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

9- The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

10- Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins

11- The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

12- Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman

13- A Visit to William Blake's Inn by Nancy Willard

14- Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

15- King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry

16- Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry

17- Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt

18- Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt

19- Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

20- The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

21- The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

22- The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson

23- Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Patterson

24- The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers

25- Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin

26- When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

27 - Five Star Read Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover Hope @lifewithhopeann- Divine Rivals Duology by Rebecca Ross

28- Nick Drake: The Life by Richard Morton Jack

29- The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

30- Starter Villain by John Scalzi

31- Sword of the Rightful King by Jane Yolen

32- Morgan is My Name by Sophie Keetch

33- The Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson

34- The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Movies and TV Series mentioned:

1- Oppenheimer (2023)

2- American Fiction (2023)

3- Poor Things (2023)

4- The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023, Netflix)

5- Peaky Blinders (2013-2022, Netflix)

6- The Secrets of Nimh (1982)

Article about Serving on the Newbery Awards committee-