Looking for Newbery - The Kneebone Boy

This is the last review Bill and I will post before making our predictions (sort of) tomorrow, the day before all of our favorite ALA awards are announced -- yay!!

Now that I have that out of my system, the last (but definitely not the least) book we'll talk about in our Looking for Newbery series is The Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter.

First of all, I loved SLOB by Ellen Potter, so long before I knew The Kneebone Boy had some Newbery buzz surrounding it, I had wanted to read it. SLOB was so well done, with amazing character development, wonderful language, and some great surprises for the reader at the end. The Kneebone Boy has all of that as well, and pays equal attention to the clarity of detail and the importance of surprising the reader (not to worry, no spoilers here).

This story is about the three Hardscrabble children: Otto, Lucia, and Max. One of them is the narrator of the story, however the narrator never tells the reader which child he/she truly is. I definitely have my suspicions, but would love to talk to someone else who has read this book to see what they think.

The reader learns so much about each of the characters through their actions, their dialogue, what others say about them, and all the delightful tidbits of information the narrator drops for us along the way. This story will appeal to children because by chapter 3, the children have embarked on a great adventure, have been victims of one mess-up after another, travel far away on their own, and meet some very intriguing characters as well

And don't even get me started on the eccentricities of those supporting characters! Potter is truly a talented writer to be able to conjure up so many amazing personalities.

But it's not enough to have great characters; if an author doesn't have a story worth telling, the premise will far apart. Happily, that is not the case for The Kneebone Boy. It has a great plot with several subplots woven in as well that tie together very nicely in the end, and results in a fabulous book. I won't be a bit surprised if The Kneebone Boy gets some love from the Newbery judges. It is well written and most definitely distinguished!

And so there you have it: 13 days of Looking for Newbery. We hope you've enjoyed spending time thinking about some of these possible Newbery contenders with us. There are other very worthy books we didn't get to talk about with only 13 days this year, so we apologize if we didn't include one of your favorites.

It certainly has been fun having you stop by. Please come back and visit on Sunday for our final wrap-up, and some predictions.

Looking for Newbery - Slob

I originally picked up this book for one reason, and one reason only... I was hungry, and it had a picture of an Oreo on the front cover. Unfortunately, I took it home and it's been sitting in a pile in my office until yesterday when I realized it was on the Starred Book List that Bookshelfer compiled. Granted, it was pretty far down the list, but it caught my attention.

Regardless, I'm really glad I read Slob by Ellen Potter. The main characters deviate from any kind of typical and I enjoyed them immensely (with one exception). The main character, Owen, has started to overeat in the past two years, and has become quite large (57% fatter than other kids his age). Potter does a fabulous job dropping clues throughout the story as to why that happened. Owen is also quite the inventor. Owen's younger sister, Jeremy, is part of a group of girls who have decided to get equal rights by adopting boys' names. Owen's neighbor is Nima, who grew up in India and has just recently moved to New York City. Nima makes his living by selling momas, a type of dumpling, from a cart on the sidewalk. One other very important character in this story is Mason Ragg. One side of Mason's face looks deformed, he works with a special aide from time to time, and everyone at school believes he carries a switchblade under his sock. Finally, there is the P.E. teacher who is quite detestable. Because I found him so unlikeable and downright mean, I was glad that Potter gave him the name Mr. Wooly. He was the epitome of a teacher who wants to degrade students, not teach them. Yuck!

This ecclectic cast of characters each has their own issues, but the way Potter intertwines their lives is quite interesting. There seems to be a surprise awaiting the reader at every twist and turn. The details of the characters' lives are given to us a little bit at a time. There are several times I found myself saying, "You're kidding me!" I honestly did not see certain plot twists coming. The reason the book has its title is nothing that I expected, but it makes for a very poignant ending to the book. The word I found myself saying about Potter's style, pacing, and plot twists was "subtle". She did a great job of misdirecting the readers' thoughts about the characters and what happens to them.

I'm not sure Slob is a book that will win the Newbery, however, it is most definitely a book that should be in classrooms. It would make for great conversation about stereotypes, about looking at more than just the outside of a person, and what motivates characters to do the things they do. Slob is a very good story.