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Newbery – Enchantress from the Stars
This was a surprisingly philosophical book. Elana wrestles several times with herself over what the best move should be when her gut reaction differs from her ethical code. Yet somehow the moralizing...
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Chapter Books – Phantom Tollbooth
Milo is always in too much of a hurry to look around him, yet bored and dull when he arrives. One day he is surprised to discover a package in his room. It turns out to be the start of a great...
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Newbery Project – KneeKnock Rise
This was a perfect little fable-like tale. The language was wonderful: “It moaned like a lonely demon, like a mad despairing animal, like a huge and anguished something chained forever in its own great...
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Chapter Book – Navigating Early
Jack is feeling like a fish out of water – if that’ s the right analogy for a landlocked Kansas boy plunked down at a coastal Maine boarding school just after WWII. Still unmoored by his mother’s...
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Newbery Project – Volcano
Possibly the only full-on science book in the Newbery canon so far (I haven’t read Man and Microbes yet, so I’m not sure if that’s mostly history or mostly science – but that’s the only other science...
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Young Adult – Pretty Girl-13
The last thing Angie remembers is the Girl Scout camping trip. Then, suddenly, she’s standing in front of her house, her feet sore and wearing clothes she’s never seen before. Her parents freak out...
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Chapter Book – Center of Everything
Ruby Pepperdine is waiting to give a speech, the chosen Essay Girl for her town’s annual parade and celebration of the donut. But as the moments tick down towards her big moment, she has bigger worries...
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Newbery Project – Cat Who Went to Heaven
A cat watches as his owner paints a picture of animals for Buddhist monks. The painter loves his cat but knows that he cannot put a cat within the picture because cats are the one animal that was not...
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Newbery Project – Strawberry Girl
Ten year old Birdie is excited about starting on her new farm in Flordia, but a feud with a neighboring family brings tension and unwelcome excitement. This book almost rated four stars, but the highly...
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Newbery Project – Whittington
A Newbery Honor book in 2006, this is several stories in one package. A barnyard full of animals comes together to teach a young boy how to read, while at the same time recounting the famous story of...
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Newbery Project – Bomb
Bomb tells the story of the creation of the atomic bomb, the sabotage efforts to keep Germany from creating their own, and the spies on all sides trying to discover information. A Newbery Honor book in...
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Newbery Project – Moon Over Manifest
Sometimes you read a book knowing that it won an award, and all you can think is “huh?” Other times knowing that the award has already been achieved allows you to pay more attention to the excellent...
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Chapter Books – Water Castle
This probably really is a four star book for me, except that I had very high expectations that were not met, and I think that soured it a little. That’s the problem with excellent buzz sometimes....
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Newbery Project – Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, and me, Elizabeth
I quite liked this book, which won a 1968 Newbery Honor, more so than the winner that year – which was also by the extremely talented and apparently very quick writer E.L. Konigsburg. I realize I’m...
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Chapter Books – A Tangle of Knots
I very much enjoyed this fun little book about an orphan, but something holds me back from loving it. The many coincidences did not bother me, because the themes of fate and destiny running through the...
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Newbery Project – Wheel on the Schoolhouse
This was a sweet story that managed to just dance back from becoming sentimental. It is very distinguished in its interpretation of theme, with the entire village being necessary to accomplish the...
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Newbery Project – Amos Fortune, Free Man
I had grave misgivings before I began reading this book. It won the Newbery Award, yes, but it won in 1951, and it’s a book about a black man written by a white woman. In 1950. That’s enough to give me...
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Newbery Project – Joey Pigza Loses Control
I have not read the first book in the series, so I came at this book with no prior knowledge of Joey or his relationships with family members. Looking at the book from a Newbery perspective (the book...
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Engineering Challenge: Newspaper Structures
For this Engineering Challenge we built structures that were large enough to fit inside using nothing but newspaper and masking tape. The structures had to be free standing, but did not need to have...
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Bathroom STEM: Winter Patterns
Putting up STEM questions and activities on the bathroom wall is a great use of available space, while at the same time capitalizing on a captive audience. I wanted a winter theme for this Bathroom...
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