The 2008 Children's Book awards are out, and Richfield Library has purchased many of the books which have gotten awards. The Newberry winner and honor books, including Elijah of Buxton, The Wednesday Wars, Feathers, and the 2008 winner Good Masters, Sweet Ladies: Voices from a Medieval Village are here. The 2008 Caldecott winner and honor books for illustrations have come, and you can check out The Invention of Hugo Cabaret, Knuffle Bunny Too, and First, the Egg. Don't forget the "Dr Seuss Awards" for First, The Egg and There is a Bird on Your Head. The Printz Award for teens is The White Darkness, a thriller by G. MCCaughrean. (I have only just pried myself away from White Darkness to update this blog and let me tell you, I'm going right back to it!)
The Schneider awards go to the best books featuring a disabled protagonist, and this year Kami and the Yaks has a wonderful hero in a deaf child in Mongolia. Hurt, Go Happy is a great teen book of a deaf girl who has only done lip reading who meets a scientist with a signing chimpanzee.
I'll be reviewing all these books in the weeks to come, but I can already recommend Elijah of Buxton, by Christopher Curtis (author of that children's classic Bud, Not Buddy - a great book & read in the audio version by James Avery in on of the most marvelously read books on audio). Curtis has once again melded a black historical setting with a set of unforgettable characters. Not only will you learn about Buxton, the highly successful Canadian settlement carved out of the wilderness by ex-slaves who escaped from America. You'll also meet villians, buffoons, and quiet heroes, who can find the courage to do what they need to do to resist an inhumane system while helping their fellow man.
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