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The Newbery Medal is considered the most prestigious in children's literature. The Caldecott Medal goes to the most distinguished picture book.

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I have been reading, this week, the books of right now—lauded prizewinners from across multiple categories.  I know bestsellerdom is many a writer's ambition.  I like to read, and I often learn from, books that win a jury's favor. 

Today I read Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me, the recent Newberry Medal winner.  It's a book that never once loses its footing in terms of tone—our narrator, Miranda, sounds precisely like the circa-1970s New York City sixth grader that she is.  Steadfast, observant, funny, open-hearted, Miranda loves her single mother and her mother's almost-perfect boyfriend, Richard.  She makes do with her less-than-perfect apartment in a less-than-perfect part of the city.  She had a best friend named Sal, but he's been eluding her.  She's opened herself to new friendships and, perhaps because she's such a devoted fan of Madeleine L'Engle stories, to the alluring idea of time travel. 

When You Reach Me crosses boundaries in inspired, endearing fashion.  It's a time travel mystery, or perhaps a character study, or a mother-daughter story, or a first-love story, or a best friendship story.  It's a story in which Miranda is both entirely real and utterly compassionate—she has qualities that we hope for in all our children.  And the grown-ups in this story are utterly lovable, too—not just Miranda's Mom and Richard, but a traveling dentist, and a school sergeant, and the guy who runs the deli.  There are good people, in other words, all throughout this book, and they're mixed up with something surreally strange.  Through it all, Stead does an outstanding job of making her characters feel real and near to us.  We want them to join us for dinner.

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Missed seeing some of the ALA winners on the Today Show this morning? You can watch it here, featuring:
Rebecca Stead, author of When You Read Me (winner of the 2010 Newbery Medal);

Jerry Pinkey, illustrator of The Lion and the Mouse, winner of the 2010 Caldecott Medal;

and ALA President, Camila Alire.

It would have been nice if they’d had a bit longer segment on the author, illustrator, and winning books, but I’m happy they featured them at all. What do you think?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Whenever I read books like The Giver, I am fascinated with the way the author has created this amazing future world that is so incredibly screwed up. I am a big fan of The Hunger Games series

which I’ve wrote about a couple times on this blog. When reading Suzanne Collins’s series, I an so reminded of The Giver. I don’t know if anyone else has ever been reminded of Lois Lowry’s book when reading The Hunger Games series. I love both, and so I had to remind everyone about The Giver today on Timeless Thursday!

In The Giver’s world, a twelve-year-old (can you imagine?) receives their life assignment at the annual Ceremony in December. Jonas is scared and wondering what type of Assignment he’ll receive from the Elders. Nobody wants to be a Sanitation Laborer for the rest of their lives. So, when Jonas is given a very special assignment when he’s twelve–he has been selected to be the next Receiver of Memory. He has to spend time with the Giver. It’s a very special honor, but he’s scared and wondering what in the world is in store for him, especially when he starts to learn the truth about the “perfection” in his world.

Although this book isn’t as old as some of my other Timeless Thursday selections (copyright 1993), it’s still extremely popular today and studied in many middle school or junior high classrooms. I also think it’s still going to be around for many, many more years because the plot can be discussed at length, the characters analyzed, and personal connections made with both when readers put themselves in Jonas’s world and ask, “What if this was me? What if I lived in this world? What would I do? What would I believe?”

If your children or students have read The Hunger Games or Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, you could also do a compare/contrast activity with The Giver by Lois Lowry. Students might also be inspired to write their own stories set in a future world where people think they have gotten life right and better, but they haven’t. Heck, I even have a rough draft or two of a beginning of a novel about that very topic!

One last thing. . .The Giver won the Newberry Medal in 1993.

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photo by carrera911e www.flickr.com

Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is a Newberry Medal winner and the beginning of a series about a beloved dog and a young boy, Marty Preston. I chose it for today’s “Timeless Thursday” because animal stories, especially well-written ones, are always a big hit with kids. This book, which I taught in a fifth-grade classroom, was a big hit with boys. Many of them were very upset at the treatment of Shiloh. Many of them can’t help talking and journaling about their own pets while reading Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s classic.

Don’t worry about Shiloh being outdated or not relating to today’s generation. It does. You can read this book out loud to students or use it in literature circles. While reading, discuss the themes of love, loyalty, friendship, honesty, and integrity. Discuss the characters of Marty and Judd Travers, and compare and contrast them. Let students make personal connections between the ideas in the story and in their own lives. You can do these same skills at home if you homeschool.

If your students love Shiloh, then they might want to check out Shiloh’s Season, too.

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