Home/Newbery by Year/Newbery Title Index/Newbery Subject Index/Newbery Author Index

1968

Editor's Note: Many of the books are out of print. The header information will be as complete as I can make it.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (Atheneum, $16, fifth-grade level). ISBN: 0689205864.	The Medalist A girl runs away from her Long Island home with her little brother. They hide in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and become enmeshed in an art mystery. Good lessons about research and money management. The girl's quest is driven by her need to have something that distinguishes her from the crowd. She is ready for more responsibility and thus the book can be read as a coming-of-age novel. Among the half dozen other sub-themes is the interesting point that everyone needs their own secrets.
Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me by E.L. Konigsburg (Atheneum, $16, fifth-grade level). ISBN: 0689300077.	Honor Book A lonely girl and her mom move into an apartment building, where her only friend is an odd black girl who is obsessed with witchcraft. Good lessons about loneliness, friendship, and being different. Would work well with Afternoon of the Elves and The Headless Cupid.
The Black Pearl by Scott O'Dell (Houghton Mifflin, $17, fourth-grade level). ISBN: 0395069610.	Honor Book A boy in Baja California discovers a giant black pearl that brings death and bad luck to all who seek to possess it. Story contains elements of The Old Man and the Sea and Moby Dick. Nice adventure story (easy to read) on one level and heavily symbolic tale about evil, art, the artist, greed and nature on another.
The Fearsome Inn by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Scribner, fifth-grade level). LOC: 67-23693. Out of print	Honor Book It takes magic chalk and a deep knowledge of ancient Jewish rituals to save three young men and women from the clutches of an evil pair. Well, if you want to scare the noodles out of your kids, let them read this story. It is by far one of the creepiest among the Newbery clan. The theological focus on both good (inspired by God) and bad (inspired by Satan) will keep this book out of most classrooms.
The Egypt Game by Elizabeth Keatley Snyder (Atheneum, $17, fifth-grade level). ISBN: 0689300069.	Honor Book A group of ethnically mixed kids form a secret society in an abandoned building and perform harmless rituals from Egyptian lore. The story has a subplot, understated, that includes a serial killer/molester? of children. Much weaker than The Headless Cupid, but interesting interactions among the kids.

Copyright David Ross 2003