Newbery Honor 2010, Maine Student Book Award Nominee 2010-2011

I really liked this book, enough so that I plan on filling out a nomination sheet for next year's MSBA list. (It made it!)

Calpurnia Tate is 11 years old, and only has brothers: five of them. Girls at her time are supposed to be wives, possibly teachers. She is interested in nature and spends a lot of time with her grandfather, exploring the area around her Texas home. When her mother begins to notice, however, she feels that Calpurnia needs to concentrate more on her "womanly" skills, which Calpurnia hates. Over the course of 1899, Calpurnia struggles with going back and forth between the dreaded chores and what she really loves and eventually comes to a conclusion at the end of the book.

Maine Student Book Award Nominee 2010-2011

I was okay with this book until the "romance" part of it. Then I just laughed a lot and couldn't take the book seriously any more. Although I suppose, for a middle school audience, the romance was appropriate.

I like this book. I think it gives a pretty good overview of what bones are, how they work, and has neat illustrations comparing our bones to animal bones.

I think I like this story so much because it reminds me of my own behavior at the beach when I was a child.

Who hasn't wished their little brother would just go away?

Caldecott Honor 2011, Cybils Winner for Best Picture Book

I was a little confused by the concept at first, but once I started reading it, I really enjoyed it.

Caldecott Winner 2011

I don't know if I just have an issue with nonfiction written for younger readers in general or if I just find this year's award-winning selections to be mostly subpar. I honestly thought this was just a story for most of it and remember feeling rather confused when I realized it was true. I'm also not much of a gum chewer and I don't really know how to blow bubbles, so perhaps that affected my judgment of the book as well.