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

1937

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

Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer (Viking Press, fifth-grade level). ISBN: 0140303588 (1986 reprint)	The Medalist A high-spirited girl spends a year getting to know the denizens of New York when her society parents spend time in Italy and place her with lenient keepers. Lucinda is a girl child of the modern era stuck in the late 1800s. She has the openness, fearlessness and lack of class awareness that will come to mark later generations. She befriends fruit sellers, cab drivers, policeman and poor musicians. This book has many of the traits of the Horatio Alger nonsense that marked children's literature at the beginning of the 1900s. However, two interesting episodes (the murder of a Chinese woman Lucinda befriended, and the death of a little girl) jolt the reader. At any rate, Lucinda is a wonderful character but I fear the dated nature of Sawyer's writing will turn off modern readers.
Phebe Fairchild: Her Book by Lois Lenski. Out of print	Honor Book A city girl used to the frills and trappings or urban life rebels under the hard lifestyle of her country relatives who welcome her for nearly a year while her parents journey to Europe. Phebe reacts most negatively to Aunt Hannah, a spinster with a strong Puritanical streak. The girl is spunky, though, and manages to charm everyone else with her open-eyed naiveté about country life. She has a few mild adventures. By the standards of the day, Lenski did a boatload of research. Phebe's lack of knowledge gives Lenski an open door and she uses it to share a fair amount of information about country life, circa 1820. Despite much reading, I learned many tiny details about the lifestyle and technology of the time. This book fits quite snugly into a favored Newbery theme: High-spirited girls sent to the country for a reality check. For other examples, see The Singing Tree, The Golden Name Day and The Witch of Blackbird Pond.
Whistler's Van by Idwal Jones (Viking Press, sixth-grade level). Out of print	Honor Book A Welsh boy learns of his Gypsy heritage when he wanders away from the farm to track his grandfather, who disappeared in the night. The book begins slowly, revealing its age. However, when the reader gets beyond the first 20 pages he or she will encounter a marvelously sympathetic portrayal of the Gypsies and their lifestyle. The book, on another level, is a swan song for the demise of horses as a form of transportation and the arrival of the automobile and all it signified. The Gypsies, more so than any other cultural group, were damaged by the urbanization that occurred in the early part of the last century. This novel, gently, pays homage to our rural past and the importance of cultural knowledge.
The Golden Basket by Ludwig Bemelmans (Viking Press, fourth-grade level).. Out of print	Honor Book A British gentleman takes his two young daughters along with him for a brief vacation in Bruges, Belgium, where they quickly ensconce themselves in the social life of the lovely hotel (whose name, translated to English, provides the title) in which they spend their time. The girls quickly get to know the adults who live and work in the hotel by unashamedly poking their noses into every room. During one outing around town they come across a little girl named Madeleine, who comes to figure prominently in children's literature for the next 75 years. In this story, though, she is just another minor character etched to perfection by Bemelmans. Bemelmans is a brilliant writer, one whose skill is untouched by the whims of literary taste as they change from decade to decade. He polishes each word like a river stone. The rhythm, tone and pace are turned to perfection. The narrative itself is an afterthought; the story is told in vignettes. He uses the girls to puncture the formality of the adults, who seem only too glad to doff the rigidity that decorum demands. But none of that matters. I shall never forget the ease with which he draws a character, the grace with which he insinuates humor into every event, and, above all the peerless skill with which he works words.
Winterbound by Margery Williams Bianco (Viking Press, sixth-grade level). Out of print	Honor Book A resourceful family of kids, displaced by the Depression to a small home in the country, makes good during the sixth months their parents spend away earning money. This is an odd book. I'm not even sure how to categorize it. It's part coming of age and part character study. It is a Little Women of sorts. The kids range from preteens to early adults. Over the months of independence, they all begin to see an outline of their future callings. The female characters, young and old, are notable for their persistence and honesty. As such, girls will find positive role models. Note: The author is much more famous for writing the Velveteen Rabbit.
The Codfish Musket by Agnes Hewes (Junior Literary Guild/Doubleday, seventh-grade level).. Out of print	Honor Book A naïf who works along the Boston harbor sees history in the making when he becomes a tool for Thomas Jefferson to help jumpstart the Lewis and Clarke expedition. Dan Boit loses his last constraint when his grandfather dies so he jumps at the chance to go to Washington on business. A chance encounter and his brutal sincerity earn him a job with Jefferson. Dan is a witness to history and a sounding board for the president, so the reader gets to listen in on contrived but entertaining conversations about politics circa 1800. The most interesting character in the book is dead before the first page. He's a fellow named John Ledyard, whom Hewes implies is Jefferson's inspiration for the Lewis and Clarke expedition. Ledyard is such a fascinating character in absentia that I plan to do so research on him and, perhaps, write a brief biography for a history magazine. In any case, Hewes has a flair for the melodramatic (see Spice and the Devil's Cave) she can't restrain even while writing  well-crafted historical fiction. The subplot between Dan and a gun-runner drags on far too long but "The Codfish Musket" is an interesting read for history buffs. Interesting note: Armstrong Sperry, who won Newberys of his own for Call it Courage and All Set Sail: A Romance of the Flying Cloud handled the illustrations for this book.
Audubon by Constance Rourke (Harcourt Brace, eighth-grade level). Out of print	Honor Book The sketchy life of America's most famous naturalist/artist is brought to partial light by my favorite biographer of the era. Although the name "Audubon" is virtually known in every American household, hard details about his life are difficult to ascertain. There is much confusion about his birth. Some, Rourke among them, make a case for Audubon being the long-lost Dauphin who escaped the French Revolution. Rourke spends a great deal of time writing about the nature that Audubon loved and explored first hand. She also devotes much attention to his artistic style and the criticisms that have dogged him for nearly 200 years. She is a staunch defender of the man as both painter and scientist. This, like her biography of Davy Crockett, is a book out of time. She is oh so modern in her approach and the quality of her scholarship. That said, virtually no child on earth would be interested in this book.

Copyright David Ross 2003