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1960

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

Onion John by Joseph Krumgold (HarperCollins, $15.89, fifth-grade level). ISBN: 0690046987.	The Medalist A boy becomes best friends with an odd man in a small town. The town adopts the man as its pet but ruins his life. The lesson here is obvious: Doing good deeds for your own selfish purposes while ignoring needs of the needy is a disaster. Excellent detail on problems of father/son relationships as a boy ages and seeks independence. It would be easy to make a unit out of Newbery books that deal with the downtrodden and/or homeless: this novel, Crazy! Lady, Maniac Magee, The Family Under the Bridge, etc.
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (Penguin USA, $12.79, fifth-grade level). ISBN: 0525463461.	Honor Book A boy runs away from his crowded New York apartment and takes up living the outdoor life on an ancestral plot of land his family owns in the Catskill Mountains. Good adventure yard with tons of detail about living off the land. Kind of hokey by today's standards. Goes well with dozens of books, including Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. She also wrote a couple of sequels, too.
America is Born: A History for Peter by Gerald W. Johnson (Morrow, fifth-grade level). LOC: 59-7405. Out of print	Honor Book The author provides an easy-to-read yet insightful look at the colonization of America and the drive to independence. I have become a huge fan of Johnson's work because he teaches history by telling stories. His work may not always be politically correct by today's standards (he refers to Indians as "savages") yet he never fails to praise America for its successes and to criticize our country for its shortcomings. I wish this book were still in print.
The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall (Odyssey, $13.60, seventh-grade level). ISBN: 0152024875.	Honor Book A strange, isolated group of people called the Minnipens have to reclaim their past and save their future by fighting off an invading force from outside their hidden valley. The Minnipens have lived in isolation for so many centuries that they have become quite odd in their ways. Traditions dominate their life and allow for virtually no individual expression. A band of four that the crowd names the Outlaws question tradition and decide to move to a new location in the valley and create their own community. The Outlaws, because of their independence, save Minnipen culture when the invading Mushroom people arrive with murder in their hearts. This is a remarkably odd book that is very difficult to get into. The first half of the book reads like a political allegory and is a damning indictment of conformity, class structure and tradition. The second half, when the Outlaws break away, turns into a stirring action story. Despite the superficial simplicity of the beginning of the book, I can see teachers in high school government classes using this novel to analyze how governments are created and retain power. It is a weird one, though.

Copyright David Ross 2003