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1970

Editor's Note: From this point backward in time, many of the books are out of print. The header information will be as complete as I can make it.

Sounder by William H. Armstrong ($12.76, Harper-Collins, fifth-grade level). ISBN: 0060201436.	The Medalist   A black boy, the proud owner of a wonderful dog, searches for his father, who was taken away and put in prison for stealing food. This is a powerful, emotional story. Extremely well-written. Everything is understated, which allows the emotion to speak for itself. Kids quite often tear up while reading it. Armstrong gives us history lessons on share-cropper life in the post-Civil War South. Companion pieces could include Shiloh or Where the Red Fern Grows.
Our Eddie by Sulamith Ish-Kishor ($14.60, fifth-grade level).ASIN: 039481455X.   Out of print	Honor Book A Jewish family fights to succeed despite several tragedies and the harshness of an autocratic father. This is an oddly structured book. The first couple of chapters are told from the perspective of a boy who becomes a daily visitor to the family. The meat of the book switches to the perspective of a daughter. Then the final chapters revert to the perspective of the boy, who finds the family years later in a New York tenement. The father is obsessed with strictly following Jewish law even at the risk of losing his children and wife. As such, it could stand as a metaphor for religious inflexibility. This is not a book with a wide appeal.
The Many Ways of Seeing by Janet Moore (World Publishing Company, sixth-grade level). LOC: 67-23348.   Out of print	Honor Book The author provides a thoughtful primer for understanding ancient and modern art. This is another book that shouldn't be out of print. Moore concisely explains to young (and old) readers how to look at the component parts of a piece of art and then understand the emotional/subjective elements. This would be an excellent book to bring to a classroom studying art. Heck, it would even work as how-too book for youngsters learning how to paint or sculpt.
Journey Outside by Mary Q. Steele ($18.75, Peter Smith Publishing, fifth-grade level). ISBN: 0844661694.	Honor Book A boy living in an underground cave society discovers the world above ground. This book could only have been written in the late 1960s because its filled with much nonsense about oppressive political systems and stultifying social rules. The novel could be read as a political/social allegory in the vein of Gulliver's Travels, but you'd have to walk a long mile to make that type of connection. Two books (The City of Ember and The People of Sparks) written by Jeanne DuPrau in 2003 and 2004 seem to have been inspired by this novel, if not literally, then spiritually.

Copyright David Ross 2003