Winterhouse

Guterson, Ben. Winterhouse. Illustrated by Chloe Bristol. New York: Holt Books for Young Readers, 2018.

Orphan Elizabeth Somers stays lives with her impoverished aunt and uncle. She loves books and puzzles, especially word puzzles. When they announce vacation plans for themselves and a stay at a grand house called Winterhouse for her, she wonders who paid for it. On the train she meets some creepy people who get off at the same stop and go to the same house. They cause problems from the moment they set foot in the door. Elizabeth soon meets the owner of the home who welcomes her. Elizabeth loves puzzles and helps a couple of men place a piece in what must be one of the largest and most challenging jigsaws of all time. She possesses a "magic touch" where when things "seem right" she feels it. She meets a boy about her age who has come alone to Winterhouse for several years and works on a scientific project for the owner. She loves books and libraries and finds a very interesting book in the reference collection she takes to her room for further study, even though she knows she should not. The house contains many puzzles begging for solution. This book will entertain readers in upper elementary to early middle school grades. Readers will want a few word puzzles of their own so parents (and teachers) should prepare for this outcome. The book creates a springboard to discuss good versus evil. I received an advance electronic copy of the book through NetGalley with the expectation of writing an unbiased review.

Thoughts on Newbery Book Rankings

Allen County Public Library created a ranking of Newbery Medal Books based on how much enjoyment their biased group of readers had from reading them. The top book was Lois Lowry's The Giver. I don't think that would have been my first choice, but I'm sure it wasn't the top choice of each of their biased readers. Russell Freedman's Lincoln: A Photobiography was number three. This book was all the rage about the time I was studying in library school. It's nice to see that it has lived up to all its hype at the time. Lois Lowry's Number the Stars came in at number four. I really enjoy Holocaust fiction, so I'm glad to see this one with such a high ranking on the list. Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time from 1963 came in at number six. This one has certainly stood the test of time. Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia came in at number seven. This one was a favorite of a professor of mine in library school although we were well aware of the controversy surrounding the book which often made it a "banned book." Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry came in at number eight. It deals with African-Americans in Mississippi during the 1930s. It was a difficult book for me to read when I read it about 20 years ago. I think my biggest problem with it then (which is still a big problem for me today) is that it seems that Mississippi is ALWAYS portrayed as prejudiced against blacks. Almost all the books and even scholarly research seem to be centered on the Civil Rights era. I'd love to see some other depictions about the state in which I grew up. I am not denying that this existed, but it seems that literature ignores everything else about the state of Mississippi and gives people a lasting bad impression of the state. I was a bit surprised that Patricia MacLachlan's Sarah, Plain and Tall did not rank higher than twelve. Of course, I've always enjoyed a good frontier story. This one is set a little later than that, but it still evokes a simpler time and place. Linda Sue Park's A Single Shard is in my to be read pile. I hope I can get to it soon. It came in at number fourteen and deals with a 12th century Korean potter. I wish Joan Blos' A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal 1830-32 had ranked a bit higher than thirty-four on the list, but some of the biased reviewers probably don't like history and genealogy as much as I do. I was surprised that Elizabeth George Speare's The Witch of Blackbird Pond only came in at number forty-six. It's such a classic. Another one that I'm surprised ranked as low as it did is Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins. It came in at fifty-nine. I have to agree with their assessment of Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Brink (#61). It is a bit dated for today's audiences. I remember enjoying, but not being blown away by Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (#68). As someone who used to collect dolls, I had to read Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field. It's #72 ranking doesn't surprise me. In fact, I'm surprised it's not a bit lower. Apparently the group considered it a miracle that they made it through Virginia Eggertsen Sorensen's Miracles on Maple Hill (#74). I honestly don't remember it being that bad. I have to be honest about Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs (#80). The librarian at our public library thrust this book at me when I was in about the second or third grade. I didn't like it then. I never tried to read it again although I loved Alcott's books. Maybe I should re-read it and see if I agree with the group's assessment of it. The lowest of the 89 books that I've actually read was #85, Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright. I don't remember that much about it, so it left no lasting impression.

It's certainly an interesting list. It's really no surprise that my personal favorites are probably those which are more in the category of historical fiction or set in times in the past.

ACL 2007 Workshops

LibraryThing was down when the workshops for it were scheduled. I felt sorry for the presenter who had to rely on PowerPoint backup, but at least he had that! They were having a bookcover pile contest while it was down. We considered having a pile of librarians who were trying to access librarians while it was down and submitting that, but we didn't!

One of my colleagues and myself have talked several times about the workshop that showed how one library is using Facebook to reach its students where they are. I believe that we'll all be talking about how we can utilize Web 2.0 technologies to reach students in the coming academic year.

Another very interesting workshop was the one on customized toolbars which allow one to search things such as the library's online catalog, databases, and citation style guides. I'm already trying to figure out what we would need to include on one for our students. The presenters did tell us that it took time to develop them because of the code involved, but it is so useful that it will be worth the time.

I went to two cataloging workshops--one on authority control and one on metadata. I was very pleased with the direction the authority control presenter took. She approached it from the how it is changing and is likely to change perspective rather than it being a "how to" workshop. I know there were some in attendance who were looking for something a bit more hands-on, but having experience in the area, I was grateful for a more futuristic approach. The metadata was a good review for me of some of the skills that I'd been taught at a workshop back in about 2000. I really had not utilized this except in one digitization project since that time, and it was helpful to see the core elements of metadata for libraries once again.

The picture book update was great! This is the workshop where we get to pass around a lot of picture books which came out in the previous year. It's always interesting.

Children's Lit Blog

A retired elementary librarian has a blog called BooksForKidsBlog. (Hat tip to Instapundit)