I’ve become quite addicted to the larger font sizes on ebooks and find it is dri­ving many of my read­ing choices these days. My July project for the Award-Winning Books Chal­lenge was to read all the New­bery win­ners I hadn’t read that are avail­able through Over­drive. A doable goal since it was only four titles.

Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins is a sweet sum­mer story. Wow, this one brought back mem­o­ries of junior high. While, as Deb­bie longed for, spe­cial things do hap­pen this sum­mer, it’s not a story for action lovers, but rather those who love char­ac­ter devel­op­ment and real­is­tic per­sonal growth.

Bud Not Buddy by Christo­pher Paul Cur­tis. What a char­ac­ter! Loved Bud’s voice as well as the char­ac­ters along the way. Def­i­nitely an engag­ing book for expos­ing chil­dren to the Depres­sion. Hav­ing read The Mighty Miss Mal­one first, I have to say Deza seemed like a mighty strange char­ac­ter in this book. Makes me want to reread the sec­tion in her book that recounts their meeting.

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. Loved this book. What an inter­est­ing cast of char­ac­ters and what a shock­ing turn of events. Sal’s voice com­pletely drew me in. I do believe she could make a flea fas­ci­nat­ing. Oh, what mar­velous grand­par­ents has! So glad I finally read this one. Inar­tic­u­late gush­ing all around!

A Door in the Wall by Mar­guerite de Angeli is a quiet and inspir­ing story about a spoiled boy who loses use of his legs. Or, as I said on Goodreads, an “out­line of a very inter­est­ing story exe­cuted in rather dull fash­ion.” The kind Brother who guides him and shows him the “doors in the wall” is the type of men­tor we want for all chil­dren, but every con­flict was resolved in such brief fash­ion that it was all rather dull despite the rob­bers, poten­tial bul­lies and invaders. While I some­times think books today have got­ten too long, A Door in the Wall was a clear exam­ple of ear­lier children’s lit­er­a­ture that is too short and thus lack­ing in detail.

To see what other chal­lenge par­tic­i­pants have been read­ing this month, visit the August Award Win­ning Books post.