Match the Newbery Plot: Part 2 Quiz

Answer: A Year Down Yonder

This 2000 book is a sequel to Richard Peck's "A Long Way from Chicago". In that book, two siblings are sent to live with their crazy grandma for several years. In this book, only the sister, Mary Alice, is sent, as her brother Joey has joined the army.

She once again has adventures with her grandmother, including thwarting pranksters, foiling bullies, and taking in an artist. Personally, I preferred the first book to the second.

Answer: Out of the Dust

"Out of the Dust", a 1997 book by Karen Hess, is a novel told in verse. Billie Jo's family has a farm, and their wheat crops are devastated by the dust storms of the 1930s. To make matters worse, a fire starts, and Billie Jo accidentally sets her mother on fire, thinking that the bucket of kerosene she pours on her is water. Billie Jo has to find a way to go on when her mother dies shortly afterwards in childbirth.

Answer: Moon Over Manifest

Abilene hops a train and goes to live in her father's hometown, Manifest, hoping to find out about his past. She discovers many secrets about the town, and even hunts a spy. I enjoyed Clare Vanderpool's 2010 debut novel.

Answer: Bud, Not Buddy

Bud (never call him Buddy!) has gone from foster home to foster home since his mother died. Finally, he strikes out on his own to find his father, whom he believes is a jazz musician. Christopher Paul Curtis wrote this 1999 book that evokes the Great Depression well.

Answer: Thimble Summer

Garnet finds a thimble and becomes convinced that it is a good luck charm, as the entire summer is wonderful for her. For one thing, rain comes afterwards and breaks a drought. For another, her pig wins at the fair.

"Thimble Summer" makes an interesting companion to two other Medal winners of the 1930s, "Caddie Woodlawn" and "Roller Skates", because all three girls do not act like traditional girls and have a wild streak to them. However, unlike Caddie and Lucinda, Garnet is not forced to change her ways at the end and keeps going on with her life as it is. Elizabeth Enright's book came out in 1938.

Answer: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Cassie Logan, a girl living in Mississippi, faces racism in a way she hasn't before. She's publicly humiliated when a white girl tells her to get in the street, and feels worse when her grandmother tells her to do what the girl says (Cassie eventually gets revenge).

She sees the further effects of racism when it looks like a friend will get the death penalty for a murder he didn't commit, simply because he's black. Mildred Taylor followed this 1976 book with a few sequels, including "Let the Circle Be Unbroken" and "The Land".

Answer: Johnny Tremain

Johnny is apprenticed to a silversmith, but is let go when his hand is disfigured. It's not quite an accident: a fellow apprentice gives him a cracked cup, hoping the liquid metal will spill out and burn him. Johnny ends up working at a printing press and spying for the Sons of Liberty in the years leading up to the American Revolution. Esther Forbes wrote this 1943 book.

Answer: Rifles for Watie

Jeff Bussey joins the Union (North) side of the Civil War and primarily fights in Kansas and Oklahoma. After a time, he ends up fighting on the Confederate (South) side, and finds out that both sides, and the people who fight on them, are not as clear-cut and simple as he thought. Harold Keith's 1957 book is one of the longer Newbery Medal books, and I enjoyed it.

Answer: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!

This book is a set of monologues and dialogues given by a variety of children in a medieval town. They are the children of a miller, a knight, a doctor, a Lord, a glassblower, a blacksmith, a beggar, and much more. Laura Amy Schlitz wrote this 2007 book to be performed at a school in Baltimore.

Answer: Crispin: The Cross of Lead

Orphan Crispin is falsely accused of theft and may be killed on sight. He takes to the road with a man named Bear as he tries to learn about his father and avoid Aycliffe, who wants him dead. Avi's 2002 book begins the Crispin trilogy, which continues with "At the Edge of the World" and "The End of Time".