Match the Newbery Plot: Part 4 Quiz

Answer: Adam of the Road

Adam and his father are minstrels and consider the road their home. Soon after Adam's dog Nick is stolen, the boy is separated from his father and has a series of adventures trying to find them both. Elizabeth Janet Gray wrote this 1943 book that's set in the 13th century. While it takes a while for the main plot to start, I liked this book.

Answer: Ginger Pye

This 1951 book by Eleanor Estes follows a family and their dog. Jerry Pye works to earn $1 to buy a puppy, whom the family names Ginger. The first half of the book is about Jerry and his sister buying and enjoying their dog; however, they're also afraid someone may steal him. Ginger disappears on Thanksgiving, and the rest of the book details the family's efforts to find him.

Answer: It's Like This, Cat

Dave, a boy living in New York City, adopts one of the many cats a neighbor owns, and names him Cat. The book is fairly low-key and follows the various small and larger events in his life, from visiting Coney Island to losing Cat during a vacation. Emily Cheney Neville evokes 1960s New York very well in her 1963 novel.

Answer: A Visit to William Blake's Inn

Nancy Willard's 1981 book consists of poetry and illustrations about an amazing hotel with guests like tigers, cats, rabbits, and cows. The book's subtitle, "Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers", is a reference to William Blake's book "Songs of Innocence and Experience". One of Willard's poems, "Two Sunflowers Move into the Yellow Room", has sometimes been mistakenly attributed to William Blake himself.

Answer: Shiloh

Young Marty takes in Shiloh, an abused beagle. Shiloh's owner Judd demands the dog back. Marty doesn't want the dog to go back to a man who beats him, but his parents say that Judd owns the dog and can treat him however he wants. Marty then tries to get Judd to sell him Shiloh.

This book probably couldn't take place in modern America because of the protection animals have now--if Marty saw a dog being beaten, he could call the ASPCA instead of trying to buy him. Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's short 1991 book has a happy ending and spawned sequels.

Answer: The Wheel on the School

After the only girl in a small school notices that storks haven't been in her village for years, she discovers that other towns put wheels on their roofs so the birds have a level place to nest. The kids, and eventually the adults, all search for a wagon wheel to put on the school roof.

This is the only plotline in the 300-page 1954 book by Meindert DeJong. While I liked that the adults always listened to the kids and let them explain themselves, I thought the book was too long and the plot stretched too thin.

Answer: Flora & Ulysses

Flora's a girl whose parents are divorced. She lives with her mother, whom she can't get along with. She rescues a squirrel (Ulysses) who's sucked into a vacuum, after which he develops superpowers. A number of comic strips throughout the novel show us his superhero adventures. This 2013 book gave Kate DiCamillo her second Newbery Medal.

Answer: Sounder

The father is eventually sent to a chain gang for poaching, while Sounder is injured. While searching for the prison his father was sent to, the boy comes across a school and is offered a place there. The boy and his father aren't named in the book. "Sounder" was made into a film in 1972.

The film ends quite differently from the book, which was written by William H. Armstrong in 1969.

Answer: ...And Now Miguel

Miguel wants to travel to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the summer to help the men in his family herd sheep. He gets his wish, but not in the way he wanted. This 1953 book was made into a film in 1966. Joseph Krumgold was the first author to win more than one Newbery Medal. His other such honored book is "Onion John".

Answer: Secret of the Andes

A boy, Cusi, and his llama, Misti, go on a journey to find his people. They find a village, and Cusi has to decide whether or not to stay there. Many readers today know about Ann Nolan Clark's 1952 book because it beat E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web" for the Medal.