Sunflower 2016 Winner

Hello,
I mentioned our Sunflower Award earlier in the school year and gave a list of book titles we are reading for this. Our winner for 2016 is:

The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. (2015)

Ada was born with a club foot. Her mother is ashamed of her twisted foot and does not let Ada out of the apartment, so for ten years, Ada has been stuck there. War comes and the British children are being sent to the country to be safe. Ada’s younger brother Jamie is to go to the train station. Ada knows that her life is bad enough now with a mother who treats her cruelly, and without her brother, it will be worse, so she sneaks out and joins him. They are placed with Susan who does not seem to want them, but she does her duty to feed and clothe them and take care of them. Ada sees a pony in the pasture and learns to ride, so finally she is able to move like the wind rather than crawl around. Over time the children and Susan bond and learn to love each other.
Parts of this story are difficult to read since the children’s mother is really very cruel to Ada. Ada’s resourcefulness and grit help her get through it and the story ends well for the children.

This book won a Newbery Honor this year along with other awards and is a New York Times bestseller.

Our runner up came in very close, just a couple of votes between the two. I actually did not get a change to read it myself, but my adult reader loved it and a couple of my student readers were having difficulty choosing between it and our winner.

The runner up is:
Diary of A Waitress: the Not-so-Glamorous Life of a Harvey Girl by Carolyn Meyer

Years ago Judy Garland was in a movie about The Harvey Girls and told the story of young girls who helped settle the West by working in Harvey Restaurants along the railroads. You may have seen this movie at some point. This is another story of a girl who decided to become a Harvey girl. It is a view of a historical part of our country that we hear little about. I kept trying to read it, but both copies of our book were out for the students to read. Now, I can finally get a copy again and finish the book!

Have a great week.

Audrey

Currently Reading:
I, Q: The White House by Roland Smith
The Last Boy at St. Edith’s by Lee Gjertsen Malone
The Centurion’s Wife by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke
Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl (Audible)
The Intrusion of Jimmy by P. G. Wodehouse
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell (Audible)
It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas