February was another locked down month with a curfew in Quebec, and I was at home going nowhere. It snowed a lot. I saw a total of three other human beings in the whole month. The prevailing mood of this pandemic for many of us is “other people have it worse, but this sure sucks.” I read a perfectly reasonable seventeen books, and many of them were really excellent, which is always cheering.
This is the story of a young man with enough money to live on in London for a year and try to write, who entirely fails to achieve anything. It’s a comedy, though it is very sad, and you can see here the beginnings of the class consciousness which will make so much of Sharp’s later work so excellent. I enjoyed reading it, though I wouldn’t call it good, exactly. It also surprised me that it was 1932; it’s much more a book of the 1920s in feel. For Sharp completists, I suppose. Don’t start here. But I am excited to have so much new to me Sharp available as ebooks.
The 2020 Caldecott Medal, for outstanding illustration
This year’s Caldecott Medal goes to
The Undefeated (Amazon) illustrated by the incredible Kadir Nelson, and written by Kwame Alexander. It’s on nearly every best children’s books of 2020 list, and has won numerous awards for its depiction of the strength of the Black contribution to American society. Start here for a must-have book for your collection at home, no matter how old your kids.
The 2020 Newbery Medal, for outstanding writing
I’m fascinated to see a graphic novel win the Newbery Medal this year, but the numerous awards that
New Kid (Amazon) by Jerry Craft received, make it clear that this book is something special. It’s about a middle school boy who loves to draw, but struggles to fit in at his new prestigious high school where he’s one of the few children of color in his grade.