Miracles on Maple Hill

Title: Miracles on Maple Hill
Author: Virginia Sorenson
Illustrator: Beth and Joe Krush
Publication Date: 1956
Award won: 1957 Newbery Honor
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books.

Brief Plot Summary

Marly is a ten year old girl who lives in Pittsburgh with her older brother Joe and her parents. Her father was in WWII and cannot work. He is unwell. So Marly and her family go to the country where they meet Mr. Chris who shows them all sorts of wonderful things about sugaring season.
Longer Plot Summary on Goodreads

Review

I think that this is the kind of book that I would have loved had I discovered it as a young girl. I would have really identified with Marly and her discovery of nature. I am not really entirely sure that I was ever as enamored of nature as children in books were. Their encounters with nature were less full of stinging nettles than mine apparently.  As it is I liked it well enough so that it gets a solid 3 stars on Goodreads. Marly is a likable character but she is a little naive.

Would I recommend it to children today? Well yes but it would have to be the sort of child who liked old-fashioned family focused books which is definitely  not all children.

One of the reasons that I wanted to do this was to see how much children's books have changed over the years and how the kinds of books that win the Newbery have changed. This book is about a simpler time. There is very little in the way of modern conveniences.

Obligatory Introduction Post.

Hello! First of all I want to say that I know this is not the most original idea in the world and I know others have done similar things. So what am I planning on doing? Well that is simple. Reading all the Newbery Medal winner and honor books and reading all the Printz winner and honor books and blogging about them. For variation I also thought that I would read all the Carnegie Medal winners too.

So what is the Newbery Medal?
http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberymedal
It has been awarded since 1922 for excellence in Children's literature.

What is the Carnegie Medal?
http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/carnegie/full_list_of_winners.php
It has been awarded since 1936 and is the British award for excellence in Children's literature.

Finally what is the Printz?
http://www.ala.org/yalsa/printz
This is for excellence in Young Adult literature and is a much more recent award.

Isn't that a lot of books?
Yes. But I have read some of them and I was planning on tackling the books I hadn't read first so they will count towards my Goodreads reading goal. I'm anticipating that this will take me several years. It isn't something that I am going to do all at once.

How often will you update?
Well I read faster than I blog so not particularly often.