Allison Wonderland

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village Author: Laura Amy Schlitz Illustrator: Robert Byrd Genre: Historical Fiction Award: John Newbery Medal  Grade: 5 th grade and up This book took or set in the Medieval ages. It is a collection of voices of different kind of people you will meet in a village. In the beginning, you will encounter Hugo, who will prove his manliness by hunting for a boar. Alice is the singer and herds ships and sings to them. Nelly sell eels to support her family and to make a living out of it. Barbary the mud slinger does not like taking care of the twins and thinks how all women are the same. And there are many more characters in the story. This book is a light read but I have to reread it a couple of times because it is hard to grasp at first some of the people’s story. I would recommend this to upper grade level because it is about medieval and kind of a little for mature students. It will be better for upper level st...

Out of the dust Author: Karen Hesse Genre: Historical Fiction Award: John Newbery medal  Grade: 4 th grade and up It is about a young girl named Billie Jo living on a farm with her mom and dad, in Cimarron County, Oklahoma. She does not like country life so she fills the void by playing the piano. Her talent’s recognized and she is offered a professional job by her music teacher, Arley Wanderdale. Sadly, her mother wasn’t thrilled about her joining a band so she had to decline the offer. Billie Jo’s mother then passed away because of a fire. The death of her mother puts an even larger strain between her and her father. The farm is not doing well, and her hands got burnt during the fire, which helds her back on playing the piano. There are signs that her father is getting skin cancer due to the spots forming on his skin, but Billie Jo wants nothing to do with him so she leaves on a train going west. While she left, she meets a man who is also trying to start a new l...

Last Stop on Market Street Author: Matt De La Pena Illustrator: Christian Robinson Genre: Realistic Fiction Grade: 2nd grade and up The setting is that CJ and his grandma came from church. As they are heading to their destination, CJ asks why they have to go wait for the bus when it is raining, while CJ’s grandma explains how the trees need rain too to drink and how the bus is way cooler than owning an own car. CJ asks and complains to his grandma why they always have to go volunteering after church, but his grandma explains that CJ’s friends are missing out about the cool and nice people at the place. CJ also ask his grandma about the blind man and his grandma said that what does he know about seeing. Some people watch by hearing instead of seeing. The encounter with different people still goes on and when they finally got out of the bus, which is the last stop on Market street, CJ noticed his surroundings.   CJ then reacted how the place is always dirty but his g...