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A review by margaretann84
The Warden's Daughter by Jerry Spinelli
2.0
I feel like I need to preface this whole post by saying I love Jerry Spinelli. I adore Stargirl, and I have fond memories of reading Maniac Magee and Milkweed and lots of his other books. I think that's why I was so disappointed in this book.
I'm going to make my prediction now. This book is going to be a Newbery book. I don't know if it's going to get the Honor or be the actual full-on winner, but I'm willing to bet that this becomes one of the Newbery books for 2017. This is for several reasons. First, The Warden’s Daughter has that whole bildungsroman thing going, so it's all about growing up. The main character is a child who is missing a parent but desperately wants to feel the love of that parent. I’m pretty sure it’d be impossible to count on just two hands how many Newbery winners (don’t even start with the Honors) lead off with that premise. Second, it's definitely one of those books that adults will appreciate more than kids. It's very lush in a sort of sepia-toned nostalgia way, and books like that tend to go over well with the Newbery committee.
I know at the end of the book I was crying a little bit. That actually that used to be my gauge of whether book was good at all when I was young and foolish and knew less about literature. If a book could make me cry, then it had to be good. But with Spinelli’s book, I feel like I was crying because he knew how to play me, like he’d figured out a formula and was using it instead of making me genuinely invested in the characters.
Full review on A Writer Reads.
I'm going to make my prediction now. This book is going to be a Newbery book. I don't know if it's going to get the Honor or be the actual full-on winner, but I'm willing to bet that this becomes one of the Newbery books for 2017. This is for several reasons. First, The Warden’s Daughter has that whole bildungsroman thing going, so it's all about growing up. The main character is a child who is missing a parent but desperately wants to feel the love of that parent. I’m pretty sure it’d be impossible to count on just two hands how many Newbery winners (don’t even start with the Honors) lead off with that premise. Second, it's definitely one of those books that adults will appreciate more than kids. It's very lush in a sort of sepia-toned nostalgia way, and books like that tend to go over well with the Newbery committee.
I know at the end of the book I was crying a little bit. That actually that used to be my gauge of whether book was good at all when I was young and foolish and knew less about literature. If a book could make me cry, then it had to be good. But with Spinelli’s book, I feel like I was crying because he knew how to play me, like he’d figured out a formula and was using it instead of making me genuinely invested in the characters.
Full review on A Writer Reads.