The Newbery winner for 1928 was Gay-Neck, The Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji .  This was a beautifully written book about a boy and his pigeon.  I very much liked the relationship between the boy and the bird, but much of the book consists of Gay-Neck flying off, getting into trouble, and then narrowly escaping his prey.   I got a little tired of this repetition.  Gay-Neck perhaps grows weary of it too because he asks:  “Tell me this.  Why is there so much killing and inflicting of pain by birds and beasts on one another?  I don’t think all of you men hurt each other.  Do you?  But birds and beasts do.  All that makes me so sad.”

But Gay-Neck is brave, and he is a treasured member of the boy’s family.  Later he serves as a messenger pigeon in the war.  His service, which included a serious injury, results in him suffering from post traumatic stress disorder:

“Every time I hopped up in the air, my ears, I know not how were filled with terrible noises of guns, and my eyes saw nothing but flaming bullets.  I was so frightened that I would dash immediately to the ground.  You may say that I was hearing imaginary guns and seeing imaginary walls of bullets: maybe, but their effect on me was the same as that of real ones.  My wings were paralysed, my entrails frozen with terror”.

He is so damaged from the effects of war that he refuses to fly.  The boy tries to help him want to fly again, and this leads to Gay-Neck spending  time with a wise lama. I like the meditation that the lama shares with Gay-Neck.  He takes Gay-Neck into his hands and says:

“May the north wind bring healing unto you, May the south wind bring healing unto you, May the winds of the east and west pour healing into you.  Fear flee from you, Hate flees from you, And suspicion flees from you.  Courage like a rushing tide gallops through you; Peace possesses your entire being, And serenity and strength have become your two wings.  In your eyes shine courage; Power and prowess dwell in your heart!

You are healed, You are healed,  You are healed!   Peace,    peace,   peace.”

This was certainly not a book that I would have delved into on my own.  I will say this again and again I am sure, but this is the beauty of a reading “quest” like this.  I read somewhere that author’s message throughout the book was that man and beast are brothers, and I can definitely agree with that.  It was an exposure to another culture which I always think is a positive.

And, I always like seeing the different types of illustrations in each book that I read.

The Newbery winners of 1925 and 1926 have been books of folk tales, fairy tales, and tales of adventure.

The 1926 Newbery Honor was a book called The Voyagers by Padraic Colum. It is about the early exploration of the Atlantic Ocean leading up to the discovery of the Americas. One of the cool things about reading this book is that it was an edition of the book actually published in 1925.  The pages are thick and sturdy and made with rag paper.  I also loved the illustrations.  Most of them are black and white, but there were a few color illustrations included.  Here’s an example: I really enjoyed some of these adventure and exploration stories, but then I became bored with others because they started to feel more like a recitation of history rather than an engaging story.  I did really like the story about the city of Atlantis.  It was in this book also that I learned that the word anchorite means religiouse recluse.  I don’t think I’d ever seen that word before.  Overall, it was ok.  I really like the “1926 reading experience” but the book was not anything that I found to be that memorable.

The Newbery Medal winner was also a compilation of stories.  It is called Shen of the Sea: Chinese Stories for Children by Arthur Bowie Chrisman.  The thing is – Chrisman is an American who never visited China, and he made up all of these “folk tales”.  They are written “in the style of Chinese folk tales”.  I just don’t know quite what to think about it.  Some of the stories are really funny.  Some of them are quite engaging.  It’s just odd to me that the Newbery Medal would be awarded to a book of “faux-Chinese folk tales”.  It’s been food for thought for sure.  I think I don’t like the idea of it, but why?  Well, if I hadn’t done any research and in 1926 there would have been no quick “google search”, I would have read this to my 1926 version of Davey and presented it to him as Chinese folk stories.  It would have just won the Newbery Medal and I’d think “well this must be a great book of Chinese stories!  We will learn something”.  Most of them are really fun to read though – I just am not sure I would have chosen this book for “the most distinguished contribution to American Children’s literature”.

There are some fun illustrations in this book too.

I often am enjoying the illustrations as much (and more in some of these books) then the story.

I will remember Shen of the Sea – the whole idea of a book of “faux Chinese folk tales” was just too unusual to me to forget.

Now on to Smoky the Cowhorse – the 1927 Medal winner!