Newbery Mini Reviews: The Midwife’s Apprentice || It’s Like This, Cat || . . . And Now Miguel

One of my long-term goals is to read all of the Newbery Award winners. Here are some winners that I’ve read recently . . .

Newbery Mini Reviews: The Midwife’s Apprentice || It’s Like This, Cat || . . . And Now Miguel

The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman

Pages: 122
Genre: Middlegrade Historical Fiction

Publication Date: January 1995

The girl known only as Brat has no family, no home, and no future until she meets Jane the Midwife and becomes her apprentice. As she helps the sharp-tempered Jane deliver babies, Brat—who renames herself Alyce—gains knowledge, confidence, and the courage to want something from life: "A full belly, a contented heart, and a place in this world."

The Newbery committees seem to have a deep love for books set in Medieval Europe. Maybe because you can disguise education as sword fighting? I don’t know. There seems to be a lot of Medieval Europe Newbery winners.

The Good: The Midwife’s Apprentice is skillfully written. The author avoids educational info dumps while seamlessly blending facts with an entertaining story. I learned a few things about the superstitions of Medieval midwives. The main character is an orphan who has been abused for her entire life. When she takes a job as a midwife’s apprentice, she learns that she is valuable and capable of accomplishing anything. She also learns not to quit when life gets complicated. It’s a good message for preteens. I think a lot of middle-school-aged kids struggle with their self-esteem, so they’d find the character relatable.

“Just because you don't know everything don't mean you know nothing.” – The Midwife’s Apprentice

The Bad: For an adult reader (and maybe for some young readers), it’s extremely predictable. Predictability takes some of the fun out of the reading experience.

The Bottom Line: For an educational story, it moves quickly and holds the reader’s attention. I’d recommend reading it with your kids instead of just handing it over. Medieval midwives had some . . . um . . . unusual ideas about pregnancy and childbirth. It could be confusing for younger kids.

It’s Like This, Cat by Emily Cheney Neville

Pages: 192
Genre: Middlegrade Realistic Fiction

Publication Date: 1963

Dave Mitchell and his father yell at each other a lot, and whenever the fighting starts, Dave's mother gets an asthma attack. That's when Dave storms out of the house. Then Dave meets Tom, a strange boy who helps him rescue Cat. It isn't long before Cat introduces Dave to Mary, a wonderful girl from Coney Island. Slowly Dave comes to see the complexities in people's lives and to understand himself and his family a little better.

The Good: This is a highly realistic coming-of-age story. Dave and his father have a complicated relationship. Both of them are loud, sarcastic, and opinionated. They do things to purposely annoy each other. When Dave’s father tells him to get a dog, he gets a cat. Cat becomes the catalyst (haha, see what I did there?) for big changes in Dave’s life. As he drags Cat around New York City, he reevaluates old friendships and forms new ones. Cat helps him learn that life involves difficult choices, and sometimes you have to forgive and be the bigger person. Even though this is an older book, the themes are universal.

“My father is always talking about how a dog can be very educational for a boy. This is one reason I got a cat.” – It’s Like This, Cat

The Bad: OMG, guys, this book badly shows its age. It was first published in the 1960s, and you can tell. I’d be impressed if modern kids know what “beatniks” and “ducktail haircuts” are. I’m slightly shocked that you could get a cat neutered for $3 back then. It cost several hundred to get my dog’s manhood snipped. My vet is a rip off!

I also think this book might be too slow for some modern readers. A lot of the story consists of Dave wandering around New York. If you’re familiar with New York City, it might be fun to see how the landmarks have changed. There is a lot of description of the setting. Since I’ve never been to New York, I got bored with the wandering. I wanted Dave to do something.

The Bottom Line: Not one of my favorite Newbery winners. The themes are relatable, and cats are cute, but Dave’s constant wandering didn’t hold my attention for very long.

. . . And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold

Pages: 247
Genre: Middlegrade Realistic Fiction

Publication Date: 1952 

Every summer the men of the Chavez family go on a long and difficult sheep drive to the mountains. All the men, that is, except for Miguel. All year long, twelve-year-old Miguel tries to prove that he, too, is up to the challenge—that he, too is ready to take the sheep into his beloved Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

When his deeds go unnoticed, he prays to San Ysidro, the saint for farmers everywhere. And his prayer is answered . . . but with devastating consequences.

The Good: So . . . it’s a book about sheep? Okay. When I was a kid, I loved animal books, and I might have liked learning about sheep. The story gives the reader a glimpse into the life of rural New Mexican shepherds. Miguel has a strong bond with his family. He’s eager to grow up and become a shepherd like his father, uncles, and brothers. I always like seeing functional families in children’s literature. They’re becoming rare these days. Miguel comes from a big family, and I understand why he would feel overshadowed by his older siblings and want to be like them.

The Bad: I guess this is a black sheep review (haha, see what I did there?) because I kind of hate this book. If it wasn’t a Newbery winner, I wouldn’t have finished it. Everything about it got on my nerves. It’s cool for a book to teach kids about sheep, but I wish the sheep facts had been blended with other elements of Miguel’s life. Unfortunately, Miguel has no life. It’s just all sheep all the time! Even when Miguel goes to school and sees his friends, they only talk about sheep! The kid needs a hobby or something.

The dialect is tedious to read. I understand that Miguel’s first language isn’t English, but 247 pages of dialect slowed down my reading and made a boring book even more boring.

Miguel is frustratingly immature. He wants his father to take him to the mountains, so he invents schemes to show how grown-up he is. Shouldn’t scheme #1 be asking his father if he can go? Why doesn’t he just ask? I guess his immaturity is realistic, but I still wanted to shake him.

The Bottom Line: My least-favorite Newbery winner so far.

Have you read any of these? What did you think?