Crossing the Finish Line of the Newbery Project

[osprey_archer]

Drumroll, please! On Saturday morning, I took Dorothy Lathrop’s The Fairy Circus along on my morning Starbucks run. I finished the book, and with it I have completed the Newbery project!

I spent the rest of the day in a whirlwind of festivity: a trip to the downtown library and downtown farmers market (with side trips to the card store, the artist’s gallery, and the bookstore), took a nap, went to the other library and to my favorite bookstore Von’s, and then returned home to throw myself a little tea party where I ate an entire salted caramel fudge mini-pie from the farmers market and read my new library book, Rachel Bertsche’s The Kids Are in Bed: Finding Time for Yourself in the Chaos of Parenting.

I read this partly because I’ve been a fan of Bertsche’s since her MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend, and partly because I enjoying parenting books, which is perhaps rather odd in a non-parent. Also this is really a parenting book but a book about how to find time for yourself in and around parenting. One tip I think is probably useful for anyone: Bertsche suggests making a short list of things you like to do, so that if you find yourself with some unexpected free time you can actually use it doing something you enjoy and find rejuvenating, rather than doing chores and/or mindlessly scrolling your most depressing social media feed.

And then I was off to one final bookstore for the evening! A wonderful day.

I still have reviews to write of my last couple of Newbery books, and then some wrap-up posts about the whole project. Right now I’ve got posts about the Newberys by the Decade, Nonsense Books in the Newbery, and SFF in the Newbery, and I’m planning that long-teased post about The Problem of Tomboys (actually probably two posts, one about the 1930s and one about the rest).

Are there any other Newbery posts people would be interested in seeing?

Comments

[magid]

Congrats on finishing the Newberry challenge! I look forward to reading whatever posts about it.

[osprey_archer]

Thank you!

[regshoe]

\o/ Wahey!

Those posts sound fun, especially the one(s) on the Problem of Tomboys.

[osprey_archer]

I have so much material for The Problem of Tomboys that I'm actually having a bit of trouble deciding how to approach it to make it all manageable. We shall see!

[grrlpup]

Congratulations on completing the Newbery project! Looking forward to the culminating posts. :)

[osprey_archer]

Thank you!

[skygiants]

HUGE CONGRATS AGAIN on the final conclusion of the Project; I'm excited for all the Newbery posts!

[osprey_archer]

It took a mere seven years! Truly one for the books. If you will.

[troisoiseaux]

Congrats!! I look forward to your Newbery wrap-ups!

[osprey_archer]

Thank you!

[phantomtomato]

Congratulations on finishing the Newbery project! It's an amazing accomplishment. I'm looking forward to your wrap-up posts, especially the two about The Problem of Tomboys!

[osprey_archer]

The Problem of Tomboys posts are the ones I haven't written yet and I'm not quite sure how to approach them... I will come up with something!

[thisbluespirit]

Congratulations!

[osprey_archer]

Thank you!

[msilverstar]

congratulations!

[osprey_archer]

Thank you!

[landofnowhere]

Congrats! Looking forward to your posts!

[osprey_archer]

Thank you!

[silverusagi]

Congratulations! You have read All The Books! All the books on the list!

[osprey_archer]

I have!! Truly I am impressed with myself.

[rachelmanija]

Congratulations! I would like to read ALL the posts. Some possible ideas:

- How did the themes change over the years? DID the themes change?

- Were there really a large number of dead dog/friend/grandma books, or did they just stick in our memory more?

- Forgotten Newberry books that are really worth reading.

- Most peculiar Newberry books.

[asakiyume]

Excellent ideas

[osprey_archer]

The first two I'm going to address a bit in my Newbery overview post, although I might discuss themes more deeply in their own post - will have to think if I have enough to say.

"Forgotten Newberry books that are really worth reading" is a great idea!

I will have to consider if I need a special post for "Most peculiar Newbery books" or if the Venn diagram is just a circle with the nonsense books which are already getting their own post. OTOH "most peculiar" could focus on the books that are not peculiar on purpose...

[asakiyume]

Congratulations! It was an epic undertaking, and you did it!

(No suggestions; here for whatever comes)

[osprey_archer]

Thank you!

[genarti]

I remain really deeply impressed by your sticktoitiveness in completing this epic project, and I'm excited to see any and all posts you end up making about it!

[osprey_archer]

You just start going and you keep on going and suddenly it's done??

[minutia_r]

Oh hey, congratulations!

[osprey_archer]

Thank you!

[littlerhymes]

Congratulations!!!

It'd be fun to see some themed groupings of books, maybe paired reading suggestions (pairs within Newbery or one Newbery book paired with a famous non-Newbery)?

Ones that were hardest to find, with sublist: hardest to find, and most worth it?

[osprey_archer]

I will consider themed groupings! Are there any particular themes you're interested in?

Will also think about paired reading suggestions. Also possibly books paired with an appropriate snack...

As it happens, I kept a list of where I found all the books that I couldn't find at the library! So this would be an easy post to put together, haha.

[rachelmanija]

DO THE SNACK POST.

[osprey_archer]

I will consider if I have good ideas for book/snack pairings!

[littlerhymes]

omg do the snack post PLEASE

Re themes: hmm. Survival books? Books with a lot of food? Non-dog animal companions? Books in years ending with 7?

[osprey_archer]

I should have considered whether I had book/snack pairing ideas before suggesting a snack post! We shall see what we shall see... Off the top of my head I don't think most Newbery books have a lot of food (except Laura Ingalls Wilders' books, which are all food all the time), but perhaps inspiration will strike.

[marginaliana]

Congrats on finishing the challenge!

[osprey_archer]

Thank you!

[hedgebird]

Achievement unlocked! I look forward to the posts.

[osprey_archer]

Thank you!