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Mrs. Jackstadt

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This year's Newbery medal

winner is A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck. In this sequel to Peck's A Long Way to Chicago, 15-year-old, Mary Alice is sent to live with her eccentric, rough and gruff grandmother in rural Illinois. Set in 1937 the book is filled with humorous adventures as Mary and Grandma Dowdel deal with the local population. Halloween is Grandma's favorite holiday not so much for trick-or-treats but for vittles and justice. Mary is never quite sure of Grandma Dowdel's intentions and surprises always abound. This is a funny and heart-warming story.

So You Want to Be President? by Judith St. George and illustrated by David Small is this year's Caldecott Award winner. This award is given to the most distinguished picture book for children. So You Want to Be President is a collective biography of U.S. Presidents. Readers are treated to facts, characteristics and habits of Presidents in a light-hearted manner. For example, six of our Presidents were named James, four Johns, four Williams, two Georges, 2 Andrews, and 2 Franklin. Abraham Lincoln was the tallest at six feet four inches while James Madison was the shortest at five feet four inches and weighing 100 pounds. Many Presidents were muscial. Thomas Jefferson, John Tyler, and Woodrow Wilson played the violin; Chester Arthur, the banjo; Harry Truman and Richard Nixon, the piano; Bill Clinton, the saxophone. Humorous illustrations in the style of caricatures fill the pages.