Good historical YA novel. ( )

This one threw me a bit. I found it a bit boring at first, and then the introduction of magic and other seemingly random elements was unexpected and kind of crazy. It seemed to spiral to strange places. Like, did the author have everything planned, or did he just write as his whimsy directed? Either way, I liked it. I think.
I did really like whole ‘unfinished note’ aspect, and how that played out (my puns need work). The trumpeter scenes were the most charming parts of the trumpeter book, go figure, but they seemed to begging for a larger role. Overall, it's worth a read. ( )

I read this for the first time since I was in my teens. It is very much a book of the period it was written, being the 1920s. The villains are all disabled and/or disfigured, the women and girls shallow props to bolster the roles of the valiant leading males. That said, the voice of the book is eloquent and beautiful, and the author's deep love of the city of Krakow is evident on most every page. It's easy to see why this was the Newberry Award winner in 1929.

The adventure story is a rollicking one, cozy in its predictability, but hey--sometimes it's nice to know the bad guys are certain to know justice, with the good guys eventually rewarded for their stalwart suffering. This isn't a book I would re-read because it is so painfully dated, but it made for an interesting choice for my classic book for the month. ( )

In medieval Poland, a mysterious jewel is stolen, a family is displaced, and an alchemist seeks the secret of transmuting base metals to gold. This book won the Newbery back in 1929, and I do see some distinguished elements -- the writing is good, though a little more flowery than is common these days, and there's an interesting plot if you can get through all of the descriptive bits. The characters aren't particularly fleshed out (the alchemist, a secondary character, was probably the most interesting to me). I had a hard time staying engaged with the narrative, so it took me several days to get through this book. Would I recommend it to kids today? Probably only if I had one who was really fascinated with medieval stories. ( )

The Trumpeter of Krakow as won the Newbery award. This story takes place in Poland in the 1400s. This story tells of an adventure that a young boy and his family take together. The start of this adventure started generations early when the family took an oath to protect treasure until it can be handed over the king of Poland. While honoring this oath, the family has come across several trails as the move to a new town, where they continued to meet new trails. During this time the father took another oath, this time to honor a long stand tradition of sounding the trumpet at the church tower to signal the hour, every hour of the day and night. The father teaches the son how to play the hymn that the trumpeters are to play at each hour, in case one day the father is unable to play it. That day comes when the father and son are in trouble as someone want to steal the treasure that they protected, the son played the trumpet but changed it up enough that someone would know that they were in trouble. In short this story is about the faithfulness of a family carrying out a family oath that has been passed down the generations.
Personal reflection:
I enjoyed this book; however, it was a little hard get into the book due to the language that it is written in. The language however helps set the setting of the story. I am afraid that students would find it hard to read the book. If they can get past the language, they will enjoy the adventure this story as to offer. It will also help them later to read more of the classics that are required to read in high school.
Extension Ideas:
I would like to have the student write a story of an adventure that they have taken or would like to take.
I would have the students look up words that they may not know and write a sentence with that word. ( )