At the beginning of the month the annual Newbery Award winners were announced. I was preparing for a trip to Australia and was unable to read the medal winner before I left. However, I requested it from the library so I could read it when I got home.

When I returned from my trip The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill was waiting for me at the library.

I really enjoyed this book. It is a great story that takes place in a fantasy world that is slowly developed through the course of the book.

Each year the people of a town place their youngest baby in the woods as an offering to a wicked witch. There is a witch in the story, but she has no idea why the people leave a baby in the woods. She normally delivers the baby to towns on the other side of a great swamp where they grow up with grateful families.

However, one year she keeps a girl who she accidentally turns into a magical being by feeding her moonlight. She names her Luna and it is from this that the title of the book comes.

I will not give away the rest of the plot of the book as it is very complex and has a few interesting twists as the story builds.

However, you will enjoy reading about a tiny dragon that will fit in your pocket, a swamp beast and a boy who gives up preferment to be a simple carpenter. You will also learn about how power is gained and held in this world through devious means.

A wonderful story of relationships between people, but set in a magical world.

A good choice for the Newbery Medal.

Of course, now I can once again say that I have read all the Newbery Medal winners.

Last year the winner was Last Stop on Market Street by Matt De La Peña.

In my post 2016 Newbery Books I also covered the Newbery Honor books. This year I am having to wait for them as the library only had one of the three books in their catalogue.

I am currently reading The Inquisitors Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Dog by Adam Gidwitz which was also waiting for me when I got home and have requested the others from the library. They have several copies of each book on order and I will pick them up as soon as they are delivered to the library and are processed.

I will write another post about the Newbery Honor books once I have read them all.

Steven