Miracles on Maple Hill

This is the kind of book I was afraid I was in for when I decided to read the Newbery books. The truth is that it was and it wasn’t. A white family, looking at the world, saying, “Oh gosh,” and “Oh golly,” facing issues like the son staying out too late and wondering where he is, facing how to get t......more

Sixty years after it was first published, Virginia Sorenson’s Miracles on Maple Hill remains as fresh as it was when it was first released in 1956. How is it that I had never even heard of this Newbery Award-winning book until it was an Amazon Daily Deal? In a time of Iraq- and Afghanistan-induced PT......more

We had an hour to spare in the evening, and this very old Newbery (1956!) has been lying around for some time a la the sister unit, so we read it in one sitting and promptly went to bed. That is not a reflection on the quality of the book, necessarily. We have been tired. But this is the kind of boo......more

This 1957 Newbery medal winner is a delightful, slow walk into a time when old fashioned values were the norm -- a time when children were polite; a time when children respected parents; a time when neighbors helped one another; a time when there was less focus on "me" and more focus on "us". Yet, th......more

I read this in school when I was little and I read again today and I thought it was a very good......more