Schmidt, Gary, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy

How to tell a book is a Newbery honor book:

1) It is historical.
2) It is about important social issues.
3) It is dull and ponderous.
4) It is about depressing things, people resigning themselves to depressing things, and dead people.

In this case, the historical part is Maine in 1911, the important social issue is racism, and the depressing things are racism, greed, death, hypocrisy, and corruption. A friendship between a minister's son and a black girl is not enough to stand up to these things, of course, and it all ends very badly.

It's a bit much, no?

In spite of the Boy Moves To New Town And Is Miserable Until... plot, I was sort of enjoying this, I was willing to give it a chance. But it just started to get boring and preachy, and there's nothing fun, or silly, or happy, anywhere in the whole thing. There are things that are supposed to be fun, but I don't get much of a sense of fun from them at all.

And, okay, there are parts that are very good. There's the gradually changing relationship between Turner Buckminster and his father. There are the whales. There is a moment right near the end that tries to be deep and profound and almost succeeds, and nudges me to forgive a good deal of what's gone before.

I've simply had enough of pointlessly depressing books. Perhaps there's not much way to write about racism without being depressing, but it doesn't have to be that pointless on top of it.

Repeat after me: Novel, not history textbook. Novel, not history textbook. You're allowed to be entertaining. Nay, encouraged to be entertaining, even!