Onion John

Title: Onion John

Author: Joseph Krumgold

Pages: 248

Genre: Children's Fiction, Newbery Award

Grade: B

Synopsis: Andy Rusch is a boy happily growing up in the small town of Serenity, New Jersey. While playing in a championship baseball game, he strikes up a conversation with Onion John as he looks for things to salvage in the town's landfill. Andy and Onion John become friends as Andy becomes the only one who can understand Onion John. After Andy introduces Onion John to his father, his father takes it upon himself to have the Rotary Club build Onion John a new house, because the one the Onion John currently lives in is lacking many of the modern conveniences.

My Review: I expected more from this book than it provided. The story took a while to get into and seemed to move along pretty slowly for most of the book. One of the main theme's of the book is that the father was trying to live vicariously through his son Andy and was making decisions for him (and Onion John) based on what he wanted and not what they wanted. I have a goal to eventually read all Newbery Medal books. By my count, I have read 19 of the 87 Newbery Winners.