Lois Lowry won the 1990 Newbery Medal for Number the Stars and the 1994 Newbery Medal for The Giver. But I think her Anastasia and Sam books are far and away her best. Alas, as with the Oscars, the Newbery committee tends not to give awards to upbeat, comic tales (Louis Sachar being a recent notable exception).

The final stanza of "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley:

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Labels: angel falling softly, angel notes