Has anyone ever read the book Onion John, i first read it when i was 12 or 13?

Question

the book is about a boy who begins a friendship with a homeless man by the name of Onion John?

Answer 1

A long, long time ago. I think Onion John was an immigrant who lived in New Jersey (?) and ate onions like apples and oranges. A young kid makes friends with him, and the townspeople decide to build him a fancy new modern house, but he is miserable because he misses his old hut.

Joseph Krumgold, who won the Newbery Award for this book sometime in the early fifties, had already won for his more famous book, . . . and Now Miguel. It would be interesting to read it again today, for it concerns an Hispanic worker's family. I don't remember it very well.

Krumgold was a script writer for movies, and was commisioned by the US State Department to make a movie on the subject of migrant workers in the rural US some time in the 1940s. He did, and the novel of the same title won the Newbery. Not many authors (only three that I know of) have won the Newbery twice, and as I remember these two books were the only ones Krumgold wrote for young readers.

I'm glad to know they are still being read, but I wonder how well . . . and Now Miguel stands up. Did you read it too?

Answer 2

I read Onion John more than 20 years ago. I remember the part about the collection of bath tubs, and the part about how John thought it was bad luck for a person's shadow to fall across the foundation of a house that is being built...

Answer 3

Yes I read Onion John, and loved it. Great book. Joseph Krumgold also wrote And Now Miguel with Jean Charlot. I haven't read that one, but it might be worth picking up.

Answer 4

Onion John is love, Onion John is life. I have a shrine to him in my home, and am on a quest to collect every copy of his book

Answer 5

who cares really