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Children's book authors await Monday's Newbery announcement
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A 2009 Newbery Medal contender
That’s when the American Library Association’s 15-member Newberry Committee will call one of them with the news that their 2008 book has been tapped for the 2009 Newbery Medal.
The coveted award recognizes "the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published in English in the United States during the preceding year." The committee, after a year of reading and debate, chooses from books of fiction, non-fiction, or poetry for children up to age 14.
The medal has been given since 1922. No list of finalists is offered in advance, so often the award comes as a complete surprise. It has been known to catapult virtually unknown writers to fame and -- if not fortune -- at least more book contracts.
The book that wins will soar to the top of the bestseller lists. In less than 12 hours in 2006, Lynne Rae Perkins’ Criss Cross skyrocketed from #296,524 to #25 on Amazon.com’s sales list after its Newbery was announced.
Last year, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz soared to #17 on Amazon, up from #8,536.
The honored author’s appearances will suddenly be in demand coast to coast. Often Hollywood isn’t far behind. Kate DiCamillo’s The Tale of Despereaux, just out as a movie, was a Newbery winner in 2004. Likewise, Holes was filmed after Louis Sachar’s Newbery award in 1999.
Undeniably, it’s an exciting time for the recipient.
But what about young readers? Should parents automatically go out and scoop up copies of the winning book for their kids?
This has been hotly debated this past year. The Newbery awards have been challenged on two fronts: failing to engage kids and lack of diversity.
"The literary world is … asking whether the books that have won recently are so complicated and inaccessible to most children that they are effectively turning off kids to reading,” Valerie Strauss wrote in the Washington Post last month. “Of the 25 winners and runners-up chosen from 2000 to 2005, four of the books deal with death, six with the absence of one or both parents, and four with such mental challenges as autism. Most of the rest deal with tough social issues."
Anita Silvery, author of 100 Best Books for Children, 500 Great Books for Teens, etc., said her own survey of more than 100 librarians, teachers and booksellers showed that many believe Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! and Criss Cross were “disappointing” choices that fail to engage young readers
But it doesn’t follow that tough issues automatically turn kids off, contends Susan Patron, winner of 2007’s Newbery for The Higher Power of Lucky. “The intent of the Newbery is to encourage good writing whether or not the book has broad popular appeal.”
Regarding diversity, Horn Book editor Roger Sutton told Bloomberg News that the world of children’s literature is still “white.”
Bloomberg found that characters in Newberry Medal-winning books are more likely to be white, male, and come from two-parent households that the average U.S. child. Bloomberg also said there have been fewer Black and Hispanic main characters in Newbery books in the past 27 years than in the years that saw the greatest Civil Rights push -- 1951-1979.
Because of these debates, Scripps Howard News Service writer Karen MacPherson concludes that this Monday’s pick will be interesting, indeed.
She put together this list of potential winners, reprinted here with permission of Scripps Howard. It's compiled.from various "mock" elections (including librarian Elizabeth Bird's compilation of the elections on her blog, Fuse 8) as well as recommendations from various children's literature experts: Kathleen Horning, Amy Kellman, Leonard Marcus, Maria Salvadore and Silvey.
TOP CONTENDERS:
Chains (Simon & Schuster, $17, ages 10-14) -- A slave's efforts to win her freedom during the Revolutionary War are vividly detailed by Laurie Halse Anderson.
The Underneath (Atheneum, $17, ages 10-14) -- Kathi Appelt uses lyrical language to tell a multilayered, at-times-grim tale of a dog who befriends three cats.
Waiting for Normal (HarperCollins, $17, ages 10-14) -- Leslie Connor uses humor and drama to tell of a young girl's desperate efforts to find normality in her topsy-turvy life.
The Porcupine Year (HarperCollins, $16, ages 8-12) -- Louise Erdrich continues the saga of Omakayas, a 19th-century Ojibwe girl.
The Trouble Begins at 8 (Greenwillow, $19, ages 10-14) -- Newbery Medalist Sid Fleischman gives readers an engaging look at humorist Mark Twain's early years.
Diamond Willow (FSG, $16, ages 10-14) -- A girl on the cusp of adolescence discovers some family secrets in Helen Frost's lovely verse novel.
Bird Lake Moon (Greenwillow, $16, ages 8-12) -- Caldecott Medalist Kevin Henkes writes of the bumpy friendship that springs up between two boys.
My One Hundred Adventures (Schwartz & Wade, $17, ages 8-12) -- Polly Horvath details how a 12-year-old girl has some unexpected adventures.
Savvy (Dial, $17, ages 10-14) -- A young girl turns 13 and discovers her "savvy," but it's not what she expects, in Ingrid Law's entertaining novel.
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things (Schwartz & Wade, $16, ages 6-10) -- Lenore Look provides a humorous glance at a memorable child.
SLIGHTLY DARKER HORSES:
Masterpiece (Henry Holt, $15, ages 8-12), by Elise Broach.
The Hunger Games (Scholastic, $18, ages 12 up), by Suzanne Collins.
The Graveyard Book (HarperCollins, $18, ages 10-14), by Neil Gaiman.
Brooklyn Bridge (Feiwel and Friends, $18, ages 10-14), by Newbery Medalist Karen Hesse.
Toy Dance Party (Schwartz & Wade, $17, ages 6-10), by Emily Jenkins and illustrated by Paul Zelinsky.
The Willoughbys (Houghton Mifflin, $16, ages 8-12), by Newbery Medalist Lois Lowry.
Keeping Score (Clarion, $16, ages 8-12), by Newbery Medalist Linda Sue Park.
Gully’s Travels (Scholastic, $17, ages 8-12), by Tor Seidler.
Little Audrey (FSG, $16, ages 10-14), by Ruth White.
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