Newbery Medal Winners Announced!

Many Newberys are Wonderful, but not All

I am an Newbery Medal fan, mostly.  My daughter and I set a goal to read all of the Newbery Medal winners (see how I’m perfect for Reader’s Challenges) before she left elementary school and we made a decent go of it, until we were stopped dead cold by a few of the selections.  Now, I must admit, I’m a little suspicious of the award selections.  A Man Booker Prize winner I’ll pick up without hesitation, but a Newbery I’ll leaf through and read the description.  Some of the greatest children’s literature has won the award, but then there are the other years. 

Tackling Lifes Great Issues

Susan Patron, author of The Higher Power of Lucky and winner of the 2007 Newbery, wrote about some of the Newbery criticism in a recent Los Angeles Times article.  One issue is the seriousness of the topics of the books in recent winners– death, mental challenges such as autism, the absence of one or both parents.  But she points out that Newberys historically have always dealt with the hard aspects of life, when she was younger the issues were death, war, being torn from your family during an invasion and losing a beloved dog.  I believe one of the best ways to confront scary issues is through literature, life isn’t Disneyland and I want my kids to learn that step-by-step, not as one large shock when they leave home. 

While there is always a reason to discuss life, there is never a reason to do it in a boring manner.  Over years of picking books, clearly the Newbery Committee isn’t going to hit the mark every time, who remembers Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark, the winner of the Newbery the year Charlotte’s Web was an honoree?  But they have noted some jewels in the winner and the honoree category:  Old Yeller, Island of Blue Dolphins, My Side of the Mountain, The Door in the Wall, One Hundred Dresses, From the Mixed Up File of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Sounder, The Twenty-One Balloons, Mr. Poppin’s Penguins, Sounder, The Giver, Number the Stars.  As Ms. Patron points out, these books can change your life.

The 2009 Newbery Medal Winners

The American Library Association’s Newbery Committee evaluates all of the books published the preceding year for kids up to age 14 and picks the “author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published in English in the United States.”  Each year, a new Newbery committee is formed of librarians from across the country.  My favorite librarian, Yapha Mason, served the year Louis Sachar won for Holes and loved the experience.  She described it as “the high point of my career as a librarian so far was serving on the 1999 Newbery committee. I loved reading through the hundreds of novels published that year and then debating their merits with other people who were just as passionate about great children’s literature as me. It gave me a lot of respect for the medal and its process.”  The lucky group of librarians who read this year’s books chose the following:

The Winner

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - the tale of a boy who escaped assassination to be raised in a graveyard with ghosts from various centuries.  Although Neil Gaiman is well known for his graphic novels (see my experience), this is rather a novel with some illustrations by Dave McKean who has collaborated with Mr. Gaiman on several other books.  Listen to the NPR interview with Mr. Gaiman.  Read a review in the New York Times Book Review.

The Honorees

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt - an animal story with a pregnant cat, her resulting kittens, a hound dog and his advice to have the kittens underneath the porch of Gar-man, an embittered old man.  It’s described as a tale of love, loss, loneliness and hope that is likened to Shiloh and Old Yeller.

The Surrender Tree:  Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle – a book of free verse that tells the story of Cuba’s wars for independence from Spain.  The main character, Rosa, is a nurse who helps everyone–black, white, Cuban and Spanish.

Savvy by Ingrid Law - Each member of the Beaumont family has a “savvy,” a special magical power that arrives on his or her thirteenth birthday.  Two days before Mib’s thirteenth birthday, her father is ill and Mibs takes off on an adventurous bus ride to rescue him.

After Tupac & D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson - Three thirteen year old girls bond over adolescence and the lyrics of Tupac’s rap music.  D Foster joins two girls growing up in safe Queens and shows them another side of life along with the true meaning of Tupac’s music.  Just as swiftly as she joined them when Tupac was first shot, she leaves them just before he dies.