From: khorning at facstaff.wisc.edu <khorning>
Date: Thu, 03 Jul 1997 09:26:44 -0500

I was one of the lucky people who attended the ALSC Preconference Ginny mentioned that celebrated the Newbery's 75th anniversary. It was a great preconference and, much as I enjoyed hearing the excellent speakers, I think the best part was the discussion of Newbery winners from 193079.

I was in the group that discussed the books published in years ending in 2 which were: "Waterless Mountain" (1932); "The Matchlock Gun" (1942); "Ginger Pye" (1952); "The Bronze Bow" (1962); and "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH"
(1972). The biggest surprise for many in our group was "Waterless Mountain" by Laura Adams Armer. We were impressed with the quality of the writing and the author's ability to weave traditional stories into the action of a contemporary (well, for 1932) story about a Navajo boy. Some people in our group found the story to be romanticized and rather dated but I think everyone was surprised that it was as good as it was.

All in all, it was an interesting experience for us to have to do what we so often expect of children -- that is, to be forced to read a Newbery Medal book. I'm not sure if any of these books are really "classics" and yet, they are treated as such once they win the medal.

In our Group 2, we considered the question: would any of these books still be remembered had they not won the Newbery Medal? We agreed that only "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" would still be around. Of the five titles, it was the only book all of us felt we could recommend without qualification to children in 1997.



Kathleen T. Horning (khorning at facstaff.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education University of Wisconsin-Madison
Received on Thu 03 Jul 1997 09:26:44 AM CDT