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CAN FUNNY BOOKS WIN AWARDS?
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From: Lindsay <linds_na>
Date: Fri, 8 May 1998 15:03:27 -0700 (PDT)
Thanks, Brenda, for bringing up that question. Looking at the Newbery award, I can think of a couple of funny books that have won the gold medal, although the humor tends to be part of the style, rather than the basic thrust of the book ("The Westing Game," by Ellen Raskin, "The Whipping Boy" by Sid Fleishman). And I think that humorous books more often win the Honor ("Ella Enchanted," "The Ear the Eye and the Arm,"
"Frog and Toad Together" "Ramona Quimby Age 8"...). When I served, in 1997, on the Newbery Committee, I remember trying to look hard at funny books, because in the terminology of
"distinguished literature", humor is often very easy to pass by. Some of my favorite funny books of 1997 were "Mean Margaret"(which I already talked about), "Ant Plays Bear" by Besty Byars, "The Iron Ring" by Lloyd Alexander, "The Woman in the Wall" by Patrice Kindl.
I'd guess that really "distinguished" humor is one of the hardest things to write. Also maybe one of the hardest things to recognize and acknowledge? The Newbery award is given to "the author of the most distinguished contribution to literature for children ... during the preceding year." Maybe contributions that are "serious" are generally dinstinguished further than contribtuions that are "humorous"? I doubt this. I think there are many things at play. Is there really excellent funny literature being written? being published? Sure, but its probably very difficult to do (to write it, to find it). Can a committee of fifteen different people with very different tastes in humor come to consensus that a certain funny book is distinguished? (How such a committee comes to any consensus is an exhausting exercise; but one thing I notice most readily in talking with any colleague is that what one person finds hilarious, the other finds utterly distasteful)
The answer to your rhetorical question, Brenda, is of course, "yes." Walking into my award committee work, I certainly had a lot of secret hopes about the kind of book I'd like to seen win. One at the forefront was that I'd find the funniest book of all time, which would glow with the sheer force of its humor, over every other excellent book of the year. But I didn't.
Nina Lindsay, Children's Librarian Melrose Branch, Oakland Pulbic Library 4805 Foothill Boulevard Oakland, CA 94601
(510)535V23 linds_na at oak2.ci.oakland.ca.us
"Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now?"
--William Stafford
Received on Fri 08 May 1998 05:03:27 PM CDT
Date: Fri, 8 May 1998 15:03:27 -0700 (PDT)
Thanks, Brenda, for bringing up that question. Looking at the Newbery award, I can think of a couple of funny books that have won the gold medal, although the humor tends to be part of the style, rather than the basic thrust of the book ("The Westing Game," by Ellen Raskin, "The Whipping Boy" by Sid Fleishman). And I think that humorous books more often win the Honor ("Ella Enchanted," "The Ear the Eye and the Arm,"
"Frog and Toad Together" "Ramona Quimby Age 8"...). When I served, in 1997, on the Newbery Committee, I remember trying to look hard at funny books, because in the terminology of
"distinguished literature", humor is often very easy to pass by. Some of my favorite funny books of 1997 were "Mean Margaret"(which I already talked about), "Ant Plays Bear" by Besty Byars, "The Iron Ring" by Lloyd Alexander, "The Woman in the Wall" by Patrice Kindl.
I'd guess that really "distinguished" humor is one of the hardest things to write. Also maybe one of the hardest things to recognize and acknowledge? The Newbery award is given to "the author of the most distinguished contribution to literature for children ... during the preceding year." Maybe contributions that are "serious" are generally dinstinguished further than contribtuions that are "humorous"? I doubt this. I think there are many things at play. Is there really excellent funny literature being written? being published? Sure, but its probably very difficult to do (to write it, to find it). Can a committee of fifteen different people with very different tastes in humor come to consensus that a certain funny book is distinguished? (How such a committee comes to any consensus is an exhausting exercise; but one thing I notice most readily in talking with any colleague is that what one person finds hilarious, the other finds utterly distasteful)
The answer to your rhetorical question, Brenda, is of course, "yes." Walking into my award committee work, I certainly had a lot of secret hopes about the kind of book I'd like to seen win. One at the forefront was that I'd find the funniest book of all time, which would glow with the sheer force of its humor, over every other excellent book of the year. But I didn't.
Nina Lindsay, Children's Librarian Melrose Branch, Oakland Pulbic Library 4805 Foothill Boulevard Oakland, CA 94601
(510)535V23 linds_na at oak2.ci.oakland.ca.us
"Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now?"
--William Stafford
Received on Fri 08 May 1998 05:03:27 PM CDT
