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Newbery Honor Book: Our Only May Amelia
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From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 09:46:57 -0600
Dean Schneider wrote about the award process as being critical to his personal discovery of the book Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm, one of the three 2000 Newbery Honor Books. This book is one of the several surprises of the recent ALA awards announcements, not because it isn't deserving, but because it hadn't received as much general visibility throughout the year as some of the other books predicted as contenders by outsiders to the Newbery Committtee's deliberations.
One of the values of such an award committee is that fifteen different people each year commit themselves to becoming familiar with the eligible books for the award process for which they're responsible. A "first book" such as Getting Close to Baby or a comparatively less visible one such as Our Only May Amelia has the same chance for attention as one by an established author or one for which a publisher's promotional plans provided high visibility prior to award deliberations.
According to Newbery & Caldecott Committee discussion guidelines, committee members' comments cannot make reference to earlier books by the same author or illustrator. Members may not refer to the formal acknowledgments - or lack of same - of the book creators whose books are under consideration.
We heartily commend teachers who, like Dean, seek out and new books in order to determine for themselves how each new one they read might deepen the curriculum they already teach, or widen their continually growing professional acquaintance with the literature available for their students.
Perhaps Dean and others who've had a chance to read Our Only May Amelia will have time during the next couple of days to write briefly about why they appreciate this historical novel set in 1899.
Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center (www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/) A Library of the School of Education, University of Wisconsin Madison
Received on Thu 27 Jan 2000 09:46:57 AM CST
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 09:46:57 -0600
Dean Schneider wrote about the award process as being critical to his personal discovery of the book Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm, one of the three 2000 Newbery Honor Books. This book is one of the several surprises of the recent ALA awards announcements, not because it isn't deserving, but because it hadn't received as much general visibility throughout the year as some of the other books predicted as contenders by outsiders to the Newbery Committtee's deliberations.
One of the values of such an award committee is that fifteen different people each year commit themselves to becoming familiar with the eligible books for the award process for which they're responsible. A "first book" such as Getting Close to Baby or a comparatively less visible one such as Our Only May Amelia has the same chance for attention as one by an established author or one for which a publisher's promotional plans provided high visibility prior to award deliberations.
According to Newbery & Caldecott Committee discussion guidelines, committee members' comments cannot make reference to earlier books by the same author or illustrator. Members may not refer to the formal acknowledgments - or lack of same - of the book creators whose books are under consideration.
We heartily commend teachers who, like Dean, seek out and new books in order to determine for themselves how each new one they read might deepen the curriculum they already teach, or widen their continually growing professional acquaintance with the literature available for their students.
Perhaps Dean and others who've had a chance to read Our Only May Amelia will have time during the next couple of days to write briefly about why they appreciate this historical novel set in 1899.
Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center (www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/) A Library of the School of Education, University of Wisconsin Madison
Received on Thu 27 Jan 2000 09:46:57 AM CST
