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Correction and Newbery Response
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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 08:51:54 -0600
First, I wanted to make a correction to the books by Robert Lipsyte cited by the Margaret Edwards Award Committee in connection with his receiving that award:
2001 YALSA and School Library Journal Margaret A. Edwards Award
(annual award to an author of outstanding young adult books)
Robert Lipsyte for:
The Contender (Harper & Row, 1967)
The Brave (HarperCollins, 1991)
The Chief (HarperCollins, 1993)
One Fat Summer (Harper & Row, 1977)
Now, who has initial thoughts on any of the announcements. Were you thrilled? Surprised? Shocked? Disappointed?
Of course all of us who follow children's literature certainly have some response to the announcement of these major children's literature awards. Probably you are feeling all of the above and more depending on which award and which books you are thinking about.
Whatever my own responses to the award announcements each year, I always try to remember that this is a process--a very thorough process that each committee undergoes to choose its ultimate winner and any honor books. So whether or not I personally like or agree with all of the choices, I do trust and respect the process--that the particular group of people entrusted with choosing each award for that year read and reread and discussed these books in great depth and these were the books that each group as a whole agreed upon as the outstanding titles that met the criteria for their award.
Having said that, we of course all have our rights to our opinions and I will share my own initial thoughts about the Newbery choices.
It was hard for me not to compare A Year Down Under with Peck's first book featuring these characters, A Long Way From Chicago, and for me this book was a bit paler. The characters didn't spark quite the same, and it took quiet awhile for me to recapture a sense of the grandmother's outstanding character (in a moral sense, in a wonderfully humorous sense) in this one--she came off just odd at first, and not very ikeable. I wondered where the woman I had come to greatly appreciate in the first book was. The committee is not supposed to consider any previous book by an author, however, so this book had to stand alone for them and obviously did.
The other big surprise for me was Hope Was Here as an honor book. I like Joan Bauer's work a lot--she is so skilled at writing humor that also has a wonderful emotional core. Perhaps because this book is set in Wisconsin, where I live, I responded more critically to some of the facts that weren't correct, such as a description of traveling from Chicago north to Wisconsin on interstate 94 and the rolling hills one sees from the interstate once the Wisconsin border has been crossed. That is the very part of the state I'm from, and I wish the view form the interstate was that nice. The book also describes the connection between the small town that the characters settle in and the city of Milwaukee by commuter train--there simply aren't any true commuter trains in Wisconsin, though you can catch an Amtrak from certain places into Milwaukee or Chicago.
More disturbing to me in this book are the liberties taken with the political process in a plotline about a mayoral election and a very positive, idealistic candidate who is running against a corrupt incumbent mayor. I truly appreciate the message the book has about empowerment of the individual and community in the face of political corruption--in this case it's a group of community members led by teenagers who are the force behind an activist movement to fight the corrupt mayor, and what a great thing to portray for young readers. But when the "good" candidates filing papers turn out to not have enough community members signatures when some are invalidated, his supporters, led by the teens, ask for one more day and get it. That's simply illegal as I see it--all the elections I have been involved in start with filing deadlines that ard hard and fast. You don't get more time simply because your candidate is a good guy. THe book's resolution, which I don't want to ruin for those who haven't read it, was also completely unrealistic to me. Then again, should anything be considered unrealistic in this year of the presidential election that would not end?
I'm willing to consider that this book should not be taken so literally--that the personal story of the protagonist, Hope, and the political story, which beautifully dovetail, should not be read so realistically, but more as a fantasy.
Who can offer a different perspective on either of these books?
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 17 Jan 2001 08:51:54 AM CST
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 08:51:54 -0600
First, I wanted to make a correction to the books by Robert Lipsyte cited by the Margaret Edwards Award Committee in connection with his receiving that award:
2001 YALSA and School Library Journal Margaret A. Edwards Award
(annual award to an author of outstanding young adult books)
Robert Lipsyte for:
The Contender (Harper & Row, 1967)
The Brave (HarperCollins, 1991)
The Chief (HarperCollins, 1993)
One Fat Summer (Harper & Row, 1977)
Now, who has initial thoughts on any of the announcements. Were you thrilled? Surprised? Shocked? Disappointed?
Of course all of us who follow children's literature certainly have some response to the announcement of these major children's literature awards. Probably you are feeling all of the above and more depending on which award and which books you are thinking about.
Whatever my own responses to the award announcements each year, I always try to remember that this is a process--a very thorough process that each committee undergoes to choose its ultimate winner and any honor books. So whether or not I personally like or agree with all of the choices, I do trust and respect the process--that the particular group of people entrusted with choosing each award for that year read and reread and discussed these books in great depth and these were the books that each group as a whole agreed upon as the outstanding titles that met the criteria for their award.
Having said that, we of course all have our rights to our opinions and I will share my own initial thoughts about the Newbery choices.
It was hard for me not to compare A Year Down Under with Peck's first book featuring these characters, A Long Way From Chicago, and for me this book was a bit paler. The characters didn't spark quite the same, and it took quiet awhile for me to recapture a sense of the grandmother's outstanding character (in a moral sense, in a wonderfully humorous sense) in this one--she came off just odd at first, and not very ikeable. I wondered where the woman I had come to greatly appreciate in the first book was. The committee is not supposed to consider any previous book by an author, however, so this book had to stand alone for them and obviously did.
The other big surprise for me was Hope Was Here as an honor book. I like Joan Bauer's work a lot--she is so skilled at writing humor that also has a wonderful emotional core. Perhaps because this book is set in Wisconsin, where I live, I responded more critically to some of the facts that weren't correct, such as a description of traveling from Chicago north to Wisconsin on interstate 94 and the rolling hills one sees from the interstate once the Wisconsin border has been crossed. That is the very part of the state I'm from, and I wish the view form the interstate was that nice. The book also describes the connection between the small town that the characters settle in and the city of Milwaukee by commuter train--there simply aren't any true commuter trains in Wisconsin, though you can catch an Amtrak from certain places into Milwaukee or Chicago.
More disturbing to me in this book are the liberties taken with the political process in a plotline about a mayoral election and a very positive, idealistic candidate who is running against a corrupt incumbent mayor. I truly appreciate the message the book has about empowerment of the individual and community in the face of political corruption--in this case it's a group of community members led by teenagers who are the force behind an activist movement to fight the corrupt mayor, and what a great thing to portray for young readers. But when the "good" candidates filing papers turn out to not have enough community members signatures when some are invalidated, his supporters, led by the teens, ask for one more day and get it. That's simply illegal as I see it--all the elections I have been involved in start with filing deadlines that ard hard and fast. You don't get more time simply because your candidate is a good guy. THe book's resolution, which I don't want to ruin for those who haven't read it, was also completely unrealistic to me. Then again, should anything be considered unrealistic in this year of the presidential election that would not end?
I'm willing to consider that this book should not be taken so literally--that the personal story of the protagonist, Hope, and the political story, which beautifully dovetail, should not be read so realistically, but more as a fantasy.
Who can offer a different perspective on either of these books?
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 17 Jan 2001 08:51:54 AM CST
