From: Lisa Falk <lfalk>
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 12:13:19 -0800

As a member of the 2002 Newbery Award Committee, I wanted to assure everyone that we took eligibility very seriously - one of the first things I learned was to check the flap copy about the author before even READING a book! (After losing time reading several books that were NOT eligible...)

The committee did indeed question Carver's eligibility b/c of
"compilation" and because of "previously published." Eligibility questions are referred to the ALSC priority consultant for book evaluation committees and to the ALSC president. Carver, I might add, was not the only book that the committee checked on.

I thought Carver *was* eligible because the poems had not all been previously published, and never published together as a work - further, at the time, my understanding of a "compilation" was that it was something with an editor who coordinates pieces by different authors. In any case, I eagerly awaited the decision of the officials.

The priority consultant and ALSC President determined that indeed it was eligible. One important point was that the arrangement of the poems shaped the biography beyond simply a group of poems on the same subject. And, of course, many of them had not been published previously, and those that had were in publications of the kind for which children were not likely to be an audience.

A good example of a non-eligible book is the Printz Honor Book "Heart to

Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth?ntury American Art," edited by Jan Greenberg - poems by different authors.

Again, ALSC has the final say on eligibility, and they deemed Carver eligible....

Thanks for the opportunity to clarify how these decision are made for everyone on CCBC!

Lisa Falk, 2002 Newbery Award Committee Member with input from Kathleen O'Dean, 2002 Newbery Award Committee Chair
Received on Thu 21 Feb 2002 02:13:19 PM CST