From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 09:24:00 -0600

Thank you for all the comments shared on the 2003 Newbery Award.

It's now time to turn our attention to the 2003 Robert F. Sibert Award.

The winner of this year's Sibert Award was The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler by James Cross Giblin (Clarion)

The committee cited four honor books:

Six Days in October: The Stock Market Crash of 1929 by Karen Blumenthal (Atheneum)

Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux)

Action Jackson by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker (Roaring Brook Press/The Millbrook Press)

and

When Marian Sang by Pam Munoz Ryan, illustrated by Brian Selznick (Scholastic)

What are your thoughts on these five books?

My CCBC colleague Kathleen Horning has referred to Giblin's Hitler biography as a "gutsy" book, and I concur. It's a difficult topic to tackle, and he sets himself the task of trying to understand and convey for young adults a sense of Hitler as person who did terrible, terrible things, rather than simply falling back on labeling him a "monster"
(however appropriate that label might seem.)

For me, one of the most striking aspects of Giblin's treatment comes in understanding of how easily Hiter and the Nazi party took control in Germany. Giblin addresses the complexities of the economic and political situation in Germany, and makes it clear there were those who resisted, but overall, he draws a chilling portrait of capitulation.

Megan

Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, UW-Madison 600 N. Park St., Room 4290 Madison, Wi 53706 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 26 Feb 2003 09:24:00 AM CST