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National Book Awards
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From: robinsmith59 at comcast.net <robinsmith59>
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 22:19:38 -0600
In response to Megan's questions on the National Book Awards, prior to next week's excitement:
I liked all five of the books, and I'll give some brief reflections on each. (It has been a while since I've read them, but since I liked them so much, I've gone back to each and at least reread my marked sections.)
Richard Peck's The River Between Us and Paul Fleischman's Breakout are two of my favorite books of the year and would be on my list for other awards. In fact, I'd have trouble being on a committee because I'd have to debate myself on which of the two is more worthy, though Breakout is for a bit older audience -- a Printz contender -- and The River Between Us could be a Newbery or Printz contender. I love historical fiction, and The River Between Us is an excellent historical novel, dealing with big themes of family, time, race, war, and history in a beautifully written work. I thought Peck was at the top of his form a couple of novels ago, but he seems to just keep getting better or, at least, adding to a magnificent string of recent novels. I plan to add it to my 8th-grade English program next year. It would be great for history classes, too, but I happen to teach English....
I also love philosophical, realistic novels, and Fleischman continues to do interesting things with his fiction. A girl's getting stuck in a traffic jam doesn't seem to be the stuff of excellent fiction, but Fleischman crafts a work of art about the nature of art, and in the process has much to say about life. As he says early in the novel, "Roads and revelation go together," and the traffic jam leads to revelations about the larger meanings of life: learning to accept what we have no control over -- traffic jams, earthquakes, cancer.... And it's about making art out of the circumstances of our lives. This is a novel that will be in my select collection of all-time favorites.
The Canning Season, too, is a beautifully written novel, about finding a place for yourself in the universe, about making a life and digging in. As Martha Parravano said in her Horn Book editorial (May/June, 2003), The Canning Season is one of a number of novels this year with a "humanized adult presence" in the form of Tilly and Penpen. And now that I think of it, Richard Peck's novels are always sure to have that adult presence, too -- a bigger topic than I have time for here (with my son urging me to get my adult presence away from the computer....)
Jim Murphy's An American Plague is a fine example of nonfiction -- well written, an engaging format, every bit as compelling as a fine novel. In fact, an excellent one-two punch with Fever, a novel about the epidemic of 1793.
And Locomotion, for a younger audience than the others, I like for its possibilities in reading and teaching poetry in school. Woodson's forms include haiku, sonnets, epistles, and others in accessible, natural language that would invite young readers to try their own hands at such writing.
What a nice range of fine fiction and nonfiction. The NBA committee did a great job of finding excellent works that represent the range of excellent children's literature out there.
Dean Schneider Ensworth School Nashville, Tennessee schneiderd at ensworth.com
Received on Wed 07 Jan 2004 10:19:38 PM CST
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 22:19:38 -0600
In response to Megan's questions on the National Book Awards, prior to next week's excitement:
I liked all five of the books, and I'll give some brief reflections on each. (It has been a while since I've read them, but since I liked them so much, I've gone back to each and at least reread my marked sections.)
Richard Peck's The River Between Us and Paul Fleischman's Breakout are two of my favorite books of the year and would be on my list for other awards. In fact, I'd have trouble being on a committee because I'd have to debate myself on which of the two is more worthy, though Breakout is for a bit older audience -- a Printz contender -- and The River Between Us could be a Newbery or Printz contender. I love historical fiction, and The River Between Us is an excellent historical novel, dealing with big themes of family, time, race, war, and history in a beautifully written work. I thought Peck was at the top of his form a couple of novels ago, but he seems to just keep getting better or, at least, adding to a magnificent string of recent novels. I plan to add it to my 8th-grade English program next year. It would be great for history classes, too, but I happen to teach English....
I also love philosophical, realistic novels, and Fleischman continues to do interesting things with his fiction. A girl's getting stuck in a traffic jam doesn't seem to be the stuff of excellent fiction, but Fleischman crafts a work of art about the nature of art, and in the process has much to say about life. As he says early in the novel, "Roads and revelation go together," and the traffic jam leads to revelations about the larger meanings of life: learning to accept what we have no control over -- traffic jams, earthquakes, cancer.... And it's about making art out of the circumstances of our lives. This is a novel that will be in my select collection of all-time favorites.
The Canning Season, too, is a beautifully written novel, about finding a place for yourself in the universe, about making a life and digging in. As Martha Parravano said in her Horn Book editorial (May/June, 2003), The Canning Season is one of a number of novels this year with a "humanized adult presence" in the form of Tilly and Penpen. And now that I think of it, Richard Peck's novels are always sure to have that adult presence, too -- a bigger topic than I have time for here (with my son urging me to get my adult presence away from the computer....)
Jim Murphy's An American Plague is a fine example of nonfiction -- well written, an engaging format, every bit as compelling as a fine novel. In fact, an excellent one-two punch with Fever, a novel about the epidemic of 1793.
And Locomotion, for a younger audience than the others, I like for its possibilities in reading and teaching poetry in school. Woodson's forms include haiku, sonnets, epistles, and others in accessible, natural language that would invite young readers to try their own hands at such writing.
What a nice range of fine fiction and nonfiction. The NBA committee did a great job of finding excellent works that represent the range of excellent children's literature out there.
Dean Schneider Ensworth School Nashville, Tennessee schneiderd at ensworth.com
Received on Wed 07 Jan 2004 10:19:38 PM CST
