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From: Monica R. Edinger <edinger>
Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2004 09:47:22 -0500
It is hard for me not to think about our middle school lunchroom when we discuss the importance of award winners' degree of popularity among children. Over there is Despereaux, you can barely see those big ears over the happy elementary teachers, librarians, and children surrounding him --- he's one popular fellow! Meanwhile, off in a corner is Olive (or should it be Martha?) not alone, by any means, there are a few teachers and librarians around her and a few bookish girls as well, but plenty of space for more. (As for the Plague book.... I see mostly adults at that table, but I suppose those younger-looking ones are actually high school kids eating during the middle school lunch period. )
While it is indeed very cool that a book that is accessible to elementary kids won the Newbery, it isn't what made me love Despereaux. Oh sure, I couldn't wait to read it aloud and had so much fun doing so. But I loved the book because I find it a beautifully written story for reasons I've indicated here before. The fact that it is so widely enjoyed by children is indeed wonderful, but it didn't win because of its popularity. It won because it is a great book.
Olive's Ocean is a lovely book too. The fact that it isn't as popular doesn't matter to me. It is a quiet book and quiet books (and people, for that matter) don't tend to be as popular as other sorts of books. I suspect if I went into the lunchroom and saw the crowds around Despereaux and the quiet girls around Olive, I'd head to the latter. (When the Beatles hit when I was in sixth grade I refused to listen to them just because everyone else did. So it sure is a good thing that I read Despereaux before I knew anything about it or how others felt about it.) There are many beautiful introspective books that have been honored in the last few years, say last year's A Corner of the Universe.
Yesterday I decided (goodness knows why) to watch a double feature of the two Legally Blonde movies. Talk about popularity! Actually they are pretty sweet movies in that they show the supposed dumb-popular-blonde to be pretty shrewd as well as nice. So it is with awards. There is such a thing as good and popular and such a thing as good and less popular. What I think matters though is that the honored books be beautifully written and Olive's Ocean is that in my estimation.
Monica
Monica Edinger The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at yahoo.com
Received on Sun 08 Feb 2004 08:47:22 AM CST
Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2004 09:47:22 -0500
It is hard for me not to think about our middle school lunchroom when we discuss the importance of award winners' degree of popularity among children. Over there is Despereaux, you can barely see those big ears over the happy elementary teachers, librarians, and children surrounding him --- he's one popular fellow! Meanwhile, off in a corner is Olive (or should it be Martha?) not alone, by any means, there are a few teachers and librarians around her and a few bookish girls as well, but plenty of space for more. (As for the Plague book.... I see mostly adults at that table, but I suppose those younger-looking ones are actually high school kids eating during the middle school lunch period. )
While it is indeed very cool that a book that is accessible to elementary kids won the Newbery, it isn't what made me love Despereaux. Oh sure, I couldn't wait to read it aloud and had so much fun doing so. But I loved the book because I find it a beautifully written story for reasons I've indicated here before. The fact that it is so widely enjoyed by children is indeed wonderful, but it didn't win because of its popularity. It won because it is a great book.
Olive's Ocean is a lovely book too. The fact that it isn't as popular doesn't matter to me. It is a quiet book and quiet books (and people, for that matter) don't tend to be as popular as other sorts of books. I suspect if I went into the lunchroom and saw the crowds around Despereaux and the quiet girls around Olive, I'd head to the latter. (When the Beatles hit when I was in sixth grade I refused to listen to them just because everyone else did. So it sure is a good thing that I read Despereaux before I knew anything about it or how others felt about it.) There are many beautiful introspective books that have been honored in the last few years, say last year's A Corner of the Universe.
Yesterday I decided (goodness knows why) to watch a double feature of the two Legally Blonde movies. Talk about popularity! Actually they are pretty sweet movies in that they show the supposed dumb-popular-blonde to be pretty shrewd as well as nice. So it is with awards. There is such a thing as good and popular and such a thing as good and less popular. What I think matters though is that the honored books be beautifully written and Olive's Ocean is that in my estimation.
Monica
Monica Edinger The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at yahoo.com
Received on Sun 08 Feb 2004 08:47:22 AM CST
