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Batchelder books - sense of place
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From: Shawn Brommer <sbrommer>
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2005 08:57:21 -0600
I'd like to add a few final thoughts before we wrap up our Batchelder Award discussion.
When I consider the Batchelder Award-winning book, The Shadows of Ghadames, and the honor books,The Crow Girl and Daniel Half Human: The Story of the Good Nazi, I am struck by the powerful settings and the character of place in each one of these outstanding translated books. I delight in comparing/contrasting the warm, spicy, sensory world of 19th?ntury Libya in Shadows of Ghadames to the isolated, cold, wildly organic world that the Crow Girl inhabits. Hamburg is a silent, powerful character in Daniel Half Human and even though this is a story of a World War, for Daniel and Armin this is the story of their youth spent in a very specific place at an all-too-specific and horrific time. It is crucial that Daniel returns to Hamburg to tell his story and to carry out his final action.
I feel that the power of place is especially important, especially relevant, for the Batchelder Award and honor books. These books depict foreign places and foreign times. Readers inhabit places other than American cities and towns and experience lives and cultures vastly different than their own when they read these books. I secretly feel (well, it's not a secret any more!) that there is something rather subversive about reading these amazing translated books. I feel that I'm privy to radical ideas when I read books from other countries. I feel that I'm freed from restrictive, habitual ways of thinking that I didn't even realize existed. I hope that young American readers sense a global connection, a radical relationship, through these important books.
(A disclaimer: I was a member of this year's Batchelder committee and I speak for myself and not my esteemed committee members.)
Shawn Brommer Madison, WI
Shawn Brommer Youth Services and Outreach Coordinator South Central Library System 5250 East Terrace Drive, Suite A-2 Madison, WI 53718?45
voice/TTY (608) 246y74 fax (608) 246y58 sbrommer at scls.lib.wi.us
Received on Tue 22 Mar 2005 08:57:21 AM CST
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2005 08:57:21 -0600
I'd like to add a few final thoughts before we wrap up our Batchelder Award discussion.
When I consider the Batchelder Award-winning book, The Shadows of Ghadames, and the honor books,The Crow Girl and Daniel Half Human: The Story of the Good Nazi, I am struck by the powerful settings and the character of place in each one of these outstanding translated books. I delight in comparing/contrasting the warm, spicy, sensory world of 19th?ntury Libya in Shadows of Ghadames to the isolated, cold, wildly organic world that the Crow Girl inhabits. Hamburg is a silent, powerful character in Daniel Half Human and even though this is a story of a World War, for Daniel and Armin this is the story of their youth spent in a very specific place at an all-too-specific and horrific time. It is crucial that Daniel returns to Hamburg to tell his story and to carry out his final action.
I feel that the power of place is especially important, especially relevant, for the Batchelder Award and honor books. These books depict foreign places and foreign times. Readers inhabit places other than American cities and towns and experience lives and cultures vastly different than their own when they read these books. I secretly feel (well, it's not a secret any more!) that there is something rather subversive about reading these amazing translated books. I feel that I'm privy to radical ideas when I read books from other countries. I feel that I'm freed from restrictive, habitual ways of thinking that I didn't even realize existed. I hope that young American readers sense a global connection, a radical relationship, through these important books.
(A disclaimer: I was a member of this year's Batchelder committee and I speak for myself and not my esteemed committee members.)
Shawn Brommer Madison, WI
Shawn Brommer Youth Services and Outreach Coordinator South Central Library System 5250 East Terrace Drive, Suite A-2 Madison, WI 53718?45
voice/TTY (608) 246y74 fax (608) 246y58 sbrommer at scls.lib.wi.us
Received on Tue 22 Mar 2005 08:57:21 AM CST
