CCBC-Net Archives

[CCBC-Net] Five Initial Reactions to the Awards

From: Melody Allen <melody_allen>
Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2006 11:04:52 -0500

I am in agreement with adjusting the ages for the awards. The initial impetus for the Newbery and the Caldecott awards as I understand it was to encourage talented writers and illustrators to create wonderful books for children. If the age range for Newbery in particular was lowered to 12 (or I would even suggest for children under 12, i.e. top out at 6th grade), it would encourage (and reward) talented writers to create wonderful books for the grades 4-6 age range. There will always be some overlap of titles; there are many books for grades 5-7 or 6-8. Melody Allen melody_allen at gw.doa.state.ri.us


>>> "Hendon, Alison" <A.Hendon at BrooklynPublicLibrary.org> 02/01/06 10:52AM >>>
-----Original Message----- From: Rita Auerbach [mailto:rita.auerbach at alum.barnard.edu] Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 10:33 AM To: ccbc-net at ccbc.ad.education.wisc.edu Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] Five Initial Reactions to the Awards

Eliza makes a compelling case for the decision in the late 1980's to maintain the 14-year-old limit for ALSC awards and notables. The problem, as I see it, is that that was about 20 years ago. In the intervening years,

there has been a huge change in the sophistication of 14 year olds and in the books that are published for young people. If we were only dividing the world between children and adults, then clearly 14 year olds would be considered children. But if the divide is between children and young adults, then 14 year olds, high school students, are young adults and I would argue that there is no book published for young people that one could not find suitable for 14 year olds. I strongly believe that it is time for ALSC to revisit the age range for awards. This was quite a topic of conversation in San Antonio, and I am glad we are discussing it here. Rita Auerbach

Rita speaks for me as well. I find the overlap quite distressing as it doesn't reflect the age range of my patrons. So many of the Children's Notables were also BBYAs - as well as the Newbery and Pura Belpre. There's always a push to purchase ALSC award winners for the children's collection, even though at my library that collection goes to age 12, not 14. YA starts at 13 for me (and 12 for YALSA.) I think the overlap should stop.

Alison Hendon Brooklyn Public Library
_______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
Received on Wed 01 Feb 2006 10:04:52 AM CST