From: Annette Goldsmith <ayg>
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:50:01 -0500

Norma Jean makes a good point about the limited impact of some awards. The Batchelder has been around since 1966 and it's about time for it to take hold! I was a member of this year's Batchelder Award Committee so I have an obvious bias, but I believe that it is critical for children in the U.S. to read books from other countries, books NOT originally aimed at them. Of course I want them to have access to English-language books from abroad too, but the Batchelder is unique among the awards in promoting excellent translated books that, unless children read in another language, are closed to them.

So here's a quick commercial for this year's Batchelder winner, BRAVE STORY, by Miyuki Miyabe, translated by Alexander O. Smith (VIZ Media). This book is a phenomenon in its home country, Japan, where it exists as a novel, graphic novel, and video game. The frame story follows protagonist Wataru, an 11-year-old boy whose world is falling apart as he realizes that his parents are going to get a divorce. He enters a fantasy world called Vision, loosely based on the types of video games he plays, in which he understands it may be possible to alter his fate. The story is emotionally intense, and (very important to me as a reader) NOT predictable. It is a deeply satisfying read that, incidentally, gives the reader considerable insight into family and school life in contemporary Japan. This novel is 816 pages. Thank goodness for J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter, who have made it possible for us to expect that children will actually read this long a book.

The Batchelder Honor Books are also by authors and illustrators famous in their own countries (Germany and France). These books, however, are reassuringly slim: Jutta Richter's THE CAT: OR, HOW I LOST ETERNITY, with illustrations by Rotraut Susanne Berner, and translated by Anna Brailovsky
(Milkweed); and Ren? Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Semp?'s NICHOLAS AND THE GANG, translated by Anthea Bell (Phaidon). Spare and philosophical in a child-friendly way, THE CAT will remind you of The Little Prince. You may already be familiar with the hilarious adventures of NICHOLAS and his friends, first published in French as Le petit Nicholas et les copains.

I don't mean to jump the gun on the Batchelder discussion slated for March 13-19, so you may wish to reserve your comments on the books until then... but of course I'm anxious to hear your initial reaction.

Annette Goldsmith Doctoral Candidate College of Information 101 Louis Shores Building 142 Collegiate Loop Florida State University P.O. Box 3062100 Tallahassee, FL 32306-2100

-----Original Message----- From: ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
[mailto:ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu] On Behalf Of Norma Jean Sawicki Sent: Monday, January 21, 2008 1:03 PM To: CCBC Subject: [CCBC-Net] Awards

I agree with....

"I don't know how closely the "average" librarian, teacher, or bookseller (I know, you're all above average, it's true!) tracks the totality of ALA awards. But at some point it starts to feel a bit diluted."

Sometimes, less is more. Sure...awards make people feel good but it takes time for an award to take hold...to have an impact. Some...such as the Mildred Batchelder Award...never do. I sometimes fear the granting of an award enables some to believe that the granting of an award means a job well done when it is sometimes the beginning, no more. The Newbery/Caldecott Awards were started at a time when there was far less competition for leisure time, and too, when reading books was valued in a way that it is not today. Norma Jean
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Received on Mon 21 Jan 2008 04:50:01 PM CST