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Preference for Fiction with Printz Award
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From: Kathleen Horning <horning_at_education.wisc.edu>
Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2012 13:08:23 -0500
Both Marc Aronson and Richie Partington have jumped right into our discussion of the Printz Award by observing that there seems to have been a strong preference for fiction in the first 13 years of the Printz Award.
Not to get us too far off track, but I think the same criticism could be-- and has been-- leveled at the Newbery Award which was been around many more decades than the Printz. In fact, I recently had the opportunity to do some research in the ALA Archives, where I found correspondence from the 1950s that documented the Newbery/Caldecott Committee and Children's Services Division Board, asked Frederic Melcher (founder of the Newbery and Caldecott Medals) about the possibility of dividing the Newbery into two categories, one for fiction and one for nonfiction. They said committee members found it hard to compare the two when considering distinguished literature for children. Mr. Melcher, who had last word about terms and criteria in those years, said he didn't want to see two Newbery categories, and that he felt literary excellence was literary excellence, no matter the genre.
For whatever reason, it seems that the majority of youth services librarians, who are the judges in these ALA awards, often have a strong personal preference for fiction. That makes it especially hard for other literary genres to compete. Added to that, there is just so much more fiction published in any given year than there is poetry, nonfiction, plays, or anthologies.
So is the deck stacked against other genres? Perhaps, but I don't think it's due to the terms YALSA has created for the Printz Award which, as Marc has pointed out, were intentionally written so that the award would be open to different genres. In fact, I think it's that openness that allowed for a graphic novel to win the award in 2007 when Gene Luen Yang received the Printz Award for "American Board Chinese."
KT
-- Kathleen T. Horning Director Cooperative Children's Book Center 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 N. Park Street Madison, WI 53706 Tel: 608-263-3721 Fax: 608-262-4933 horning_at_education.wisc.edu http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Mon 06 Aug 2012 01:08:23 PM CDT
Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2012 13:08:23 -0500
Both Marc Aronson and Richie Partington have jumped right into our discussion of the Printz Award by observing that there seems to have been a strong preference for fiction in the first 13 years of the Printz Award.
Not to get us too far off track, but I think the same criticism could be-- and has been-- leveled at the Newbery Award which was been around many more decades than the Printz. In fact, I recently had the opportunity to do some research in the ALA Archives, where I found correspondence from the 1950s that documented the Newbery/Caldecott Committee and Children's Services Division Board, asked Frederic Melcher (founder of the Newbery and Caldecott Medals) about the possibility of dividing the Newbery into two categories, one for fiction and one for nonfiction. They said committee members found it hard to compare the two when considering distinguished literature for children. Mr. Melcher, who had last word about terms and criteria in those years, said he didn't want to see two Newbery categories, and that he felt literary excellence was literary excellence, no matter the genre.
For whatever reason, it seems that the majority of youth services librarians, who are the judges in these ALA awards, often have a strong personal preference for fiction. That makes it especially hard for other literary genres to compete. Added to that, there is just so much more fiction published in any given year than there is poetry, nonfiction, plays, or anthologies.
So is the deck stacked against other genres? Perhaps, but I don't think it's due to the terms YALSA has created for the Printz Award which, as Marc has pointed out, were intentionally written so that the award would be open to different genres. In fact, I think it's that openness that allowed for a graphic novel to win the award in 2007 when Gene Luen Yang received the Printz Award for "American Board Chinese."
KT
-- Kathleen T. Horning Director Cooperative Children's Book Center 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 N. Park Street Madison, WI 53706 Tel: 608-263-3721 Fax: 608-262-4933 horning_at_education.wisc.edu http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Mon 06 Aug 2012 01:08:23 PM CDT
