CCBC-Net Archives
Re: Preference in Fiction in Printz Award
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Lynn Rutan <lynnrutan_at_charter.net>
Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2012 08:36:38 -0400
Sharon says:
"Points have been made about a lack of comfort with judging non-fiction; and a subtle preference of committee members for genres that they are more knowledgeable about. I think both are true -- however, I also see a serious lack of great non-fiction. Other than biography (which there are some great ones), there is little creativity with non-fiction IMHO. Most do read much like reports.
So despite the fact that non-fiction books are eligible -- there is not really any innovation taking place. “
I agree that there isn’t a lot of the really quality nonfiction in comparison to the numbers of fiction published each year but I disagree with the statement that there isn’t a lot of innovation or creativity. On the contrary - I think some of the most creative and innovative writing is being done by nonfiction writers in the last few years.
Last year Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s AMELIA LOST featured an extremely innovative narrative structure in which the day by day search for Earhart is interspersed with chronological biographical chapters. The device provided a sense of suspense and tension for an event in which the result is already known. My young readers were captivated by the book and it ranked as one of their top favorites of the year.
Marc Aronson has been doing some exceptionally excellent writing using an approach that I think is extremely innovative. Marc is challenging his young readers by giving them a theory, an idea or a new way of looking at a topic, providing a fascinating stream of support and opposing views and then challenging the readers to come to their own conclusion. He asks them to think, to confront new ideas, to search for evidence, to develop their own answers to the question he poses. Marc writes dynamic nonfiction. He seeks an intellectual dialog with his readers and I think that is so innovative it is world shaking. SUGAR CHANGED THE WORLD and this year’s MASTER OF DECEIT are examples of this for older teens. I think MASTER OF DECEIT is one of the very best books of this year as he very successfully gives readers a palpable sense of the atmosphere of fear that not only made Hoover’s activities acceptable but motivated that complex man as well. He then circles back and links that time and those actions to events today. It is a brilliant book in my opinion.
Sue Macy’s WHEELS OF CHANGE chronicles the fascinating subject of the bicycle and readers going along for the ride find an eye-opening examination of women’s history, the social conditions of the time and the movement toward equal rights. Macy uses many traditional sources to support her case but she also uses an impressive and entertaining amount of primary sources in the form of advertising, photographs, brochures, postcards and newspaper articles. It is lively and engaging while presenting and supporting a most interesting idea.
Or how about Kadir Nelson’s HEART AND SOUL in which the old woman tells the readers that they need to pay attention to this “family story” and then unfolds a gripping, moving and nontraditional look at American history.
Or how about a nonfiction series that has been around for years based on a most innovative idea - Scientists in the Field. Instead of a nonfiction book that looks at monkeys or snakes or ocean currents, this series describes the work of a particular scientist, what it is actually like to BE a working scientist and, oh yes, along the way the reader learns a lot about whatever the scientist featured is studying.
Or Jim Murphy’s fascinating INVISIBLE MICROBES that was the biography of a germ and its impact on the human race or Deborah Heiligman’s astonishing CHARLES AND EMMA.
Well, I could go on and on - and I frequently do ;-) I think there is real and exciting innovation in nonfiction right now - not just in the gorgeous illustrations and interesting formats - but in the solid and creative writing being done. What do I want from publishers? I want more of what authors like the one above and Partridge, Rubin, Hoose, Rappaport, Stone, Montgomery and others are doing.
Lynn Rutan Bookends - Booklist Online Youth Blog lynnrutan_at_charter.net
Received on Tue 07 Aug 2012 08:36:38 AM CDT
Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2012 08:36:38 -0400
Sharon says:
"Points have been made about a lack of comfort with judging non-fiction; and a subtle preference of committee members for genres that they are more knowledgeable about. I think both are true -- however, I also see a serious lack of great non-fiction. Other than biography (which there are some great ones), there is little creativity with non-fiction IMHO. Most do read much like reports.
So despite the fact that non-fiction books are eligible -- there is not really any innovation taking place. “
I agree that there isn’t a lot of the really quality nonfiction in comparison to the numbers of fiction published each year but I disagree with the statement that there isn’t a lot of innovation or creativity. On the contrary - I think some of the most creative and innovative writing is being done by nonfiction writers in the last few years.
Last year Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s AMELIA LOST featured an extremely innovative narrative structure in which the day by day search for Earhart is interspersed with chronological biographical chapters. The device provided a sense of suspense and tension for an event in which the result is already known. My young readers were captivated by the book and it ranked as one of their top favorites of the year.
Marc Aronson has been doing some exceptionally excellent writing using an approach that I think is extremely innovative. Marc is challenging his young readers by giving them a theory, an idea or a new way of looking at a topic, providing a fascinating stream of support and opposing views and then challenging the readers to come to their own conclusion. He asks them to think, to confront new ideas, to search for evidence, to develop their own answers to the question he poses. Marc writes dynamic nonfiction. He seeks an intellectual dialog with his readers and I think that is so innovative it is world shaking. SUGAR CHANGED THE WORLD and this year’s MASTER OF DECEIT are examples of this for older teens. I think MASTER OF DECEIT is one of the very best books of this year as he very successfully gives readers a palpable sense of the atmosphere of fear that not only made Hoover’s activities acceptable but motivated that complex man as well. He then circles back and links that time and those actions to events today. It is a brilliant book in my opinion.
Sue Macy’s WHEELS OF CHANGE chronicles the fascinating subject of the bicycle and readers going along for the ride find an eye-opening examination of women’s history, the social conditions of the time and the movement toward equal rights. Macy uses many traditional sources to support her case but she also uses an impressive and entertaining amount of primary sources in the form of advertising, photographs, brochures, postcards and newspaper articles. It is lively and engaging while presenting and supporting a most interesting idea.
Or how about Kadir Nelson’s HEART AND SOUL in which the old woman tells the readers that they need to pay attention to this “family story” and then unfolds a gripping, moving and nontraditional look at American history.
Or how about a nonfiction series that has been around for years based on a most innovative idea - Scientists in the Field. Instead of a nonfiction book that looks at monkeys or snakes or ocean currents, this series describes the work of a particular scientist, what it is actually like to BE a working scientist and, oh yes, along the way the reader learns a lot about whatever the scientist featured is studying.
Or Jim Murphy’s fascinating INVISIBLE MICROBES that was the biography of a germ and its impact on the human race or Deborah Heiligman’s astonishing CHARLES AND EMMA.
Well, I could go on and on - and I frequently do ;-) I think there is real and exciting innovation in nonfiction right now - not just in the gorgeous illustrations and interesting formats - but in the solid and creative writing being done. What do I want from publishers? I want more of what authors like the one above and Partridge, Rubin, Hoose, Rappaport, Stone, Montgomery and others are doing.
Lynn Rutan Bookends - Booklist Online Youth Blog lynnrutan_at_charter.net
Received on Tue 07 Aug 2012 08:36:38 AM CDT
