Who a book is published for is such a chancy thing. A Wrinkle in Time might have been an adult book, after all (and probably dropped into semi-oblivion). I don’t see any need to disqualify books outright if they’re really speaking to children.

Wendy, we may disagree about TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (or STITCHES or whatever), but you have left the main point of my argument unchallenged, namely that there are books that are published for adults that would be perfectly suitable for a child audience–and that these books are eligible for the Newbery.

I mean, that’s like saying The Odyssey should have won the 799 BC Newbery Medal because we read it my freshman year.

I don’t know if you are familiar with adult nonfiction, Tricia, but they all look like big fat Harry Potter books–and there were 481 submitted. Now every year the YPL judges proudly state that they read all the books; nobody ever makes that claim for Nonfiction because it’s a physical impossibility. Had STITCHES been submitted for Nonfiction, the judges (not knowing that David Small is a superstar talent) might not even have read the book, even with a divide and conquer strategy. With the YPL judges, I would expect that at the very least Gene Yang and Kathi Appelt would read it, so friendly in this case doesn’t mean biased, but rather open to this outside-the-box choice. I don’t know that Yang or Appelt even know Small personally so I don’t think it’s a nepotism thing.

Wendy, so if TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is inappropriate for the Newbery Medal, then isn’t it also inappropriate that it is required reading for nearly every 14-year-old in this country?

(And no, I DON’T think To Kill a Mockingbird would have been a good Newbery choice; it crosses to young adult, and I think would likely have been published as such today, but is adult in its handling of its themes and characters.)