Comments on: Newbery Hodgepodge

By: susanb

susanb — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:22:37 +0000

Totally off the radar, and possibly out of the question , but will add The Georges and the Jewels by Jane Smiley. It’s been a long, long, looooong time since a horse book has made the Newbery cut, but Smiley is a Pulitzer winner, and I’d be surprised if they hadn’t at least read it.

By: marjorie

marjorie — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:33:40 +0000

Tropical Secrets was my best Jewish book of the year in my roundup for Tablet magazine. I didn’t much like the title (colorless AND vaguely porny!) OR the cover (such cliched immigration imagery! our art director said it looked like every Jewish children’s book she’d been forced to read in her own youth!), but dang, what was between the pages was terrific. lyrical, quirky, informative, powerful.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 07:24:52 +0000

I think they value the same things, sure, but they’re also looking at things like popularity or perceived popularity and can consider things like didactic intent. Maybe you’re so immersed in the Newbery criteria, and have been familiar with them for so long, that you don’t realize how odd they seem to the public and even non-Newbery book/publishing people? There’s a reason you have to keep asking people to go back to the criteria, and it’s because most people don’t naturally think about and respond to books in those terms.

The example I always use is Little Brother, which I think got at least three starred reviews last year, but is also one of the worst books I read last year as far as style goes. (Probably the worst, actually.) Presumably it got its stars for being exciting and relevant and different and something teens would go for, which is fine. But those aren’t the Printz criteria. The Hunger Games was well deserving of its starred reviews and its Battle of the Books win, but as far as last year’s Newbery committee was concerned, was not more distinguished than some other books that got fewer starred reviews.

By: Jonathan Hunt

Jonathan Hunt — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 07:08:26 +0000

. . . And CHARLES AND EMMA got screwed in favor of that six-word memoir book. Whatever.

We keep saying that starred reviews (or best of the year lists) have different criteria . . . but do they? The Newbery committee values plot, character, setting, theme, and style. Don’t you think editors and reviewers generally value those same things?

I think the bigger difference is that the review journals don’t have fifteen people trying to make every single decision via a weighted ballot process. So I think the process is a bigger difference than the criteria.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:50:33 +0000

Yes, I was shocked by the omission of When You Reach Me (not necessarily by Calpurnia–mildly surprised, at most) and frankly can’t understand it. I wonder if it was disserviced by being in the science fiction/fantasy category–it’s a great novel, but maybe the judges didn’t think it was a great SF/F novel.

Anyway, Cybils, like starred reviews, have different criteria, and I don’t think they correlate much with what wins the ALA awards.

(Marcelo, certainly a Printz frontrunner, wasn’t recognized in its category either.)

By: Jonathan Hunt

Jonathan Hunt — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:24:51 +0000

Under the Radar

Looking through some of the BCCB Blue Ribbons and Cybils finalists . . . Has anyone read HOW OLIVER OLSON CHANGED THE WORLD, OPERATION YES, or ANYTHING BUT TYPICAL? Thoughts?

Is anyone surprised that WHEN YOU REACH ME and THE EVOLUTION OF CALPURNIA TATE were both shut out of the middle grade category? A harbinger of things to come?

By: Nina

Nina — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 15:22:06 +0000

I’ll just add to Jonathan’s last point in response to Faith, that it takes me multiple readings to really figure out WHY I react to a book in a certain way on first read. For instance, WHEN YOU REACH ME had me at “hello,” but why? Is it just because of taste, or has the author done something truly remarkable? After a fourth read, I think I have a pretty good grip on the answer (it’s “both,” of course). Similarly, if I don’t think a book is distinguished on first read, couldn’t that be because I’m missing something? That has been the case with me on several honorees that I’ve ended up supporting heartily, even if they didn’t grip me on the first go. It DOES take someone else’s initial enthusiasm to make me go into multiple readings with an open mind.

By: Jonathan Hunt

Jonathan Hunt — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 10:32:42 +0000

I think this is an excellent question, Faith. And a corollary one is this: How do you know you are giving an award for the most distinguished reading experience as opposed to the most distinguished *discussion* experience. I think you have to be really vigilant on both counts.

I think if you don’t have a good handle on the book by the second read, then any great a-ha! moments gleaned from subsequent readings probably mean the reader is reaching.

Ideally, I like to read a book, then if I think it’s a contender, I’ll read it straightaway a second time, and then again late in the year to keep the book fresh in my mind. Some books I read and don’t suspect them as being award potential, but they sort of grow on you and linger in your mind.

I think we’ve all had the experience of putting a book down and coming back to it a week or a month later only to be completely enchanted by it. So sometimes it’s just a timing thing. Good book, bad timing.

Other times, a particular book or genre really isn’t your cup of tea. Good book, bad reader. Often it takes some discussion and a second read to break through to the brilliance of a book.

By: faith

faith — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:49:51 +0000

Jonathan, How do you weight the first reading against subsequent readings given that the audience is likely to only read the book once? If it takes eight reading to fully understand a book and then you go–omigosh, best books ever–how do you know if that is a feature or a bug?

By: Jonathan Hunt

Jonathan Hunt — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 23:19:21 +0000

Newbery is from 0-14, Printz is from 12-18. Newbery committee members determine whether the book is for their audience. Publishers have to designate their book for at least part of the 12-18 age range in order for the Printz committee to recognize it. The two committees work independently of each other. Two books have been recognized by both committees–THE HOUSE OF THE SCORPION and LIZZIE BRIGHT AND THE BUCKMINSTER BOY both received Newbery and Printz honors.