Comments on: Spring Nonfiction Newbery Contenders

By: marjorie

marjorie — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 07:53:47 +0000

Elle Librarian, I wasn’t going to read CAN WE SAVE THE TIGER — life’s short, and it sounded like spinach — until you quoted the opening sentences. You’re right, those are grabby as all get out! I’m in.

By: Monica Edinger

Monica Edinger — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 16:31:21 +0000

I reread TRAPPED today and the same thing came to mind as it did the first time around: why are the miners themselves so buried in the story? Yes, the subtitle is “How the World Rescued 33 Miners from 2,000 Feet below the Chilean Desert,” but that doesn’t mean you can’t make those 33 visible and active in this rescue effort. Indeed, there is something of the cavalry coming in to save the day that makes me uncomfortable. There is just so much about all these experts coming in and I’d have liked to see the miners, who have a great deal of expertise too just not the book kind, to have been brought more to the fore. Of course, all 33 couldn’t have been brought in this way, but I think even one of the leaders could have been a stronger presence in the book than is the case. I suspect one problem was that Aronson interviewed some of the rescuers, but none of the miners. There is a different sensibility in the sections where he is writing about actions on the part of those he interviewed from the sections when he is relying on news accounts.

By: Jonathan Hunt

Jonathan Hunt — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:05:45 +0000

Yes, it’s ineligible for all the ALSC awards, but it was a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor book along with INTO THE UNKNOWN by Stewart Ross and Stephen Biesty (another great book by another British team).

By: Elle Librarian

Elle Librarian — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:02:02 +0000

Hmmm – does that make Can We Save the Tiger also ineligible for the Sibert award? It’s still a lovely book- hope people will still explore it.

By: Jen B.

Jen B. — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 22:07:20 +0000

Elle – I also loved Can We Save the Tiger? however from the author/illustrator blurbs it seems to me that Martin Jenkins and Vicky White are both British (although their citizenship is not mentioned it says Jenkins lives in Cambridge and White received her degree from the Royal College of Art in London). Now they could be expats, and I probably wouldn’t know it, but if they are British, Can We Save the Tiger? is sadly ineligible for both the Newbery and the Caldecott.

By: Elle Librarian

Elle Librarian — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:34:58 +0000

I love how the first few sentences of CAN WE SAVE THE TIGER set the scene for the entire book: “The world’s quite a big place, you know. But it’s not that big, when you consider how much there is to squeeze into it. After all, it’s home not just to billions of people, but to the most amazing number of other kinds of living things, too. And we’re all jostling for space.” The author brings to light some of the most threatened or extinct animals that many would not know about otherwise and highlights not just the more well-known ways animals become endangered, but also the lesser-known. Jenkins discusses it all in just the right amount of detail to make it accessible to young readers without overwhelming them. However, the amazing illustrations do threaten to steal the show at times as they truly do bring these extinct or very endangered animals to life in incredible detail. I do think it has the most chance of being recognized as a Sibert Award winner/honor or a Caldecott award winner/honor (rather than Newbery), but it is a title everyone should give a few moments of their time to peruse. Beautiful!

By: Elle Librarian

Elle Librarian — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:52:32 +0000

*Sibert Award. (Can I also add that CAN WE SAVE THE TIGER has at least five starred reviews: SLJ, Horn Book, Kirkus, LMC, and PW).

By: Elle Librarian

Elle Librarian — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:50:14 +0000

A simply gorgeous early offering was CAN WE SAVE THE TIGER by Martin Jenkins. While I’m leaning more towards Seibert medal on this one, I want to be sure that it gets a few seconds of limelight!

By: Jonathan Hunt

Jonathan Hunt — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 19:36:01 +0000

Kathi, I just put a hold on CAN I SEE YOUR I.D.?, but unfortunately my library does not have THE GRAND PLAN TO FIX EVERYTHING.

By: Kathi Appelt

Kathi Appelt — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:56:32 +0000

Has anyone considered Chris Barton’s CAN I SEE YOUR I.D.? (Should there be a second question mark behind that sentence???)

Barton takes a look at several people who have, in varying degrees of success, donned false identities. In separate chapters he examines each of them, and presents them in a second person voice. The use of the second person, in-your-face-direct-address, to the reader casts a kind of identity question upon the reader, which I found compelling.

I’m just asking…