Twelve Kinds of Meth
Oops! Got your attention, didn’t I? Of couse, I meant TWELVE KINDS OF ICE and BENEATH A METH MOON, but first things first . . .
We had 30 people submit a full set of three nominations in October, and the results are listed below. Please note that these are slightly different from the earlier results I compiled because I couldn’t make the numbers add up right so I had to go back and double check. In doing so, I omitted incomplete nominations that listed one or two titles.
(13) LIAR & SPY
(10) BOMB
(8) SPLENDORS AND GLOOMS
(8) THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN
(5) NO CRYSTAL STAIR
(5) WONDER
(5) THREE TIMES LUCKY
(4) CROW
(4) THE LIONS OF LITTLE ROCK
(3) MOONBIRD
(3) THE MIGHTY MISS MALONE
(2) SUMMER OF THE GYPSY MOTHS
(2) WE’VE GOT A JOB
(2) THE GREAT UNEXPECTED
(2) STARRY RIVER OF THE SKY
(2) CHILD OF THE MOUNTAINS
(1) PALACE OF STONE
(1) DUMPLING DAYS
(1) WATER SINGS BLUE
(1) ABRAHAM LINCOLN & FREDERICK DOUGLASS
(1) EACH KINDNESS
(1) KATERINA’S WISH
(1) THE HUMMING ROOM
(1) JAKE & LILY
(1) KINDRED SOULS
(1) CAPTURE THE FLAG
(1) THE UNFORTUNATE SON
(1) WOODEN BONES
Now we get ready for our two November nominations. Our committee of 30 would ultimately need 15-16 of us to vote for the winning book. No title received that many nominations this time, but some of them might by the second or third round. I mentioned that I was considering LIAR & SPY and THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN for future nominations, but since both of those have quite a bit of support, it allows me to nominate books just to get them on the table. So, as tempting as it is to go with some nonfiction, easy readers, or graphic novels, I’m going to nominate a pair of books that are not necessarily in my personal top five–maybe not even my top ten–but which beg for our consideration nevertheless. These are both books I can be talked into supporting.
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Jacqueline Woodson has won many, many awards for her novels, but I think BENEATH A METH MOON is her best to date–better than MIRACLE’S BOYS, HUSH, LOCOMOTION, FEATHERS, or AFTER TUPAC AND D FOSTER. Yes, this one is for an older audience of 7th, 8th, and 9th graders, but there is such a haunting melancholy tone to this one that I simply must bring it to the table. Karyn Silverman didn’t care for this one as a Printz contender, and while I do think the slender size of the novel puts it at a disadvantage to the thicker books in that field, I’m not convinced of her argument that the secondary characters need to be more fully developed.
Betsy Bird has been heaping all kinds of love on TWELVE KINDS OF ICE for many months now and with good reason. The writing is distinguished–how distinguished is a question I would love to discuss with others. In his most recent Horn Book editorial, Roger Sutton describes the book thus . . .
But what about a sui generis book like Ellen Bryan Obed and Barbara McClintock’s Twelve Kinds of Ice, an illustrated series of vignettes about winter weather? Kind of a memoir, not exactly a story, almost a poem, the book is the sort that makes us stop and think about how we are going to categorize it: we entertained arguments for nonfiction and poetry before placing the review, uneasily, in the fiction section, and settling, tentatively, on a suggested reading level. What is this and who is it for?—in other words, What is a children’s book?
I’ve had a devil of a time trying to find worthy transitional chapter book candidates this year. LULU AND THE DUCK IN THE PARK, SADIE AND RATZ, THE GREAT CAKE MYSTERY, and THE NO 1 CAR SPOTTER AND THE FIREBIRD add depth to the field, but nether McKay, Hartnett, Smith, nor Atinuke are American. So, like the Horn Book, I would tenatively place this book here–even though I wonder if the nostalgia doesn’t make it more of a middle grade title.
I’ll add these two nominations to my earlier three, like this . .
BENEATH A METH MOON
BOMB
MOONBIRD
NO CRYSTAL STAIR
TWELVE KINDS OF ICE
Now give me your five nominations. If you voted last time, then please keep the same three and add two more, listing all five in the comments. If you didn’t nominate last time, then feel free to give us your five now. Do you build support around an already nominated title or reach for those underappreciated titles? Hmmm . . .
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About Jonathan Hunt
Jonathan Hunt is the Coordinator of Library Media Services at the San Diego County Office of Education. He served on the 2006 Newbery committee, and has also judged the Caldecott Medal, the Printz Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. You can reach him at hunt_yellow@yahoo.com
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