Thoughts on Newbery: Picture Books

Over at Heavy Medal, Jonathan has raised the issue of picture books and the Newbery.  It is a challenging one because the award criteria state, “The committee is to make its decision primarily on the text. Other components of a book, such as illustrations, overall design of the book, etc., may be considered when they make the book less effective.”   At first Jonathan seemed to be suggesting that “primarily” meant that the art could be considered, but he has now conceded in the comments  that it cannot.  For those unfamiliar with the award, this is important to understand. Being on the Newbery is like being on a jury — the criteria, the process, and such are sacrosanct.  It is an extraordinary experience while being also at times frustrating as in this situation.  This situation being that you can only consider the text of a picture book, not the art, not the text and art as a whole entity.

Jonathan is a force to be reckoned with and has not allowed that pesky criteria to stop him from making a case for one picture book from this year, Ed Young’s Hook. In a second post Jonathan works hard on his arguments and ends by writing, “… if literature strives to explore what it means to be human, I don’t know of any story from this past year that does it as powerfully as this simple one.” So far he has yet to convince me. Hook is a remarkable and powerful book; text and art together create a moving and gorgeous aesthetic experience. I’ve been a longtime fan of Young’s art and admire tremendously this book and other recent ones.  But I’m not convinced that the text alone is as distinguished as other books I’ve read this year.

Jonathan was on the committee that gave a Newbery Honor to Jacqueline Woodson’s Show Way.  Now that one I can see, the text is gorgeous poetry and completely stands alone (lovely as the art is).  Young’s text for Hook, spare and elegant as it is, does not for me.  While Woodson’s text doesn’t need the art to soar, Young’s, to my mind, does. And that is as it should be — the aesthetic experience is both.

Is there another picture book from this year that can be considered?  I’ve been wondering about Brian Floca’s Moon Shot, but have yet to look at it carefully without the art.  The difficulty in finding such a book is, as Nina points out in a comment, that while some of the criteria may be covered in the text others (she notes characterization) are exclusively in the art.

It is a quandary.

Thoughts on Newbery: Retrospective Voice

Nina Lindsay reminded me of this series of posts, begun when I was on the 2008 Newbery Committee.  Now I’m having a grand time following and occasionally participating in the discussion over at Nina’s and Jonathan Hunt’s Heavy Medal blog.  Both are old and good friends; both are passionate, smart, and thoughtful about books for children; both are worth paying close attention to even if you don’t agree with them.  And they’ve been discussing two books, Richard Peck’s A Season of Gifts and Jacqueline Kelly’s The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, that I’ve been wondering about for a very particular reason:  the “looking back” voice.

The authors of these and another highly-lauded book, Fran Slayton’s When the Whistle Blows, have older narrators telling us about earlier times.  And it strikes me that when you are using an older voice to look back in a book for children you are walking a fine line — while you may have a nostalgic view of that time your audience may not share that view.  That is, we adult readers have a fund of background knowledge that we bring to a reading of the story that child readers do not have. And so we may see things the way you (the adult author) does that they may not (or see as the adult author may not have intended).   I also think there is the fine line of how much to include — all the stuff we adults find fascinating may simply slow down the action for a child reader.  Finally, I wonder if we adults, having experienced all of childhood already, can appreciate a broader range of growing-up than can those readers in the under- 15 age group.  Perhaps not, but it is stuff I’m wondering about.

For example,  57 year-old me reads A Season of Gifts with a degree of familiarity that a 9 year-old cannot.  I remember my babysitter’s besottedness with Elvis Presley whereas I would guess that a child today might have no clue who he was.  I remember playing “Cowboys and Indians,” westerns, and calling outhouses “Indian toilets” (a term my parents came up with when we were camping for some reason I can no longer find out about) whereas my students would say Native Americans, are very aware of the importance of respectfulness, and tend to be unaware of the careless behaviors that I recall from my past and are in this story.  Now Peck, to my mind, does a terrific job having his narrator tell his story in an immediate way that is likely to engage a young reader, but I do wonder about whether or not they need some background knowledge to navigate the complicated terrain of that Kickapoo Princess.  Does this particular issue of context matter?

Then there is the retrospective voice of Callie in The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate.  She is also looking back, how far back is no clearer to me than in Peck’s story.  But since author Jacqueline Kelly did not personally experience the time she is looking back to I don’t see the issue of background knowledge that I see for the Peck.  She is in the same chronological space as her intended child readers and brings in the necessary background beautifully, raises issues (say the roles of girls and women) from the same perspective (but without being anachronistic — an impressive feat) as her intended child readers.  But that raises for me a different question — is there too much of it?  I did find it languid at the beginning and wonder if the desire to bring in sufficient background knowledge (however subtly) slowed things down.  Will children be as engaged as adults by the slow layering of information and thought, elegantly brought in scene by scene?  Or is there in this case something about using a looking-back voice that resulted in a bit of an overly-information-rich story?

Not yet discussed in depth by Nina or Jonathan is Fran Slaytor’s When the Whistle Blows.  A lovely and very moving book,  it takes place over a number of years — each chapter a year later in the narrator’s life.  And so I wonder, what age group is going to enjoy this book?  It ends when the narrator is 18 and something about the chapters leading up to that final one made me feel that it wouldn’t appeal to my fourth grade students. Yet I also wonder if it would appeal to an almost-15 year-old (the high-end of the Newbery age range).  Anyone have some firsthand experience with kids reading it?

Popularity, despite much discussion to the contrary, is NOT a Newbery criteria.  But child appeal is.  And I do wonder about the retrospective voice in these three books and its appeal to children.  I’d love to hear from those of you who know of kids reading them and whether the three concerns I raised are significant or not.

Thinking Hard About Newbery, Audience, and Insensitivity

A difficult yet though-provoking discussion is currently going on at the superb SLJ Heavy Medal blog.   In, “A Season of Gifts…Don’t Throw the Popcorn” (a side reference to a comment made by Roger Sutton on his blog), Nina Lindsay raises some important questions regarding Richard Peck’s latest book.  In subsequent posts (as of this writing they are The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” “Lifting the Veil,” and “Racially Insensitive“), she and her fellow blogger Jonathan Hunt as well as commenters — myself included — have been grappling with some very challenging issues.  Hard stuff, but important.  Highly recommended.

The Does and Don’ts of Conventioneering, ALA Edition

***Warning — this is a very self-indulgent post with lots of me in it.***

Do bring a wrap for the chilly convention center.

Don’t walk by a Payless while already in the convention city, think that perhaps 3 inch heels would indeed be more elegant for the Newbery Banquet than the cute little patent leather flats in suitcase, go in and try on $20 pair, buy them and then hobble about the night of the Banquet.

Do enjoy wonderful books personally signed by lovely authors at dinners.

Don’t get sucked into the “There’s an ARC, I better take it” situation and then have your shoulder sag and sag and sag as you take more and more and more.  (If you do, be sure to mail them though.)

Do network and have fun seeing old friends.

Random House gave Florence Parry Heide a lovely 90th Birthday Party.
I adore the above book as evidently does Lane Smith, another old friend, who has illustrated Florence’s latest book. (We first met many, many, many years ago when a student of mine took me along while she interviewed him — her mother knew his wife from college — in his incredibly cool NYC studio.)

Don’t even attempt to get a book signed by Neil Gaiman the day after he gives his Newbery speech. (This line is OUTSIDE the exhibits.  It was segmented and HarperCollins folk –editors included — were doing a fantastic job managing something that took many hours.  I wonder if anyone has done a signing at ALA quite like it.)

Do get prettied up for the Newbery Caldecott Wilder Banquet as did these lovely ladies I’m standing with: Patty Rosati, marketing wiz at HarperCollins and Jennifer Hubert Swan of Reading Rants).

Don’t overlook fathers and sons like Walter Dean Myers and Chris Myers.  Their forthcoming Egmont book, Looking Like Me, is going to be a hit, I predict.

Don’t overdo the confetti eggs!  Here are Starr LaTronica and Melanie Chang dealing with the result of one.

Do be as starry-eyed as you want after finally meeting someone you admire, have an extended conversation about reading aloud, and then go off to sit at his publisher’s table to see him get his Newbery Medal.

Don’t think you aren’t noticed when you slip back to the dais to twitter or something like that.

Do run around like everyone else taking photos for fun!



Here are Jenni, Kathi, and Ashley!

Don’t feel guilty for being unable to cover everything (partly because I’m a lousy photographer and my camera’s batteries were dead the first day).  It was just great to see friends, see new and forthcoming stuff, consider issues like translating (USBBY session on this was fantastic), blogging (the Booklist session on this was great too),  and just have a blast talking and talking and talking about what we all love so much — books.

Do go home tired, but happy.

Away to Chicago

I’m off shortly to ALA in Chicago where I will be seeing many friends from the publishing world — authors, illustrators, editors, marketers, publicity folks, agents, librarians, academics, reviewers, educators, teachers, bloggers, booksellers, and book lovers of all stripes. Can’t wait to see them all and do some socializing, gossiping, hear about and see new and forthcoming books, and otherwise have a grand time.

In addition to all the socializing and networking, I also plan to:

• Stop by the Mo Willems reading at the Art Institute’s “Picture Perfect: Caldecott Award Books: 2006-2009) exhibit on Friday afternoon, 3-5.
• Wander the exhibits on Saturday morning. (This is perhaps my favorite thing to do — see what is coming down the pike for all of us.  I’m also on the look-out for next year’s Battle of the Kids’ Books contenders.)
• Meet up with some fellow child_litters for lunch on Saturday at the convention center food court (thanks to Cheryl Klein for organizing this).
• Hopefully make it to the Saturday 1:30 session, “Books and Blogs: Made for Each Other?”
• Sit in on the Notables meetings (their discussion list is available here) at various times.
• Also on Saturday, at 3:30, get to the session, “Mixing it Up: The Process of Bringing International Children’s Books to the US” with Cheryl and others.
• On Sunday at 1:30, go to The Pura Belpré Celebración; I’ve never been before and hear it is wonderful!
• Be at the Newbery Caldecott Wilder Banquet on Sunday.  I went to my first one of these in 2002 when my dear friend Roxanne Feldman was on the committee that honored Linda Sue Park with the Newbery Medal for A Single Shard.  She arranged for me to sit at the FSG table where I had a blast with Jack Gantos.  Since then I’ve gone yearly and it has been wonderful each time.  Last year was, of course, particularly special because it was when I was on the Newbery Committee and we got to see one of the best banquet speeches to date by our winner, Laura Amy Schlitz.  Neil Gaiman is an amazing speaker (and, as this blog’s readers well know, I was a huge advocate for his book winning), but I’m dubious that even he can beat Laura’s mesmerizing presentation of  last year. Still he is NEIL GAIMAN, arguably the biggest celeb to win this award (biggest outside this world of children’s books, I mean), a great guy, and a wonderful storyteller in his own right — so I’m sure it is going to be one hell of a night.  I cannot wait!
• Listen to Melba Beals on Monday morning.
• Attend the presentation of the Batchelder, Carnegie, Geisel, and Sibert Awards later on Monday morning.

Sadly I am returning to NYC on Monday afternoon so cannot attend the Odyssey Award Presentation and Reception, the Printz Award Program, the Coretta Scott King Award celebrations (really, really sorry I can’t do these — I’ve gone to the amazing breakfast several times and this year there are more events to celebrate 40 years of the award), and too many other cool looking activities.

Oh No!

GRAVEYARD BOOK TO BE STRIPPED OF NEWBERY?

Neil Gaiman and Roger Sutton Together At Last

RS: Which is what I felt about SLJ’s report—“Surprise! The Newbery Goes to a Popular Book.”

NG: I thought SLJ had made this up, that people were saying, “Gaiman is a foul-mouthed yahoo!” I had just written a lengthy and well-considered blog entry, which, actually, was probably the only thing that kept me sane during the 40 minutes between getting the news I had won and being able to tell anybody. [Laughter] The Twitter just sort of went, “Waaaaaaaaaaaah! My God, I did it!”

RS: I thought that SLJ report was…

NG: I thought it was stupid. I’ve been reading the whole thing about what kind of book should win the Newbery with an interest that was not personal. I did not consider that The Graveyard Book would be in the running, or at least I figured that if it was, it would probably be in the top 30, if there was a top 30. It had not occurred to me that it was actually likely to be anything other than—if the gods smiled and the world was right—possibly a Newbery Honor Book.

My favorite comment honestly was the one from the Guardian, where somebody in the U.K. just wrote an essay that said, “Well, you know, they’ve been arguing about whether the Newbery winner should be popular or whether it should be excellent, and they’ve got The Graveyard Book, which effectively demolishes the entire argument, because it’s both. So there.”

Roger Sutton interviews Neil Gaiman at School Library Journal.

The Accolades Keep Coming

This week’s New York Times’  Editors’ Choice – List includes none other than that now-number-one-on-the-best-seller-list-Newbery-winner,  THE GRAVEYARD BOOK.

Eeriness, Spookiness, and the Two Neils

When Neil Gaiman announced that another Neil, one Neil Jordan, was going to do The Graveyard Book film, I was puzzled as I associated him vaguely with The Crying Game, a terrific movie, but a very different genre indeed.  However, just now I did a little investigating and I totally, totally get it.  I hadn’t realized that he was the director of  The Company of Wolves, one of the coolest fairy tale films I know.  Based on Angela Carter’s story, “The Company of Wolves”  (you can read an excerpt here), it is definitely of its  time (1984), but nonetheless a very eerie and unique film.  I was then very intrigued to see he has just done Ondine. If it is about the nymph  Ondine or some variant of her, that will be very cool.  My only quibble is that of the two Jordan films mentioned first (as far as I know the only ones of his I’ve seen), they are pretty serious.  I just hope that he gets the humor of the graveyard as well as I’m sure he’ll get everything else.

Here’s the first ten minutes of that Little Red Riding— I mean, Jordan’s The Company of Wolves:

New York Times’ Review of The Graveyard Book by…

moi.

Children’s Books – ‘The Graveyard Book,’ Written by Neil Gaiman. Illustrated by Dave McKean – Review – NYTimes.com