tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679439644886867333.post8699923636522746766..comments2023-10-28T04:58:47.483-07:00Comments on The Way We Read: The Recent Newbery Debatefairrosahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01694731883888390105noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679439644886867333.post-71058662947614771282010-01-24T09:48:10.496-08:002010-01-24T09:48:10.496-08:00Amen, Fair Rosa! Every children's librarian ha...Amen, Fair Rosa! Every children's librarian has to keep these books on the shelf, and most of them gather dust. Yes, most of them (not all) are great books for adults, but there are plenty of awards for adult books. I, too, tried to book talk and promote my favorites to the special few kids I thought would enjoy them, only to find that, after such a recommendation, those kids no longer asked for my advice. A few special writers know how to create excellent fiction that touches the hearts of children. When the Newbery starts recognizing such books, I will promote them. Until then, I'm with Jan.Notes from a Virtual Easelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04194576722935106134noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679439644886867333.post-42083373292207144702008-10-07T05:43:00.000-07:002008-10-07T05:43:00.000-07:00I was unhappy that the word popularity became asso...I was unhappy that the word popularity became associated with this discussion. Popularity is not important. It is the phrase child appeal that is important here. <br><br>I tend to agree with Fairrosa - if a book has little or no child appeal, is it really children's literature? I have no quarrel with saying that a work will only appeal to a small number of children. Every week I work with more than 1600 middle school children, doing lots of book talks and individual book advisories. And I've been doing it for many years. I think I can put my finger on books that have little or no child appeal. Some books are loved deeply by only a few children while others appeal to many children.<br><br>I have often book talked The Thief trilogy to both teachers and students,with good success. These novels are deep, rich works with an amazing ability to surprise. They do have an adult audience but also, as Fairrosa says, an audience with young people.<br><br>Personally, I think I'm going to stop promoting the Newbery so much. It's probably my fault for expecting it to do what I want it to do.Jan Dohnerhttp://brightonreads.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679439644886867333.post-81330384528080075492008-10-06T17:28:00.000-07:002008-10-06T17:28:00.000-07:00M W Turner,I am so pleased to be visited by you! ...M W Turner,<br><br>I am so pleased to be visited by you! (I adore your writing and I know many young people, mostly early teens, who have fallen in love with the fantasy trilogy. One of them was a Newbery Honor!) <br><br>I intend on compiling a thread-archive of the recent discussion on Child_lit where I talked more and hopefully more clearly about my views. You might, however, still disagree with me. Here is one of the many lines I wrote in the past few days:<br><br>"I think we must shift the discussion from the "quantitative" to the "qualitative." Let me explain myself:<br><br>If we must say that the "minority" opinion is as valuable as the<br>"majority" one, then, I want to make sure that when a book speaks to a small group of children (minority) but not many (majority), it speaks to them deeply and strongly. It must reach to the core of these children's souls. You will know whether that's the case by listening to these children." <br><br>I want to clearly state that I am not promoting giving whatever the children want to them and just make Newbery into a Popularity Contest. On the contrary, I am asking that we must consider more and more effectively.fairrosahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01694731883888390105noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679439644886867333.post-43297023207627803072008-10-06T08:43:00.000-07:002008-10-06T08:43:00.000-07:00fairrosa and jan,I'm having trouble boiling do...fairrosa and jan,<br><br>I'm having trouble boiling down what I want to say without editing myself into incoherence. Please forgive me if I am long-winded, or if I don't get this right the first time. <br><br>I agree that people like Sacher or Babbitt deserve recognition for their astonishing ability to be both literary and --the word I've come with-- inclusive. Their audience includes so many different kinds of readers. <br><br>However, I think that the book written for a little tiny slice of the child audience deserves exactly the same recognition, and I think there, you and I disagree. Whether or not adults appreciate Octavian Nothing, is irrelevant to whether or not it is a YA book. The adult audience for Criss Cross doesn't mean it cannot be a book for 13 year olds. Even if ten times as many adults read the book as children do.<br><br>There is a subset of child readers who will enjoy these books. These are the children who read Eagle of the Ninth, or Treasure Island, or Jane Eyre because they WANT to, not because it was assigned. These books should be available for them, even if the audience they make is very small. <br><br>These are the children who would be under served if the Newbery didn't reward and therefor promote the publication of books exactly like Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!, Criss Cross, and Olive's Ocean. These are books for Readers with a capitol R, and it is Readers who get short shrift in a market driven publishing world where Goosebumps is always going to outsell Hattie Big Sky. Sacher's Holes might exist without the current configuration of the Newbery. Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! probably wouldn't.<br><br>If Appeal becomes more important to the Newbery committee, we will be left to hope that some sense of nobless oblige will keep publishers publishing these beautiful books for small audiences. But I don't want to count on it.<br><br>M W TurnerAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679439644886867333.post-50857897881442195472008-10-04T11:00:00.000-07:002008-10-04T11:00:00.000-07:00In my years of experience since becoming a school ...In my years of experience since becoming a school librarian, I've often tried to put my disappointment with many of the Newbery winners into words. Your phrase is perhaps the best - "if they are only appealing to a very small group of children and a large group of adults, then they, in my mind, fail to BE "children's books". Many of the winners are lovely and beautiful literary works - to adults - but not to my students who barely touch them even after I book talk them. After a year of promoting great new books, my students, my staff and I all sigh when a title wins that none of us adored.Jan Dohnerwww.brightonreads.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.com