Newbery winners

[Holly Willett <willett@ROWAN.EDU>]

I was interested in some of the comments made to Judy Freeman's request for
favorite Newbery winners [N.B.:  There's only one "r" in Newbery :)].
Seems to me I've been hearing the same complaints for all of my 26 years in
librarianship.  If you're not familiar with the terms of the award, you may
be interested to go to the web pages dealing with it (and the other ALSC
awards) on ALA's web site:  http://www.ala.org/alsc/awards.html

The Newbery & Caldecott Awards are NOT popularity contests; they're about
distinctiveness in children's literature and "presentation to a child
audience" is a criterion, but not the only criterion.  If you want to know
what's popular, there are a number of places to look.  The International
Reading Association publishes "Children's Choices" each year (send $1 and a
SASE 9"x12" to:  IRA, Dept. EG, POB 8139, Newark, DE 19714), and many of
the states have state awards. Like Children's Choices, state awards are
great opportunities for school media specialists to get their students
actively involved in reading, discussing, and voting for their preferences.
It may take a few years to get a school involved, but once you work on it
in collaboration with teachers and parent volunteers, it can be terrific
fun and very rewarding for all concerned.  I believe it is very important
to include children in the dialogue about books, and state awards are
excellent venues for inviting their participation.

At the time the Newbery was first awarded, it was the only award for
children's literature; now there are many, many awards, including the
Boston Globe-Horn Book and the Andersen Awards, the Carnegie and Greenaway
awards in Britain and the similar awards in Canada and many other
countries.  So, Newbery was significant in encouraging many people all over
the world to look at children's books as literature.  I think it is true
that many of the early Newberys are no longer read (deservedly) and that
the Caldecotts have perhaps stood up better over time.  But each of the
winners was considered a "distinguished contribution to American children's
literature" _for its time_.  The fact that it is a committee decision with
a sophisticated weighting system in the balloting may have something to do
with compromises being made.  But let's face it, there are many more
worthwhile books published in any year than can be awarded.  Each of us is
at complete liberty to not purchase, to not read, to not promote the
Newbery winner.  Teachers need to have their eyes opened to the fact the
Newbery doesn't constitute a recommendation for use in the classroom and
that there are many other ways of selecting books for students.

And ALSC does publish a list of the year's best books, selected by another
committee, known as "Notable Children's Books."  You can find the current
list on the above web page.

As for the Newberys often being YA, ALSC's mandate goes up to the age of 14
(and YALSA's starts at 12, so there's overlap, and the divisions have
agreed to the overlap), and yes, many Newberys are obviously for this older
group.  In New Jersey, our state award includes an Easy Reader
category--how many other states include that?  (Of course, Henry and Mudge
invariably win!)

Happy reading and a great school year to us all!

Holly Willett (Caldecott Committee 1983)

Holly G. Willett
willett@rowan.edu
Library Education Advisor/Coordinator
Secondary Education/Foundations of Education
Rowan University
Glassboro, NJ  08028
(609) 256-4759

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