The Envelope, Please: 2008 Newbery and Caldecott Medals

The Envelope, Please: 2008 Newbery and Caldecott Medals

One of the advantages of living on the West Coast is that any early-morning news breaking in the East is safely documented by the time I wake up. So this Monday morning, I bounded out of bed and straight to the computer, secure in the knowledge that a couple of keystrokes would lead me to the biggest news story of the year for children' book lovers: the American Library Association's press release announcing the Newbery and Caldecott book awards.

It's become almost a cliché to refer to these prizes as "the Oscars of children's literature," and relative to the general low-keyness of the children's book field (pre-Harry Potter, that is), the glamour of these awards glows, if anything, even more brightly than their cinematic equivalent.

The Newbery Medal, given each year to the author of the "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children" and Caldecott Medal, awarded to "the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children," are the oldest and best-known of the prizes, but several others have been added in recent years; my particular favorites are the Giesel Award (for easy readers), the Coretta Scott King Award (for books by and about African Americans), and the Printz Award (for teen books). One medal winner and two to four honor books are named in each category during the ALA's annual conference in January.

This year, the winners of both the Newbery and Caldecott Awards were surprising and unconventional choices: both books are by established authors and have won critical acclaim, but both were dark horses for different reasons. The Newbery medal winner, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, by Laura Amy Schlitz, is a collection of dramatic monologues about, well, a group of medieval villagers. Its author is best known for her 2006 novel A Drowned Maiden's Hair, which didn't get any Newbery recognition last year, though it won the first-ever Cybils middle-grade fiction award.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!, probably because it's hard to categorize (is it poetry? Drama? History? All of them?), hasn't been as widely bought or read; I have to admit that the library where I work doesn't own it, and that I haven't read it yet, though based on the excerpt provided on the Baltimore Sun's website, I can't wait. The book was written to be performed by a class of 5^th graders studying the Middle Ages, and of course it's perfect for that purpose, but it looks like it would also be a great read-aloud with an individual child who's old enough to face some of the gritty realities of medieval life. I'm hoping that at least some of the monologues will be suitable to read to my poetry-and-drama-loving child.

The bestowal of the Caldecott Medal on Scholastic's own The Invention of Hugo Cabret,by Brian Selznick, was a surprise, too, but not for lack of popularity; the book, a mystery featuring a young boy who lives alone in a Paris train station, has been flying off bookstore and library shelves ever since it was released (I personally hand-sold several hardcover copies during my school library's book fair last spring, just by showing people the first few pages). It's been well-reviewed, too; most adults I know are as wowed as the kids by its innovative format. It was even featured as the first selection in Al Roker's Book Club for Kids.

But this is surely the very first time that the Caldecott Medal has been awarded to a book that's over 500 pages long. Nearly all past Caldecott winners have been conventional picture books: that is, 32 or at the most 48 pages, with a brief narrative and a focus on the illustrations. Hugo Cabret is a big doorstop of a book: a sort of novel-in-pictures that intersperses passages of text with stretches dozens of illustrated pages without any words at all. I don't think I'm the only children's book fan who felt the tectonic plates of her brain shift on Monday morning, taking in the understanding that the definition of "picture book" just got a lot broader.

Of course, award speculation in the children's book world, including the kidlitosphere, has been hot and heavy for weeks, if not months. After the announcements, Monday-morning quarterbacking is the norm: in past years, I've heard and read (and made) complaints that one winning book or another was not kid-friendly enough, was not nearly as good as some other book that didn't make the cut, was a consolation prize for an author or illustrator who really should have won for their last book…just like the Oscars, really. This year, the consensus seems to be delighted surprise.  MotherReader has a terrific roundup of bloggers' reactions, and Newbery Committee member Monica Edinger has written a thoughtful and revelatory series of Thoughts on Newbery posts chronicling her year on the committee.

January 16, 2008

Comments

[Catherine]

I have been looking forward to this post! Great round-up -- thanks!

[Catherine]

I have a question that is tangentially related. Twice now my kindergartner has borrowed Paul Zelinsky's Rapunzel from the school library. It happens to be a Caldecott award winner and is beautifully illustrated, but like a true fairy tale it has some violence/disturbing themes (kidnapping, premarital sex, being banished from home, an assault that causes blindness).

What are your thoughts on how to approach these topics? I don't want to draw attention to them if my daughter hasn't noticed them. I don't want to introduce fear where there is none. But I also don't want her worrying about this stuff without benefit of more information or discussion with me. It's a fine line!