I've been hearing rumblings about the Newbery for years. Others are beginning to hear them, too. Has the Newbery Lost Its Way, in School Library Journal, argues that kids, librarians, and booksellers have all found recent winners disappointing.
The link comes from cynsations.
This seems like a good time to remind you that you can nominate titles for the Cybils.
Sometimes it seems as though the Establishment of adult literature also feels that books can't be good and fun at the same time, that literary quality is intrinsically connected to tragedy, or at least depression. I'm on board with Anita!
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that some of those 1990's titles she talked about did as well as she says they did. I saw Out of the Dust prominently displayed in a K-3 school library back in the day and thought, Come on. Kids that young are going to read a verse book about one personal disaster after another? I thought The View From Saturday would have been a good book for the book club I belonged to at that time. I was stunned when I saw it had won the Newbery.
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