Heavy Medal http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal A Mock Newbery Blog Tue, 03 Feb 2015 13:57:29 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 Signing off http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/02/03/signing-off-3/ http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/02/03/signing-off-3/#comments Tue, 03 Feb 2015 13:57:29 +0000 Nina Lindsay http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/?p=4773 Thanks so much for continuing to add your thoughts on this year’s winners to yesterday’s post, and your ideas for next year to the 2016 Newbery Watchlist post.

I want to add to my thoughts to yesterday to say that while ethnic diversity was only one facet of the statement this year’s awards make…they make it, and it has been a theme of this conference.   I’d like to make sure everyone knows about the Children’s Book Council’s Diversity Committee, and the work it is doing with ALSC to try to move some meaningful action.  For some of the conference chatter on this, search for tweets with #alamw15 #diversitymatters  .  This is just scratching the surface, so I’m looking forward to finding out where we are in September, when we return after Labor Day.

(Going to ALA Annual? If you want to hear Jacqueline Woodson give a speech for BROWN GIRL DREAMING, you’ll need to come to the CSK breakfast. I’m buying tickets now.)

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And the Winners Are…. http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/02/02/and-the-winners-are/ http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/02/02/and-the-winners-are/#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2015 10:31:25 +0000 Nina Lindsay http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/?p=4764 (This post is now updated from the earlier placeholder.)

People, I don’t know quite how to start on how groundbreaking today’s announcement are, in many different ways,  but I want to thank both the Newbery and Caldecott Committees in particular for making bold choices that will end up changing the way we all talk about these awards.  With a graphic novel on the Honor roll for each (EL DEAFO for Newbery, THIS ONE SUMMER for Caldecott), it is now indisputable that this format has a firm place in both award categories.

Some other differences this year…

The Caldecott committee selected 6 honors.  Committees can select ANY number of honor books, or none, but no one’s gone “6″ for quite a while.  And they’ve really pushed the age level question with THIS ONE SUMMER.  I think the room was so dumbfounded at the idea of 6 honors that this part hasn’t really sunk in yet.  THIS ONE SUMMER is one of my absolute favorite books of the year, and I’m so excited to see it turn up in such an “unlikely” place.  Why am I surprised?  Jonathan was a member of this year’s Caldecott committee…a pretty stunning group all around.

Poetry.   Not only CROSSOVER and BROWN GIRL DREAMING for the Newbery, but also for the CSK along with HOW I DISCOVERED POETRY.  And JOSEPHINE for the Sibert honor (and CSK illustrator honor) And, the Pura Belpre author winner and honoree are both poets (Marjorie Agosin and Juan Felipe Herrera).  Any other poetry in the awards list? I’m not familiar with all of them…

Diversity. I think this is what people in the room were most attuned to, but while I found it affirming I don’t think it was the most groundbreaking part of these awards.  Still, so nice to see so many kinds of diversity expressed in the award categories that are not specifically about diversity….  and to see the Edwards and the Wilder awards each go to an amazing African American book creator (Sharon Draper, and Donald Crews).

What do you think of the choices?  Find them at: http://live.webcastinc.com/ala/2015/live

 

 

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Under Wraps http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/02/01/under-wraps/ http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/02/01/under-wraps/#comments Sun, 01 Feb 2015 15:22:56 +0000 Nina Lindsay http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/?p=4768 I am sitting on the shuttle bus to the convention center in a snowstorm, and on this bus are THE results of the Newbery! Committee Chair Randall Enos is on his way to deliver the results to the ALA Press Office, two seats behind me. Shortly, a few select people beyond the committee will know, and tomorrow, everyone. Congratulations, committee members, for your excellent decisions, whatever they are. Savor the secret and rest up.

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90-Second Newbery Film Festival & Battle of the Kids Books http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/01/30/90-second-newbery-film-festival/ http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/01/30/90-second-newbery-film-festival/#comments Fri, 30 Jan 2015 13:16:42 +0000 Nina Lindsay http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/?p=4758 Today we are all arriving in Chicago for the ALA Midwinter Meeting, soon to listen in to the Notable Book discussions, browse the exhibits for next year’s contenders, and await the announcement of the awards on Monday morning.  We will wrap up our discussion on that final post next week, and then go into hibernation until next September.  But that won’t be the end of award appreciation season:

 

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2016 Newbery Watchlist http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/01/28/2016-newbery/ http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/01/28/2016-newbery/#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2015 11:00:14 +0000 Jonathan Hunt http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/?p=4738 By this time of year, the YMAs have usually been announced and we’re signing off with some suggestions of what to read in the coming year.  So consider this an early version of that post (if you’re attending ALA make sure you grab these galleys), and then we’ll culminate with some responses to real Newbery choices.

ECHO by Pam Munoz Ryan (three starred reviews)

KIRKUS: A multilayered novel set in turbulent times explores music’s healing power. Sweeping across years and place, Ryan’s full-bodied story is actually five stories that take readers from an enchanted forest to Germany, Pennsylvania, Southern California and finally New York City.

LISTEN, SLOWLY by Thanhha Lai (three starred reviews)

BOOKLIST: Twelve-year-old Vietnamese American Mai is a Laguna Beach girl who can’t wait to spend her summer at the beach getting to know HIM, the boy on whom she has a major crush. Imagine her horror, then, when her parents announce that she must, instead, travel to Vietnam with her grandmother, who will search for clues to the fate of her husband, who disappeared during what Mai thinks of as “THE WAR.”

STELLA BY STARLIGHT by Sharon Draper (three starred reviews)

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: Stella’s desire to become a writer parallels her father’s determination to vote. In a powerful scene, the entire black community accompanies three registered black voters to the polling location and waits silently, “Ten. Fifteen. Twenty-five minutes,” until the sheriff steps aside. This compelling story brims with courage, compassion, creativity, and resilience.

THE WAR THAT SAVED MY LIFE by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (three starred reviews)

The plot at times stretches credulity — spunky Ada nabs a Nazi spy — but the emotional content feels completely true, especially in the recognition of how deeply Ada has been damaged and just how far her journey will be to both physical and mental health. This is a feel-good story, but an earned one; and though there are echoes of such classics as Magorian’s Goodnight, Mr. Tom and Bauden’s Carrie’s War, this is distinct and powerful in its own right.

These four books appear at the top of my starred review list, but if there are other books you have read or are anticipating then please bring those to our attention, too.

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Three Longshots? http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/01/26/three-longshots/ http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/01/26/three-longshots/#comments Mon, 26 Jan 2015 13:39:40 +0000 Nina Lindsay http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/?p=4730 I’m scanning my shelves for books we’ve not done justice to this season.  Has anyone mentioned FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, NATE by Tim Federle, LORD AND LADY BUNNY by Polly Horvath, or THE UNSTOPPABLE OCTOBIA MAY by Sharon Flake?  Barely a mention of Freedman’s ANGEL ISLAND, Nye’s THE TURTLE OF OMAN, Yelchin’s ARCADY’S GOAL or Pinkney’s THE RED PENCIL.  And I’m surprised I didn’t hear from others more on NEST or GABRIEL FINLEY.  But if I were hearing “last call” for books for Newbery discussion, and had time to re-read only three, I’d look again at:

UPSIDE DOWN IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE by Julie Lamana.  While I recognize some plotting flaws and side character manipulation, I’ve noted the same level of flaws in the books we’ve been championing; and from a distance the voice and clarity of prose just stands out so strongly.  I’d want to line this up a few more times against likely contenders before letting it go.

CURIOSITY by Gary Blackwood.  I read this once, and fast, but the plotting and prose seemed so seamless and solid, I’d want to give it a few more reads.  This could be one of those sneaky books which doesn’t sing itself as something new and different, but whose craft reveals itself to those who look as above and beyond.

EGG & SPOON by Gregory Maguire.  I don’t think this one is going unnoticed, but it remains one of the most unique in scope and tone among what I see as the field of contenders, and bears such interesting comparisons:  to THE FAMILY ROMANOV, to WEST OF THE MOON, even to THE NIGHT GARDENER.  I don’t think we see anything like Maguire’s writing being offered to a Newbery audience, and it reads with very little overt consciousness of audience, as seems to happen in others.  The characters and story are strange and disturbing, struggling with who they are supposed to be, and therefore so very convincing.  This comes along with plenty of flaws, but gives readers a lot along the way.  It probably needs to be read three or four times to understand how it does what it does.

Which are your three?

 

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Results from the Mocks, and ALA Midwinter! http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/01/23/results-from-the-mocks-and-ala-midwinter/ http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/01/23/results-from-the-mocks-and-ala-midwinter/#comments Fri, 23 Jan 2015 22:09:51 +0000 Nina Lindsay http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/?p=4750 Thank you all for starting to post your mock results!  If you haven’t yet please contribute your comments here. We’ve heard from:

Cincinnati and friends (BROWN GIRL DREAMING)

Rhode Island Public and School Librarians (CROSSOVER)

Masschussetts Library System (NIGHT GARDENER)

Emerson School in Berkeley CA (read synoposes of the kids discussions at http://greatkidbooks.blogspot.com/)

And we are in the final stretches!  Next week, award committee members and thousands of others flock to Chicago (yes, like penguins) for the ALA Midwinter conference.  There’s much more than just book discussing going on, but you might be interested in:

The discussion list for the ALSC Notable Books for Children committee.  This committee process is fully open, and those of you attending the conference can sit in an observe their meetings.

For those attending, the orientation meetings for the 2016 award committee.  While the award committee discussion meetings are closed, their initial orientation meetings are open, and you are welcome to sit in and listen. Just browse the schedule for “2016″ and “Newbery” “Caldecott” etc.

YALSA’s “Best Fiction for Young Adults” meetings are open, like ALSC Notables, and on Saturday afternoon they have their Teen Feedback session, where actual readers present their judgments to the committee.

Finally, for everyone the Youth Media Awards Announcements happen Monday morning, 8am Central, at McCormick Center or live online.  We will have a blog post ready for comments following the announcements, but the real online action, as it happens, is on Twitter: #ALAyma.

Jonathan and I will be there. Can’t wait!

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Short and Graphic? http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/01/22/short-and-graphic/ http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/01/22/short-and-graphic/#comments Thu, 22 Jan 2015 12:33:32 +0000 Nina Lindsay http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/?p=4719 We haven’t given quite as much play to “outlier” formats this year as others, with exception for EL DEAFO.  I posted briefly on Picture Books back in November (and am still wildly emphatic about IVAN; check it out if you have not yet), and Jonathan on Transitional Chapter Books in December.   Given that we’ve laid some groudwork with EL DEAFO in appreciating text intermingled with graphics…what other contenders are we overlooking because they aren’t “typical” Newbery fare?

WINTER BEES & OTHER POEMS OF THE COLD by Joyce Sidman is another of her amazing poetry/nonfiction/picture book mash-ups.  Each poem here is truly excellent on its own, and employs a variety of styles, introducing readers to a triolet and a pantoum, as well as rhyming schemes and free verse. Her rhythm and rhyme stand out in quality far above what we generally see for  this audience, and her poems are even better aloud, inviting the reader into a dramatic experience. (“We sip the drips of icicles” p. 24!)  Alongside the poetry, her short prose describing the science at hand is clear and informative, distinguished in plain sight.

SPARKY Leonard Kim gave us a great justification for this as a Newbery contender back at the Top Seven post, and  since I have not been able to get to the front of the holds queue this week I think I should just quote from that:

1) its integrity — even with great writers like Henkes and DiCamillo, in their easy readers, I sometimes get the feeling they might have preferred more freedom of phrasing or word choice but for their audience. I never got that feeling here.
2) its economy — I don’t find any superfluous sentences or even words. For example, in just 4-5 words, statements by the different characters show distinct personalities and voices: “Let me see your new pet,” “Sparky knows tricks too,” “You look very interesting.”
3) its breadth — it’s funny and absurd but also poignant and lonely with graceful moments of unexpected, thoughtful beauty (“They survive by eating leaves and drinking the dew that collects in them,” “You could hear all the neighborhood dogs barking.”)
4) its consistency — for all its poetic qualities, the level of writing is very consistent. The sentence-level craft and voice is never sacrificed, for example, when it’s time to advance the plot.
5) its musical repetitions and contrasts and variety of sentence lengths (Example: this sequence of 4 short sentences followed by two longer ones, “We all waited. And waited. ‘Speak?’ I said. Sparky looked at me. The only thing you could hear was the wind in the trees. ‘He has a very pretty coat, doesn’t he?’ Mrs.Edwin said finally”) which enhances the story’s structure and pacing and comedic timing.

SPARKY, of course, just won the Charlotte Zolotow Award for “outstanding writing in a picture book”

TALES OF BUNJITSU BUNNY  Jonathan noted we should be on the lookout for this, and I just got our copy.  Isabel’s lessons and examples in the “Bunjitsu” code reveal themselves with humor and child appropriate insight, and invite a narrative”hurrah!” at the end of each chapter, making this an especially appealing and respectful book for the budding reader who may be struggling just a little bit, and is touchy about it.  This suggests itself as an action-oriented transitional chapter book, but it is really structured like an easy reader, episodic and of the same character as FROG & TOAD.  It gives the readers so many layers to engage with the text in different ways, with such a simple and straightforward text, I do hope the committee takes note.

 

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Online Winners! http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/01/20/online-winners/ http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/01/20/online-winners/#comments Tue, 20 Jan 2015 15:25:41 +0000 Jonathan Hunt http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/?p=4712 Here are the results.  We had 67 voters, and although BROWN GIRL DREAMING had less than a quarter of those first place votes, it still has almost double the next highest book.  It’s much closer on the point spread; it’s got 31 points more than the second book, and it has 31.  It’s our clear winner.  I’m calling the blue highlighted titles our for-sure Honor books, while the green highlighted titles are those which we might also add.  It’s been a long, long time since a committee chose 6 honor books, though, so more than likely REVOLUTION wouldn’t make our cut.  We’d probably be discussing 3, 4, or 5 Honor books.

BROWN GIRL DREAMING . . . 15 (1st) + 8 (2nd) + 9 (3rd) = 102

THE FAMILY ROMANOV . . . 8 (1st) + 9 (2nd) + 6 (3rd) = 71

WEST OF THE MOON . . . 5 (1st) + 9 (2nd) + 5 (3rd) = 57 

EL DEAFO . . . 4 (1st) + 9 (2nd) + 7 (3rd) = 57

THE CROSSOVER . . . 7 (1st) + 4 (2nd) + 4 (3rd) = 44

THE NIGHT GARDENER . . . 3 (1st) + 4 (2nd) + 4 (3rd) = 32

REVOLUTION . . . 4 (1st) + 2 (2nd) + 4 (3rd) = 30

RAIN REIGN . . . 1 (1st) + 5 (2nd) + 3 (3rd) = 25

A SNICKER OF MAGIC . . . 5 (1st) + 1 (2nd) = 23

GREENGLASS HOUSE . . . 4 (1st) + 2 (3rd) = 20

THE PORT CHICAGO 50 . . . 1 (1st) + 3 (2nd) + 3 (3rd) = 19

ABSOLUTELY ALMOST . . . 1 (1st) + 2 (2nd) + 1 (3rd) = 12

THE FOURTEENTH GOLDFISH . . . 1 (1st) + 1 (2nd) + 1 (3rd) = 9

THE PRINCESS IN BLACK . . . 1 (2nd) + 3 (3rd) = 9

UNDER THE EGG . . . 1 (2nd) + 2 (3rd) = 7

EGG & SPOON . . . 1 (1st) + 1 (3rd) = 6

THE KEY THAT SWALLOWED JOEY PIGZA . . . 3 (3rd) = 6

CURIOSITY . . . 1 (2nd) + 2 (3rd) = 5

NIGHTINGALE’S NEST . . . 1 (1st) = 4

CAMINAR  . . . 1 (1st) = 4

ARCADY’S GOAL . . . 1 (1st) = 4

THE THICKETY . . . 1 (1st) = 4

BIRD . . . 1 (1st) = 4

THE GHOSTS OF TUPELO LANDING . . . 2 (3rd) = 4

BOYS OF BLUR . . . 1 (2nd) = 3

UPSIDE DOWN IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE . . . 1 (2nd) = 3

NEST . . . 1 (2nd) = 3

THE SECRET HUM OF A DAISY . . . 1 (2nd) = 3

WINTER BEES . . . 1 (2nd) = 2
RIVERMAN . . . 1 (3rd) = 2

HALF A WORLD AWA Y . . . 1 (3rd) = 2

THE SILVER PEOPLE . . . 1 (3rd) = 2

THE MISADVENTURES OF THE FAMILY FLETCHER . . . 1 (3rd) = 2

 

 

 

 

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El Deafo http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/01/18/el-deafo-2/ http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2015/01/18/el-deafo-2/#comments Mon, 19 Jan 2015 00:26:37 +0000 Nina Lindsay http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/?p=4709 As Jonathan tallies up your Online Mock votes, I’d love to give some more discussion to EL DEAFO, since it didn’t make our shortlist this year but deserves more exploration. Many of you are stumping for it, Anderson’s Bookshop has it on their Mock Newbery list, and For Those About to Mock hopes it gets a fair shot.  But many people just have a hard time figuring out how to discuss it, and if the Newbery committee can’t either, then it’s not going anywhere.   For instance, I said : I do not believe that these criteria tell us that the text must carry the entirety of the plot, characters, setting and style.  Only that we must find those elements distinguished within the text…at least whichever elements are pertinent to the text”  and then I rendered the text from a scene in my blog post as straight text to show where I thought it was distinguished.   But For Those About to Mock got a little stuck here:

“...In many panels, the text is inseparable from the illustrations. That is, the text itself has visual qualities, and when you render it as plain text, you take away a large chunk of the meaning. Consider the page on the right, where Cece sneakily turns off her hearing aids to drown out her new friend’s bedtime chatter. Bell represents the muffling of the friend’s voice by depicting it in fainter ink – a technique which she uses (with great effectiveness) throughout the book. In a panel like that, the text is a visual object, and I don’t think we can consider it as text anymore.

I’m going to take exception with that last point.  Why can’t we consider that text having both textual and graphic elements?  Since Bell achieves the effect noted through a graphic application, that particular maneuver might not be an argument for distinguished text.   But I don’t think we need to expect that the text has to stand alone, rendered as plain text.   If it only means what it means graphically, fine.  The graphic achievement is not the one being measured, that is all.

So: don’t consider the text separate from the illustrations.  But when you put EL DEAFO next to … say….  THE CROSSOVER, THE KEY THAT SWALLOWED JOEY PIGZA, RAIN REIGN…  does Bell achieve character, plot, appeal, theme, better than those, through what the text does in is textual way (not what the text does graphically?).  I think that Bell’s words themselves, however they are rendered, build more effective characterization,  and offer a wonderfully deep but humorous “interpretation of theme or concept”  somehow much more subtly than any of those three.  (Except maybe JOEY.  I hold these two par on those counts.  EL DEAFO has a more cohesive arc/plot that JOEY, perhaps.)

 

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