More thoughts on Newbery

Last Tuesday I blogged about recent critiques regarding Anita Silvey’s article Has Newbery Lost It’s Way. Silvey wondered why children’s librarians and booksellers were unhappy about reader’s lack of interest in the recent spate of Newbery medal honorees, and the contention that the Newbery committee was sacrificing readability for literary quality. Predictably, there was pushback among Newbery supporters, most succinctly summed up Librarilly Blonde: why should we care about whether kids like Newbery books?

As both a mother and a writer, this statement really bothered me.

I asked my 7th-grade daughter about what she thought of Newbery books. Her response: “A book I was forced to read.”

She’s a classic bookworm, a straight-A student who would read a placemat at a restaurant if that’s all she had in front of her. Why don’t you like Newbery books? I pressed.

“I’m not interested in the subject matter.” (Atypical settings and characters)

“They read so old-fashioned.” (A literary voice)

“Half the time, I don’t get what’s going on.” (Sophisticated plotting choices)

“Boring.” (Self-evident)

This is anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But it raises the question: are the literary characteristics that make adults swoon turning off the core readership? That should be a concern. Newbery books are becoming the literary equivalent to spinach for this generation of young readers.

My thoughts on Newbery dovetail with Dustin Wax’s of the excellent Writer’s Technology blog. I’m unburying his comment because it captures what I was trying to say very inarticulately on Tuesday.

I’ve read a lot of kids’ and young adult books since becoming a step-dad a couple years ago, and for a while Newberry awards were a great guide. And there are, of course, some great, literary books that kids enjoy, too — _The Giver_ is one. But after a while, the Newbery shelf at the library stopped being very helpful. Most of the books simply weren’t ones my kids — 6, 12, and 13 — would read.

I don’t think it’s about “popularity”, which the Newbery judges are correct about — it’s no guide to quality. But that’s a false dichotomy — popularity is a factor largely disconnected from quality. There are great books that are popular, and mediocre and even bad ones that are popular. Especially for kids, whose tastes are shaped as much by their fascination with their own bodily processes as by the judgment of adults around them. Maybe more.

The problem here seems to be that judges are equating popularity with readability. The charge isn’t that the books aren’t good, but that they’re good for adult readers, which means they’re probably above many young readers’ level. That’s not to say that all books that are good by adult standards aren’t readable by children and teens, but I would pay special attention to the readability of any book aimed at young adults that I found meaty enough to satisfy my own adult mind. If a book doesn’t engage young readers, and it’s aimed at young readers, then it is a failed book, no matter how literary it is.

I wonder how much publishers are to blame for this? The young adult market has been a strong area of growth while literary fiction has declined; I can imagine that many writers who wouldn’t otherwise write for children are being drawn to the one segment of the publishing world where rosters (and marketing budgets) are still growing. Could it be that, in order to fill out their lineups, publishers of books for young adults are backing books that should rightly be aimed at adults — or that authors who should rightly be writing for adults are trying to write for this growing market without giving up too much of their authorial integrity?

Like Dustin, I also wonder how market forces were playing into the Newbery committee’s recent selections. The YA market has exploded in recent years. Not only have crossover books appealed to adult readers (Harry Potter; Twilight), but the trend for publishers is to seek successful series that can grow sales with each release. Coupled with the growing number of book packagers offering high-concept, commercial books that will be reliable sellers (full disclosure: I’m a contracted writer for a book packager), it’s become increasingly rare for works of original fiction to reach the marketplace.

As publishers contract their new slate of new releases in adult fiction, authors who have had little success selling manuscripts for the adult market have turned to the YA market. Shannon Hale’s The Goose Girl — fabu!– is a notable example of this trend.

On the plus side, the selection of literary books for children has never been stronger. On the negative side, kids don’t want to read them.

As a writer, I applaud the Newbery committee’s quest to honor quality fiction for children, even if the selection is atypical. As a parent, I’m troubled by the dismissive attitude toward finding and honoring engaging reading for children.

Why should we care whether kids like Newbery books? Because if we don’t, this award is going to end up being meaningless to the very audience it’s meant to attract.

Art by echeloneBABE.

Kathleen Bolton

Kathleen Bolton is co-founder of Writer Unboxed. She writes under a variety of pseudonyms, including Ani Bolton.

She has written two novels as Cassidy Calloway: Confessions of a First Daughter, and Secrets of a First Daughter–both books in a YA series about the misadventures of the U.S. President’s teen-aged daughter, published by HarperCollins, and Tamara Blake, for the novel Slumber.

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