Mock Caldecott Award Panel

For the last few year (well, last ten+ years) I have facilitated Mock Caldecott Award panels with Dr. Mary Rycik's EDEC 323 Tradebooks and Technology with Literature students.  Each term we meet in the Instructional Resource Center to evaluate titles eligible for the Caldecott Award and select our winner. Titles selected for review by the student panel are recent additions to the library's juvenile collection; they are subject to terms and criteria established by the Association for Library Services for Children, American Library Association Medal committee.

Listening to the group discussion is always enlightening; they provide an interesting and fresh perspective to the process. I usually have a favorite among the titles selected for the panel; more often than not they are able to persuade me look more closely at a book I may have initially discounted. This group posted interesting questions about the process, including how people are selected to participate - and - if selection is more a matter of 'who you know' opposed to 'what you know.'  I offered School Library Journal's recent article The Givers: What it Takes to Serve on the Newbery, Caldecott Committees, by Shelley Diaz.

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild, by Peter Brown, was selected as this year's Mock Caldecott Award winner. The Dark, illustrated by Jon Klassen, was noted as an honor book. If interested, all of the titles considered today are located on the IRC Mock Caldecott Panels Pinterest board.

Follow IRC @ Ashland University Library's board Mock Caldecott Panels on Pinterest.

PW Children's Bookshelf

Children's Bookshelf from Publisher's Weekly posted interviews with 2009 Caldecott Award Winner artist Beth Krommes and 2009 Newbery Award Winner author Neil Gaiman.

• Caldecott Medal Goes to Artist Beth Krommes

"During her 10-year career in children’s books, Krommes has received several awards for her artwork, including the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish by Jacqueline Briggs Martin (Houghton, 2001), the ASPCA Henry Bergh Award for Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow by Joyce Sidman (Houghton, 2006), as well as a number of Best Book and ALA Notable commendations. But she never expected this. “I don’t think I’ve really taken it in,” she said. “I feel like a newcomer to the industry. I trained as a fine artist, and I never thought I’d be here doing this.” -- John A. Sellers, 1/29/09

• Neil Gaiman Wins Newbery Medal for "The Graveyard Book"

"When asked how it felt to become the new Miss America of children’s literature, since the Newbery Medal comes with quite a good deal of responsibilities, invitations, and appearances, Gaiman laughed. “There is definitely this sense of responsibility, the sort of thing where I keep thinking I really mustn’t rob a bank this year. The news headline would inevitably be "Newbery Winner Robs Bank." I have to say away from Ponzi schemes too,” he added. “Though, to be honest, none of this has even started to sink in yet.” - Donna Freitas, 1/29/09

I would be remiss not to mention

Though not a children's librarian, in addition to running the IRC, I am the education liaison and lucky enough to be charged with juvenile collection development. Selecting children's books, including YA titles, is definitely a job perk. Like many children's librarians, it was with some interest I awaited the announcement of this year's Newbery and Caldecott awards at ALA's Mid-Winter meetings in Seattle last month. Curiosity is a big part of the wait, as well as the intrinsic challenge presented by hoping the chosen title is already part of the existing collection. It is a hit or miss process and while my performance of late with Newbery books has been good; my Caldecott record has been less than stellar. That is until this year when for the first time in ages the Newbery book was not already part of the juvenile collection. We have a small library endowment for children's books and each year when awards are announced the librarian in charge of the funds orders what we need. Translated, we get two copies of the Newbery and Caldecott award winners; one copy goes into the regular juvenile collection and the second into the Newbery and Caldecott specific sections leading off the juvenile collection.

Last Thursday the latest edition of Children's Bookshelf; "a free weekly newsletter from Publishers Weekly about all aspects of children's and YA publishing," arrived via email. In it there was a link to an article by Shannon Maughan at the Children's Bookshelf titled Listservs Buzzing over Newbery Winner:

"What's in a word? Plenty of controversy, if it happens to be a word naming a part of the male anatomy, and if it appears in a Newbery Award-winning novel. In recent weeks the online blogosphere inhabited by children's book professionals has been abuzz with debate over author Susan Patron's use of the word "scrotum" in her freshly minted Newbery winner, The Higher Power of Lucky. Librarians, teachers, reviewers and others have used blogs and listservs as forums to object to or defend the book and the ALA's selection of the title for one of its highest honors. (Children's Bookshelf, 2/15/07)"

Without reading the book, I have obviously been hesitant to comment on the growing controversy. As luck would have it, our copies arrived Thursday and I took home one of them to read over the weekend. Last night, I finished reading The Higher Power of Lucky and am more curious than concerned regarding the uproar. The book features Lucky, a ten-year-old girl. Yes, children reading this book are going to be third, fourth and maybe fifth graders. More importantly, I realize the vocabulary in question, used in several instances, may be off-putting for book talks by librarians in school libraries. I do not want to sugar coat the very real issue possibly faced with having the title in school libraries. However, this book is about more than a single word; one that, I might add, is simply defined at the end of the book without unnecessary embellishment.

I find it interesting that several other topics dealt with in Lucky are not mentioned in the debate. For instance, there is discussion of Alcoholics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, parental death, and another character's mother in jail for selling drugs. Each of these topics is potentially troubling for in-school discussion as well, but what I keep reading about is the use of one word. Higher Power of Lucky is a well- written, meaningful book detailing life-changing events for a young girl. At the books end, Lucky finds a family in the town's small population both figuratively and literally. By focusing on a single vocabulary element, the overall meaning of the book is lost.

Lucky was ordered immediately after the ALA announcement and it fulfills a specific purpose for my academic library children's collection. There was not any discussion of "should we" or "shouldn't we" when making the purchase. Why? We have a large, thriving, teacher education program with a full compliment of children's and young adult literature classes. Award winning books are expected. Even if their school library does not purchase the book, pre-service teachers need to have the opportunity to read the book and make their own determinations for classroom use. But each library and librarian has to make their own choice when adding it to their collection.

There are many different factors to consider, as well as issues of fiscal responsibility and library collection development mission and purpose. I do not foresee public librarians having undue trouble with this title. The "word" and book topic aside, public library patrons will expect to have Newbery and Caldecott titles on the shelves. Not that there will not be questions, concerns, or statements made by parents and patrons (after all, tax money funds the library), but generally speaking the issue is a bit less dicey. School libraries may have a catch 22 situation when making their purchasing decision as they have more stringent policies in place for collection development. School librarians also have parents, administrators, and boards (not to mention the general public) watching over purchases. What to do? The library should have a full Newbery and Caldecott collection, after all these titles have been judged the best in literature for 2206. But hesitancy to make the purchase because of possible outcry is real. Though it is not that simple, I would hate to think of librarians banning books from their library.

Here are a few links that may be of interest:

• Read Roger highlighted a New York Times article this morning - With one Word, Children's Book Sets Off Uproar
• Children's Bookshelf article, Listserv's Buzzing over Newbery Winner
• Publisher's Weekly, Susan Patron's response
• LM_Net on the Web, List Serv Archives
• Also on Read Roger, discussion regarding the Children's Bookshelf article, Bagging our Principles, and the New York Times article, Oh, those sneaky sneaks.
• Fuse #8, Oh, Doggone it
• At Librarian.net, scrotum!

Tags: Children's bookshelf, Publishers Weekly, Children's Literature, The Higher Power of Lucky, Newbery Award