The first few pages of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman can be disturbing to say the least. A strange man with a knife moves methodically through a house one night, attempting to kill an entire family. He has killed the mother, the father, and the sister, but where is the toddler? I know at least one librarian who put the book down at this point, debating whether or not to continue. Luckily, the 2009 Newbery committee kept on reading.
The Graveyard Book is a surprising Newbery winner for several reasons. For one, it is a fantasy. A quick glance at past winners will tell you that fantasy novels are not in abundance. Secondly, The Graveyard Book was already popular before winning the Newbery. Gaiman remarked on this saying, “I had thought that’s nice, there are books that are best sellers and books that are winners. Very often, the world of award judges, and I think rightly, use their magical judging powers to try to bring books to the attention of the world that might not have otherwise been noticed.”
So why did this unlikely nominee win the award for most distinguished contribution to American literature for children? We can’t know for sure but the committee did comment on its “delicious mix of murder, fantasy, humor and human longing.” Perhaps it was this combination of elements combined with Gaiman’s “magical, haunting prose” that pushed it over the top.
Have you ever read a book that you absolutely loved and that met all the criteria but you felt, for one reason or another, would never win the Newbery? Were you right or wrong?
I've certainly read books that I thought were shoo-ins and have been shocked when nary an honor was bestowed. Most notably, A Drowned Maiden's Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz, who of course won the following year. What won that year? The Higher Power of Lucky, which I hadn't even heard of before the announcement (as Miss Pea can corroborate).
ReplyDeleteI'm learning more and more about what a complicated and difficult process the whole awards thing is. That's what makes the mock process so much fun.
How could When You Reach Me have beat out Where the Mountain Meets the Moon? I would love to have been a fly on that wall when the final deliberations were winding up and down. I felt Grace Lin's fairy tale fable was the sort of book that sits like a sparkling jewel inside a velvet box with a tiny fairy clasp--everything a child cherishes and can hold in her hands, and when she opens it up she can feel the breeze from a distant mountain calling her home and beyond. Folklore elements in a book allow a child to feel a certain distance from the ancient story, while at the same time offering a pattern that the child/character knows she belongs to, but has the option to challenge.
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