Good librarian / Bad librarian

Mr. Powell raised an eyebrow. "I'm a librarian," he said. "I always know what I'm talking about. 

What librarian didn't love that line from Gary Schmidt's, Okay for Now (Clarion 2011)?  Librarians are accustomed to playing bit parts or major roles in children's fiction. Sometimes, a wonderful librarian is featured in book based on a true story, like Penguin Group's, Ron's Big Mission (2009), by Corinne Naden and Rose Blue.  In it, a young African American boy, Ron McNair, challenges his public library's policy of refusing to issue lending cards to African Americans. The librarian realizes that the policy is wrong and untenable, and she issues him a library card. That boy grows up to become a future NASA astronaut. An inspiring story for young boys, aspiring astronauts, African Americans, and librarians.

In library school, we study our profession's Code of Ethics.  As a group, we like to think of ourselves as champions of the right of all people to have access to information.  That is why we are not surprised to find ourselves featured positively in books. 

That is why I find the variety of librarian appearances in Glory Be (Scholastic), The Mighty Miss Malone (Lamb/Random), and The Lions of Little Rock (Penguin) so striking.

One book features a librarian willing to take a stand against 1960s segregationists in Mississippi, ensuring that the library will remain open and available to all residents.  In another, the local librarian delivers a purposeful or perhaps unwitting insult, describing boxer, Joe Louis, as a credit to his race and inferring that the well-read and intelligent protagonist of the story is also somehow an anomaly among her race.  And finally, one book describes a librarian that simply refuses to acknowledge the African Americans seeking service in her library.  Of course, we knew it all along;  librarians, like the professionals in any other field, are individuals, encompassing the entire range of human dispositions - good, bad, and everything in between.

Thanks to Augusta Scattergood, Christopher Paul Curtis and Kristin Levine for pointing out the opportunity for professional librarians to shape history. That our predecessors did not always influence history in a positive manner should be a wake up call for all of us.  May we all appear positively in the historical fiction books of the future.

Excerpts from the Code of Ethics of the American Library Association:

I.  We provide the highest level of service to all library users through appropriate and usefully organized resources; equitable service policies; equitable access; and accurate, unbiased, and courteous responses to all requests.

VII. We distinguish between our personal convictions and professional duties and do not allow our personal beliefs to interfere with fair representation of the aims of our institutions or the provision of access to their information resources.

Adopted at the 1939 Midwinter Meeting by the ALA Council; amended June 30, 1981; June 28, 1995; and January 22, 2008.



Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com

Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood

Genre: Historical fiction, setting: Hanging Moss, Mississippi during the summer of 1964

Gloriana June Hemphill is looking forward to her annual birthday party at the community pool until she finds out that the pool will be closed for repairs. Glory is upset but she is also confused. Why would the pool close for repairs during the hottest time of the year? The summer of 1964 was a time of great change in America. It was a time when public pools, public libraries, and public water fountains were not available for everyone to enjoy or even use together.  Readers can see that summer through the eyes of an innocent young girl.   Glory realizes as she listens to her older sister, a new friend from Ohio, a remarkable librarian, and other people in her community that change is coming to her little Southern town. Glory Be is at the barest level the tale of two sisters, Jesslyn and Glory. But as Glory adjusts to an older sister who doesn't want to play childish games anymore like Junk Poker, she finds new friends and looks at old friends and her town with a clearer eye. While books "don't care who reads them" (Glory Be, p. 190), this story is one that many readers will care to read. It is an introduction to the Civil Rights movement that depicts one girl's fictional experience. This Newbery contender is one book that grandparents, parents, and children will want to read and discuss together.

Crow

Crow by Barbara Wright 
Genre: Historical Fiction
Time and Place: 1898; Wilmington, NC
Historical Event: The Wilmington Massacre, aka The Wilmington Insurrection, aka The Wilmington coup d'etat
Point of View: 1st person, 11 year old Moses Thomas 
 "RIDE AN EAGLE AND SOAR"
  Aside from the beautiful cover art which captures the mood and tenor of this powerful story, Barbara Wright has given readers a terrifying glimpse into the racially motivated riots known as the Wilmington Massacre.  It is the era of Reconstruction.  Moses Thomas' father is a city alderman in Wilmington, NC, and a reporter for the only Negro Daily in the South The Wilmington Daily. Moses' mother works for a rich white family, and his grandmother Boo Nanny, a former slave, still clings to the old ways. Moses is a typical boy who experiences both subtle and overt instances of racism, but under the guidance of his father he is learning how to stand firm against prejudice even when he is powerless to overcome it. At the time of the Insurrection, Wilmington had a strong black middle class, a black majority population, and a bi-racial Republican Party. The elections of 1898 (for city and county seats) were usurped by white supremacists who made an assault on the city and its black citizens, driving out the elected officials and businessmen.  The result was the election of a democratically controlled city government which eventually influenced the state legislature to establish the first Jim Crow laws in North Carolina.  Wright has written a story that balances history and fiction; horror and humor; language and ignorance; friendship and hatred; democracy and vigilantism.  This is a story that soars.

May B. A Novel

Our group is still working out the nuts and bolts of our mock award blog and will have more details later, but today I will kick off our reading list discussion with an introduction to May B. A Novel by Caroline Starr Rose.  Please join us in our discussion with comments.  Voting will be available at a later date.

I've already posted a review of May B. to my personal site, and had planned to write a new introductory post here. However, after posting my initial review, I was pleasantly surprised (to say the least), when the author linked to my site from May B.'s Facebook page, noting that my review, "speaks so truly to what" she "tried to create."    With that in mind, I will repeat most of my original post here.

Rose, Caroline Starr. 2012. May B. New York: Random House.

In Kansas' early days as a state, there is no help in the prairie schools for a child with what will later become known as dyslexia.  Nor is there help for a farmer whose spring wheat crop has failed.

So it is neither unforeseen, nor unusual when the parents of Mavis Elizabeth Betterly, May B., literally "farm her out" as hired help to a prairie neighbor.  Hiram, the Betterly's son, will stay at home, he, being of more use to the frontier family.

The closest homestead is 15 miles away, a full day's journey by wagon.  Young May Betterly passes the long hours to the Oblinger's simple, sod house that will be her home until Christmas,

I play a game inside my head,
counting plum trees that dot a creek bed,
rabbits that scatter at the sound of wagon wheels,
clouds that skirt the sky.
For hours, that is all,
and grass,
always grass,
in different shades and textures
like the braids in a rag rug.

Miss Sanders told us that lines never end,
and numbers go on forever.
Here,
in short-grass country,
I understand infinity.

When Mrs, Oblinger takes a horse and deserts her new husband to return east, Mr. Oblinger goes off in pursuit.

"Don't worry about supper," he says.  "I could be gone some time."

"Some time" will be longer than May could ever have dreamed. It will take all of her courage, strength and perseverance to survive.

I am afraid
in the dark
all alone
I am afraid

 ###

In similar style to Karen Hesse's Newbery-winning, Out of the Dust, and Witness, Caroline Starr Rose's novel in verse is deeply affecting.  May's honesty in assessing her shortcomings is balanced by her inner optimism that she may yet overcome her situation - against all odds.

We all share that struggle.  May B. gives voice and hope to us all.

###

Please, share your thoughts.  Thanks.

Help! My maid melted my sugar basin.

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes was required reading for my seventh grade English class. I loved this book even though I had nothing in common with the main character and had no idea what a silversmith did. However I liked the stories of history and the perspective of a fourteen year boy watching the Revolutionary War begin. I didn't know that Johnny Tremain was the 1944 Newbery Award winner when I first read this book. Newbery award winners were not on my radar at the time. I am often asked to find a Newbery book for a class assignment but children usually don't seek out Newbery books on their own.  Johnny Tremain is one of my top picks for historical fiction for children ages 11-14.  The historical figures including Sam Adams, James Otis, and Paul Revere are interesting but the fictional characters such as spoiled Izzy, patient Cilla, and courageous Rab are the ones that really stood out in my mind.  What makes historical fiction a good read? Is it the appeal of the fictional characters who interact with the well-known names from the sometimes dull history textbooks? The setting of historical novels becomes another character in the story. I've never been to Boston but I can imagine the Boston of Johnny Tremain's time.  How many Newbery winners could be labeled historical fiction? Do children select the older Newbery winners when they have a choice?

Staying power

Staying power - what is it?  which books have it?

The bestowing of the Newbery Award began with 1922’s winner, The Story of Mankind by Hendrick Willem van Loon.  I don’t know what kind of reception that book received from librarians of the day, but it’s likely that the choice was as fraught with controversy as every other Newbery winner since has been.Whether an award winning book is received positively at the time is, in my opinion, of less importance than whether or not the book has staying power.  Will it still matter in 20, 30, or even 60 years?  Will it have the power to move the readers of the future?


I don’t profess to having read all of the past Newbery winners, but here are my thoughts on a few.

Summer of the Swans (1971 medalist) by Betsy Byars is the story of Sara, a young, angst-filled teenager, who lives with her brain-damaged younger brother, Charlie, her older sister, Wanda, and her Aunt Willie. In the midst of a difficult summer in which Sara struggles with her self-confidence and indeed, her sense of self, she learns, through Charlie’s disappearance, the importance and true measure of love, family, and self. Contemporary fiction at the time of printing, this book mentions “operator-assisted” phone calls and contains references to Gentle Ben, The Jolly Green Giant and Green Acres.  (When I once asked a young colleague if she knew these icons of the 60s and 70s, she assumed that they were books!) But yet, this book still resonates with young readers and shows up on required summer reading lists, which poses an interesting question: When does realistic fiction become historical fiction?


When in elementary school, my son was told to choose a Newbery winner from the school library for a book report.  When he complained about his chosen book, Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson (1945 medalist) and told me that it was unlike the books he usually read, I decided to read it for myself.  I was surprised by two things - first, was the book’s blatant racial insensitivity towards African Americans.  The second was the book’s pronounced religiosity - it being an unabashed homage to Saint Francis.  Researching and discussing further, I discovered two things. While, sadly, my son’s school library is still loaning a 1966 edition, copies of the book printed after 1970, have had the offensive parts removed. (Of course, this opens up another series of questions that will have to wait for another time)  The second thing I discovered in speaking with a colleague who remembered the book fondly from her own youth, is that children do not read with the same eyes as adults.  What is a blatant display of some ism or other to a librarian, may pass unnoticed by a child. I, myself, was surprised when I re-read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (1963 medalist).  As I child, did I realize that Mrs. Who was quoting from 1 Corinthians?  No, I’m sure I did not.

So what exactly is “staying power,” and how do we measure it?  I began my blog, Shelf-employed in 2008.  Early in that year, I posted a review that I had written in grad school of  Christopher Paul Curtis’ 1996 Newbery Honor book, The Watsons go to Birmingham: 1963. To date, that single post has had more viewers than anything I’ve ever posted before or since.  A wonderful book, however, I wonder... is the post’s popularity due to the fact that kids are desperately seeking answers to school assignments? Does the fact that a particular book pops up in school assignments and reading lists year after year make it a good book?  Or does it mean that no one has changed the list or the homework in years?

And along those lines, what should or does matter in a book’s longevity?  If I “hand-sell” a favorite book of mine to repeated library customers, does that mean it’s a good book because it never ends up on a weeding list?  If a teacher assigns the same book every year because she loves it, does that make it great, or merely required? 

In my opinion, one of the best endorsements for a truly great book, is an adult patron coming to the library to find a beloved book from his childhood.  There are only two books that I’ve ever witnessed meeting that criteria: Lois Lowry’s, The Giver (1994 medalist) and Holes by Louis Sachar (1999 medalist).

Which Newbery winners still call out to you over the years?  And which ones have fallen out of your favor?  Find the complete list of Newbery medalists and honor books here.