Technically this post should have been made at the beginning to middle of July. But, life happens, ya know? In my case, “life” was: my entire family getting awful ten day colds at the beginning of July (like, phlegm coming from my brain and gut because surely just a little old nose couldn’t produce that much on its own, could it??); then a trip to Florida to celebrate my sister’s wedding in my home town for those who couldn’t go to her Utah wedding; then baby boy getting a fever and passing it on to toddler man; as soon as that passed, we had a family reunion on my side and immediately after we left for Boise where my husband’s sister was getting married; sprinkle in Independence Day and my son and niece‘s birthday celebrations…and now we’re here… at the beginning of a new month. 😳
My husband always says that you should never plan any important project or expect good productivity at work in the months of July and December. There’s just too much stuff going on for people to focus. 😂 We’re a living example of that this month!! Without further ado, here’s my month late Newbery Medal Books Book Report.
Six months ago, I set out on a journey to read as many Newbery Medal books as possible (within reason…I have two toddlers after all! 😅) before the 100th anniversary of the award–which is coming up in early 2022. (For the record, I’ve read 25 so far). Since we’re half-way there, I thought I’d give a “book report” on what I’ve been reading and learning in this process.
As I’ve been reading through the Newbery Medal winners so far, I’ve found myself ruminating on a couple of questions:
- What is it that makes a Newbery Medal winner book a “Newbery Book”? What about it made it stand out from all the other new children’s literature that same year?
- If I were to write a children’s book following the patterns learned from these all-stars, what would it entail?
What is it that makes a Newbery Medal winner book a “Newbery Book”? What about it made it stand out from all the other new children’s literature that same year?
In short: awesome story-telling. 😊
These authors are Newbery winners for a reason! They are talented story-tellers who know how to catch and keep a reader’s attention. Many of the books I read didn’t initially seem like stories that I’d enjoy. I was prepared to grin and bear it as I trudged through them. But, even books in genres I’m not generally drawn to have resulted in, for the most part, engaging reading material. I’ve been pleasantly surprised!
Other than that, these books differ in as many ways as there are Newbery books themselves. They cover a wide variety of topics, settings, genres, suggested age ranges and reader skill levels. The settings range anywhere from a Medieval English countryside to a 1920’s small town in Wisconsin to the open ocean aboard a ship in the 1800s to Spain in the 1600’s. Some stories cover just a couple of days while others cover a year or more in the life of the characters. Some stories are picture books for a new reader. Others are intricately written installments in series geared towards preteens and young teenagers. There are picture books, chapter books, poems, historical narratives, fiction… Like I said, lots of variety.
If I were to write a children’s book following the patterns learned from these all-stars, what would it entail?
Once again, the answer is plain: be a good story-teller. 😉
Moving into more details, these Newbery Medal stories will frequently be told with from the point of view of the intended reader’s age group. For example, the main character in Last Stop on Market Street, a picture book, is roughly six years old whereas the main character in The High King, a slightly heavier novel, is in his late teens.
Most of the books are short novels geared towards preteens and let me tell you, the authors do a really good job of getting in the head of preteens! These stories contain lots of elements that preteens can relate to such as bullying, figuring out their relationship with their parent(s), first crush, winning and loosing friends, school/teachers/homework, feeling like the problems of their parents are due to their actions, pushing the envelope on family rules, running away from home, etc.
Additionally, I’ve been learning that for children’s literature, it’s possible to share big ideas and hard life lessons in simple words without “grown up” details and complexity. These “simpler” stories remove many of the details that the same events might have if being told to an adult audience; or, their main conflict is less complex than a similar story for an older audience. Here are some conflict examples, highlighting what I mean:
- Argument with parent
- Getting lost from parent (as opposed to abandoned by parent)
- Some big misunderstanding/jumping to incorrect conclusions and finding the truth at the end
- Chopping off part of the ear of a neighbor’s trouble-making pig (instead of killing pig)
Some stories included in these Newbery Medal winners do cover heavier themes such as death, torture, and slavery but even then, in most cases, the details of these heavier conflicts are less clearly stated than they would be for older readers. They are implied, but without the life experience to pick up on some of the implications, the weightier subjects can go right over a younger reader’s head and thus be less hard on them to read.
Overall, I’ve loved my self-assigned reading assignment for the year so far. It’s been lovely to have the unintended side benefit of taking a deep-dive into what constitutes amazing children’s literature! This is a project that I would highly recommend to anyone who wants to start writing for this age group: immerse yourself in the literature of the masters. You won’t regret it. 😊
Newbery Medal Book Mini Case Studies:
Last Stop on Market Street
Written by Matt de la Peña and illustrated by Christian Robinson
Published in 2015, winner of the 2016 Newbery Medal (also a 2016 Caldecott Honor recipient)
- Main character: young boy (6-ish?)
- Urban setting
- Bus ride with grandma (“Nana”) to volunteer at a soup kitchen
- The boy questions why he doesn’t have what everyone else seems to have and grandma gives her wise answers
- Picture book for K-3 grade/quick read
The Matchlock Gun
by Walter D. Edmonds.
Published in 1941, winner of the 1942 Newbery Medal
- Main character: 10-year-old boy (and his mother)
- Story fluctuates between mother and son point of view
- Ten chapters but very short-I could read entire book in less than an hour
- Story occurred in space of two days
- Main conflict was firing off a huge old-fashioned and unwieldly gun to protect family from attackers
- Same two or three phrases repeated a few different times in different contexts throughout story
- Historical fiction: 1600/1700’s upstate New York
Good masters! Sweet ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village
by Laura Amy Schlitz
Published in 2007, winner of the 2008 Newbery Medal
- Series of short first-person poems all with different narrators (some duets)
- Different aspects of medieval life explored through the poems
- Poems are woven together by having a character spoken of in one poem be the voice in another poem or by having locations talked about in one poem appear in another
- Different styles of poems employed
- All of the poem narrators were in the age bracket of the intended readers (~10-14 years old)
The High King
by Lloyd Alexander
Published 1968, winner of the 1969 Newbery Medal
- Main character: older teenage boy (who we saw grow up through the series, starting at age 10 or so)
- Final installment in a five-book series (another book in the series, The Black Cauldron, won a Newbery Honor)
- Fantasy novel set in medieval-esque time reminiscent of Wales with Welsh-like myths woven in
- Themes of life and death, growing up, war, what constitutes evil, budding romance, friendships, difficult choices, loss, etc
