Love by M. de la Peña

de la Peña, Matt. Love. Illustrated by Loren Long, G.P. Penguin Random House, 2018. Newbery Medal-winning author of Last Stop on Market Street Matt de la Peña and New York Times bestselling illustrator Loren Long have teamed up to paint a touching picture of where love lives in each of our lives. Perfect for the child in your life or the child in you, this book ignites a warm feeling deep down inside. Love shines through in all our senses. Through poetic verses we are reminded of what love looks like, what love sounds like, what love tastes like, what love smells like, and what love feels like, physically and emotionally. Who cannot relate to the simple innocence of laughing as you run through the sprinkler on a hot summer's day? One much-needed two-page spread even highlights the importance of self-love. The gorgeous illustrations are comprised of a compilation of monotype prints, acrylic paint, and pencil. They perfectly complement the words that they accompany, even telling their own hidden stories along the way. It is clear to understand how the pictures connect to the words, the two parts work together to invoke emotions in the reader. The vocabulary and structure, like how the word love is used in a variety of manners and how each page offers a glimpse into different individuals’ lives, may be challenging for younger children to read on their own but with the right facilitation any child can find connections to this beautiful picture book. Highly Recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Bretton Bowd

A Decade of The Underneath: A Conversation with Kathi Appelt

If you were like me, you likely hooted with excitement when you heard that Kathi Appelt’s The Underneath had received a Newbery Honor in 2009. My enthusiasm was tempered only by the fact that it didn’t win the Newbery Medal itself.It’s hard to believe it’s been a decade since the notable book was published—garnering much praise (including being a 2008 National Book Award finalist) but also trigger warnings about its graphic depictions of animal abuse.

Newbery Medal Novels: What They Reveal about Class Differences and the American Dream

Robert Putnam observed that social class differences, now more than ever, determine the life outcomes of American children. Putnam reported evidence that the American Dream is in crisis for children born into lower-class families—these children have far fewer opportunities for success. This might suggest a loss of a survival narrative for these children.

And the Newbery Goes To . . . A Picturebook?

In 2016, the top prize for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children went to a picturebook: Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña. Previously, only one other picturebook had won the Newbery Medal.As a member of the 2016 Newbery Award Committee, I had a voice in selecting a picturebook for the coveted Newbery Medal. But after the announcement, I started to wonder just how many picturebooks had received either the medal or the honor title in the past.

I am nobody: fantasy and identity in Neil Gaiman’s "The Graveyard Book"

With the popularity of fantasy literature in recent years, more and more writers of adolescent books shifted their attention to depicting the macabre and the bizarre. While authors of fantasy literature endeavor to show that something that is unreal, strange, whimsical, or magical nevertheless has an internal logic and consistency, at the same time, certain stereotypes typical of the realistic world are destabilized. In the imaginary world in which the events, settings, or characters are outside the realm of possibility, many ideas like love, truth, reality, and identity are constantly destabilized and contested. For example, in Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book (2008), which garners him the Carnegie Medal and the Newbery Medal, the problem of personal identity is apparent in Nobody Owens, an orphan whose parents are killed by a man called “Jack” and whose survival depends on the mercy of the ghosts living in the graveyard that Nobody runs to and hides in to escape Jack. This paper aims to discuss how the protagonist of The Graveyard Book grapples with his bewilderment when confronted with the myth of his identity and how the elements of fantasy are incorporated to help untangle this coming-of-age mythology.

The Princess and the Poor Self-Image: An Analysis of Newbery Medal Winners for Gender Bias and Female Underrepresentation Leading into the Twenty-First Century

This study analyzes how 12 recent (2000-2011) Newbery Medal-winning books represent gender. The study counts how many of the books’ characters represent progressive or traditional gender roles, how many male and female characters represent each character category (protagonist, antagonist, major, and minor), how many strong female characters are accepted or rejected by their peers, how many characters hold stereotypical gender beliefs about themselves or their peers, and how many works contain balanced feminist perspectives. The study finds equitable female representation, but the study also finds a bias toward traditional male stereotypes. The results indicate a general acceptance of strong female characters and a balanced representation of females, regardless of a historical fiction classification. These results suggest that characters in Newbery Medal-winning books represent gender more equally and less stereotypically compared to characters in works of earlier decades.

Women’s Literary Society Awards between 1990 and 2010

Το παρόν άρθρο εξετάζει τα βραβεία που απονέμονται από τη Γυναικεία Λογοτεχνική Συντροφιά (Γ.Λ.Σ.) κατά την περίοδο 1990 – 2010. Ο θεσμός των βραβείων παιδικού βιβλίου εμφανίστηκε το 1922 στην Αμερική, όταν η American Library Association (A.L.A.) απένειμε το Newbery Medal στο παιδικό βιβλίο The Story of Mankind του Hendrik Willem van Loon. Ωστόσο, τα βραβεία παιδικού βιβλίου άρχισαν να απονέμονται για πρώτη φορά στην Ελλάδα μόλις 36 χρόνια μετά, το 1958, όταν ο μη κερδοσκοπικός φορέας της Γ.Λ.Σ. προκήρυξε τον λογοτεχνικό διαγωνισμό συγγραφής παιδικού αναγνώσματος. Μολονότι ένα πλήθος βραβείων επιμέρους φορέων ακολούθησε, τα βραβεία της Συντροφιάς παρουσιάζουν ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον, καθώς άνοιξαν ένα νέο δρόμο για τη συγγραφή ελληνικών παιδικών βιβλίων σε μία εποχή που οι μεταφράσεις είχαν κυριαρχήσει. Πραγματοποιώντας μια ανασκόπηση της ελληνικής βιβλιογραφίας γύρω από τον χώρο της παιδικής λογοτεχνίας, καθίσταται σαφής η απουσία επιστημονικών μελετών αναφορικά με τα βραβεία της Γ.Λ.Σ., εκτός από μεμονωμένες περιπτώσεις, οι οποίες ως επί το πλείστον εστιάζουν στην ιστορική σημασία και την προσφορά αυτών. Σκοπός του άρθρου είναι η μελέτη των λογοτεχνικών βραβείων της Γ.Λ.Σ. ως πολιτισμικού φαινομένου κατά την περίοδο 1990 – 2010. Ειδικότερα, επιχειρείται η παρουσίαση των στόχων και των θεμάτων των αθλοθετημένων βραβείων. Επιπροσθέτως, διερευνώνται η σύνθεση των κριτικών επιτροπών, η συχνότητα βράβευσης των ίδιων δημιουργών και το φύλο των βραβευμένων. Τέλος, εξετάζονται τα σκεπτικά των βραβεύσεων, προκειμένου να αναδειχθούν τα βασικά κριτήρια αξιολόγησης των διακεκριμένων έργων.