Since 1922, the single "most distinguished contribution to children’s literature" has been given the annual John Newbery Medal by the Association of Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association. Every list you’ve probably ever seen arranges these award winners by year of award, or perhaps by author. Not this one.
Finally, the list everyone really wants... the awards, arranged--not by year--but by how much a totally biased group of readers enjoyed them. What is this group's opinion of what is really the most fun Newbery winner to read? Well, read on...
The completely biased, non-scientific, Newbery Book Discussion Group met monthly to digest a randomly selected past Newbery book and an equally random pot luck dinner. Group members are primarily teachers and librarians. All like to read children's and young adults' books. None can pass up a Dove Bar while arguing the merits of the book under discussion.
For nearly five years, this Group read, debated, and ate its way to creating a list of Newbery winners in rank order of what we liked best. In November 2000, the Group "reordered" the list and decided to discuss and add the latest Newbery winner each year. The annotations, like the ranking itself, reflect the flavor of the Group’s discussion.
Check out the website here:
Newbery Ranking - Allen County Public Library
Oh my goodness - I was on board with this until I saw how high History of Mankind was on the overall list.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, rather a fun way to look at our books.
*Very* interesting - but I didn't agree with many of the rankings (or comments!) at all. When we've all read more (did all the people voting there read all of the books? If so, I'm impressed) we should do the same thing. I know for a fact that Holes would rank much higher on most of our lists. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd I especially disagree with this: "The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes (1924) Due to the difficult dialects, meandering plot, unconnected details and slow-moving story, we can only guess that this posthumous award was given out of pity."
ReplyDeletethanks for posting this...we really should do it after we all get through and see how we match up. i thought the comment from "the view from saturday" was pretty funny.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was thinking the same thing..that it would be fun to do our own rankings. I thought the comments were kind of funny but didn't agree with some of them, either. Holes would be way higher up for me, too :)
ReplyDeleteI am curious to see how our list would compare. But that would mean I'd have to slog through History of Mankind, and I've been kind of avoiding it...
ReplyDeleteI disagree with some of their choices, too. But, on the other hand, it makes me want to read some of the ones that I haven't gotten to that are high up on the list.
I'm with you, Flusi. If The Story of Mankind is only halfway down the list, I'm in trouble!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link, Moni.