The Newbery has probably done
far more to turn kids off to reading than any other book award in
children's publishing.
—John Beach, associate professor of literacy education, St. John's
University
Newbery Winners Have I Read
A few years ago, I assigned myself my own reading list. I would read every single book that had won the Newbery Award.
I looked up the list. I was surprised to discover I had read only five of them: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (1981), From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg (1968), A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (1963), Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (1961), and Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink (1936). Even more surprising, I had not even heard of most of the others.
I remembered loving A Wrinkle in Time (as well as its sequels) and Caddie Woodlawn. I had found Jacob Have I Loved and Island of the Blue Dolphins to be thoroughly depressing. And I could not understand why everyone seemed to love Basil E. Frankweiler so much, when to me, the protagonist was so stupid and irritating.
Surely these books would be very different on rereading.
So I ordered the very first Newberry winner, from 1922: The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik Willem van Loon. I could have checked it out from the library. But I had the idea that I would establish my own Newbery winner shelf at home, which I could then share with my kids—who have not, fortunately or unfortunately, been born into a family that is indifferent to books.
The Story of Mankind arrived in the mail—a first edition, hardbound, with rough-cut pages. And it was unreadable.
