Newbery Books + musings on quality

[osprey_archer]

A couple more Newbery books, both of which I feel bafflingly indifferent to. An award-winning book ought to be quality enough that you don’t forget all the characters’ names three days after you read it, don’t you think?

(Actually I have a theory about this. One of the signs of a great book is its ability to inspire feeling, which means that great books are often inherently polarizing - people love them or loathe them. Therefore, often the best books only get honorable mentions for awards, because people feel too strongly about them to compromise.)

Even given this theory of quality, however, I am at a loss to explain why Emily Cheney Neville’s It’s Like This, Cat won anything; I kept forgetting the characters’ names as I read. Bafflingly, this beat Sterling North’s Rascal for the medal in 1964, and I’ve got to say, Rascal got robbed.

It’s Like This, Cat has a sort of Catcher in the Rye-lite feel to it: the protagonist is a disaffected youth who shares with Holden Caulfield the peculiar tendency to spell crummy “crumby.” I guess the Newbery committee must have read it and concluded that its pervasive slanginess made it Relevant to Today’s Youth.

I would love, incidentally, to know how Today’s Youth reacted to this book back in the sixties and seventies. I don’t suppose any of you read it then? Maybe it is asking too much to hope that anyone could remember it, though.

I don’t even hate It’s Like This, Cat: it’s too slight to inspire that much feeling.

Also Monica Shannon’s Dobry, about a peasant boy (named Dobry) in Bulgaria who becomes an artist. It reminds me of Rosemary Sutcliff’s Sun Horse, Moon Horse, only Sutcliff did it better. Dobry’s sculptures may live, but Dobry himself, not so much.

Therefore, rather than review Dobry, I will share with you a story of Bulgaria that my Bulgarian college roommate Slavena shared with me, about why Bulgarians nod to say “no.”

When the Ottomans invaded Bulgaria, one of the generals caught sight of a beautiful village girl. He sent his men to bring her to him, and he said, “Will you marry me?”

“No,” she said.

He took out his sword and put its point to her throat, close enough to bite the skin as she breathed. “You'll marry me now,” he ordered her.

“No,” she said; and as she spoke, she nodded her head, so that she impaled her throat on his sword.

And that is why Bulgarians nod to say no.

Comments

[seascribe.livejournal.com]

Well, that is the most morbid gestural origin story I have ever heard.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I think the story about how the English use a turned-around version of the V-for-Victory sign to mean "screw you" because the French used to cut those fingers off captured English archers is pretty morbid, too. I think people just like morbid.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I recall seeing the cover to It's Like This, Cat as a kid and thinking it looked like not a book I'd enjoy.

Did you cover Strawberry Girl in your discussion of your Newbery readthrough? (Probably you did and I commented and now can't recall -_-) I'm searching your back pages looking. It apparently won in 1946.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I read Strawberry Girl back when I first started the Newbery project, when I was eleven, so I don't remember it very distinctly anymore. It took place in Florida and they grew strawberries and perhaps there was a piano involved somehow?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Whoa, you've had the project going that long! That's impressive.

(I can't remember anything about it except that the other kids thought the main character must be uppity because she had a dress made out of cloth instead of burlap sacking)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

There was a thirteen year long hiatus in the middle...

I also vaguely remember something about the family not fitting in with the locals, maybe because they (the family) were wealthier or maybe because they weren't from Florida, but had just moved there.

I seem to remember that I liked the book, so maybe I should read it again and see what it's all about. Why were you looking to see if I'd reviewed it?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I found a blog that focuses on children's and YA books, and the blog-keeper had rated all the Newbery books for what grade level she thought was the entry level (ie, probably wouldn't be suitable for kids in lower grades), plus whether she especially liked the book or not. Of course I thought of your project! In fact, I mentioned it in comments. But in scrolling through the list, I saw Strawberry Girl, and I couldn't recall having read anything from you about it. (Here's the link (http://www.pragmaticmom.com/2011/09/newbery-award-winners-by-grade-appropriateness-from-hubspot/#comment-89816) to the entry.)