Wednesday Reading Meme
Aug. 21st, 2013 08:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Charles Hawes’ The Dark Frigate, winner of the 1924 Newbery Medal, adventure tale in the best tradition of Treasure Island, by which of course I mean that it has a hero who has no discernable emotions, surrounded by other similarly shallow characters - in his introduction Lloyd Alexander calls the characterization in this book “compelling,” which may explain why I’ve always had trouble getting into Alexander’s books - moving through an eventful but nonetheless soporifically boring plot.
I am so close to the end of the Newbery project that I can almost taste it. Seven books left! Seven!
What I’m Reading Now
Smoky the Cowhorse and Waterless Mountain. Newbery Medal winners for 1927 and 1932, respectively.
What I Plan to Read Next
Adam of the Road. Newbery Medal winner for 1943. It’s the last of the Newbery books not available as a book on CD, and then, and then! - I will be done with the reading part of this project!
And then I am going to put together some Newbery stats. How many male authors and how many female, and how many male protagonists and how many female? (I have the sense that there has been a slow movement toward more female protagonists, but we’ll see if the numbers bear me out.)
What’s the demographic breakdown of the protagonists of Newbery Medal books? (I am pretty that books focusing on practically every other race and ethnicity, including Pacific Islander, won Newbery medals before a story with a black protagonist did.)
I considered counting up the races of the authors, too, but then I realized that doing so would involve actual research as opposed to just thinking back to the book and going “Why yes, that story did have a Chinese protagonist,” so maybe not.
How many books take Death as a major theme?
And whatever sundry other questions take my fancy. Anyone interested in anything in particular? (Anyone interested in this at all?)
Charles Hawes’ The Dark Frigate, winner of the 1924 Newbery Medal, adventure tale in the best tradition of Treasure Island, by which of course I mean that it has a hero who has no discernable emotions, surrounded by other similarly shallow characters - in his introduction Lloyd Alexander calls the characterization in this book “compelling,” which may explain why I’ve always had trouble getting into Alexander’s books - moving through an eventful but nonetheless soporifically boring plot.
I am so close to the end of the Newbery project that I can almost taste it. Seven books left! Seven!
What I’m Reading Now
Smoky the Cowhorse and Waterless Mountain. Newbery Medal winners for 1927 and 1932, respectively.
What I Plan to Read Next
Adam of the Road. Newbery Medal winner for 1943. It’s the last of the Newbery books not available as a book on CD, and then, and then! - I will be done with the reading part of this project!
And then I am going to put together some Newbery stats. How many male authors and how many female, and how many male protagonists and how many female? (I have the sense that there has been a slow movement toward more female protagonists, but we’ll see if the numbers bear me out.)
What’s the demographic breakdown of the protagonists of Newbery Medal books? (I am pretty that books focusing on practically every other race and ethnicity, including Pacific Islander, won Newbery medals before a story with a black protagonist did.)
I considered counting up the races of the authors, too, but then I realized that doing so would involve actual research as opposed to just thinking back to the book and going “Why yes, that story did have a Chinese protagonist,” so maybe not.
How many books take Death as a major theme?
And whatever sundry other questions take my fancy. Anyone interested in anything in particular? (Anyone interested in this at all?)
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no subject
Date: 2013-08-22 01:21 am (UTC)I would be interested in seeing the winners broken down by time period (contemporary to the times vs. historic) and whether there seems to be a correlation between time period and gender of protagonist.
Oh, and whether the protagonist is an orphan or being raised by a family containing both parents, a single parent, extended family.
no subject
Date: 2013-08-22 12:35 pm (UTC)Also a ton of orphans. But off the top of my head I don't recall any kids with divorced parents, which is odd.
no subject
Date: 2013-08-28 05:41 pm (UTC)- How many feature the protagonist's pet dying?
- How many have this basic plot: Teenager or kid meets disabled/poor/old/mentally ill person, tries to help them out, and learns to their sorrow that the person cannot be helped?
-Proportion of generally cheerful/somber but not without hope/crushingly depressing?
no subject
Date: 2013-08-28 06:17 pm (UTC)Surprisingly, there's only one book that features a protagonist's pet dying: Sounder, which is so sad that this is actually one of the least sad things about the book. (I have a review of Sounder here (http://osprey-archer.livejournal.com/326531.html), halfway down the page.)
There are, however, a ton of books about death in general. Especially in the 1990s, the Newbery committee was clearly all about death.
And there's only one book that approximates the plot you describe, Joseph Krumgold's Onion John. However, I read it not so much as the main character realizing that Onion John can't be helped, but that trying to force Onion John to accept help he never asked for and might not want is not actually helping.