What's the Point of the Newbery Medal?

That's the question Valerie Strauss asks in her Washington Post piece on the (forgive me) storied honor for the best of children's/young adult literature. Apparently, some critics think it is awarded to books that are too hard for their target audience, that they turn kids off reading by teaching them that all 'serious' books are difficult and about death and tragedy, and that the award should be attentive to popularity--the books that kids find irresistible.

I appreciate the contention that popularity is too often seen as the opposite of quality in literature--you know, that snobbish attitude that if everybody likes it, it can't be that good among those who pride themselves in never having read Harry Potter. But I bristle at what these critics think is "too hard" for kids to understand. It's too exhausting of a misguided

Among the voices entering this debate, as quoted in the article:

"The criterion has never been popularity," said Pat Scales, president of the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association. "It is about literary quality. We don't expect every child to like every book. How many adults have read all the Pulitzer Prize-winning books and the National Book Award winners and liked every one?" ...

"I can't help but believe that thousands, even millions, more children would grow up reading if the Newbery committee aimed to spotlight books that are deep and beautiful and irresistible to kids," said Lucy Calkins, founding director of the Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University's Teachers College and a professor of children's literature. ...

"If you force someone to read a book, the less likely you are to like it," said Elias Feldman, 13, an eighth-grader at private Landon School in Bethesda. Teachers, he said, like to select books ripe for analysis rather than for a gripping narrative. He said he understands that motivation but thinks kids would read more if their assigned books engaged them.

All I can say is, if it hadn't been for the Newbery Award, Lois Lowry's The Giver and Katherine Paterson's The Great Gilly Hopkins probably would've never passed through my classrooms as a kid. And they remain two of my all-time favorite books. Did I purchase Paterson's book at a library book sale last week? Yes, I did. The good stories aren't forgotten by the kids who encounter them.*

*NOTE: If Wikipedia is to be trusted, The Great Gilly Hopkins will be released as a film in 2009 by Killer Films and Arcady Bay Entertainment.