The Newbery Medal
The Newbery Medal is the first award for children's books in the world. It is awarded every year by the American Library Association's division called the Association for Library Service to Children. The award came about in June of 1921 when Frederic G. Melcher proposed it to the Children's Library Section, a division of the American Library Association. Melcher believed the medal should be named after the great English publisher and "Father of Children's Literature", John Newbery. It was to be awarded to the best children's book in America of the previous year. The medal was designed by Rene Paul Chambellan. It is bronze and the winner's name and year are engraved on the back of the medal. Submissions for the award go to a committee, which decides the winner and also the list of Honor Books for the year, which are other books of distinction. The criteria for the medal are: the book must be a distinguished contribution to American literature for children, published by an American publisher in English, during the preceding year, only authors who are citizens of the United States or residents many win. The award is based on the literary quality of the book in relation to children, not necessarily the popularity of the book.
John Newbery was considered the Father of Children's Literature because he did great things for children's literature in England in the 18th century. His bookshop was called The Bible and the Sun. From here, he published religious works, periodicals, newspapers, books and children's books. In 1744, he published the first book for children, which he wrote himself. A Little Pretty Pocket-Book was the first in a series of books for children. He founded the first children's periodical The Lilliputian Magazine in 1751. Before his death, he wrote and published the classic The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes in 1765. Many of these stories focused on morals and education, which were popular subjects at the time.
Mr.. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater
Mr.. Popper's Penguins was a Newbery Honor Book for 1939. Mr.. Popper was a housepainter with big dreams. He loved to imagine himself traveling to far off lands. Many days, after a hard day's work, he would settle into his chair with a book about India, the South Seas or an issue of National Geographic. His favorite topic was the polar region. Mr.. Popper dreamed of visiting that area and studied everything he could find about it, and saw every movie that came out about it. The book begins in September, which is the end of the housepainting season. Mr. Popper is about to begin his vacation, because people don't get their houses painted in the winter. He plans to sit around and read his travel books without any interruptions by work. Mrs. Popper is concerned with the lack of money coming in, but is somewhat prepared, having gone through this year after year. While listening to a radio broadcast of the Drake Antarctic Expedition one evening, Mr. Popper is surprised when Admiral Drake mentions him. He received a letter Mr. Popper sent him about penguins and his sending Mr. Popper a surprise. This delights Mr. Popper to no end, but he cannot imagine what Admiral Drake could be sending him. He finds out in a few days, when a package arrives Air Express from Antarctica. It's a penguin! The penguin begins to explore around the home of the Poppers. When the Popper children, Janie and Bill, arrive home from school, they are surprised to see the black and white bird marching around the living room. The penguin is named Captain Cook, after the English explorer who made some discoveries around the Antarctic region. The Popper's set up the icebox (refrigerator) for the penguin to sleep in. They fed him canned shrimp. Captain Cook went around the house, gathering random objects to make a nest. After a few days, they noticed the penguin was not as active, almost depressed. Mr. Popper wrote to the curator of an aquarium a few towns over, where he knew there was another penguin. The curator said their penguin was depressed as well. He sent the penguin, a female, to the Popper's. They named her Greta. Captain Cook and Greta got along famously. Soon, Greta laid an egg. And then laid another, and another. Every three days, she laid another egg, until there were ten. When they hatched, the Poppers had twelve penguins to care for. The penguins had grown tired of the canned shrimp, so the Poppers ordered live fish trucked in for them. They built a cold room in the basement, so the penguins would be comfortable. All this began to take a financial toll on the Poppers, especially since Mr. Popper wasn't working. He decided that he was going to train the penguins to perform an act, which he was going to show to a theater manager, and hopefully make money that way. The manager loved the act, which included the penguins climbing up a ladder, waddling across a board, and tobogganing down the other side, as well as some other things. He booked the Poppers and their penguins for a ten week touring act, at $5000 a week. The show was successful, but the money was not always enough. It was very expensive to travel with twelve penguins, keeping enough ice to cool them. One day, Mr. Popper wasn't paying attention to his schedule and took the penguins to the wrong theater, where they interrupted a seal show. Pandemonium broke out. The penguins were curious about the seals, but the Poppers were trying to round them up, because in the wild, penguins are seal food. The owner of the seal act was furious, and had Mr. Popper and his penguins arrested. They had to stay in jail for a few days, because they didn't have enough money to bail themselves out. The manager couldn't be reached and their paycheck for the week was not due for a few more day. The newspapers got a hold of the story of the jailed man and his penguins. Finally, Mr. Popper and the penguins are bailed out of jail, not by the tour manager, but by Admiral Drake himself! Admiral Drake wanted to take the penguins to the North Pole and start a race of penguins up there. He said that the explorers up there get very lonely, and have no pets. The penguins could fill in as surrogate pets up there, just as they had in the South Pole. At the same time, a movie producer is trying to get Mr. Popper to sign a contract to make movies starring the penguins. In the end, Mr. Popper decided that a life in Hollywood would not be good for the penguins, and that they would fare better in the climate of the North Pole. The movie producer still was able to make a short film about the penguins embarking on their North Pole journey, and the Poppers were paid quite handsomely for it. The penguins were all loaded up on the ship and ready to go. Then Mr. Popper received another surprise. Admiral Drake wanted him to go to the North Pole too, as the keeper of the penguins. So, Mr. Popper finally got to realize his dream of traveling to a far off land.
I am not sure if this book would be chosen as an Honor Book today. It is very simple, maybe too simple for today's children. Also, I wonder if one of the reasons for it being an Honor Book was the topic. The exploration of Antarctica was very new and exciting back then. Maybe people had not seem many penguins or even knew very much about them, so the story seemed exciting. What do you think?
My other thought was about the Newbery Award itself. It is an award for an author who is a citizen of the United States, who writes books in English, published by an American publisher for American literature. But, it is named after an English publisher of children's literature. Does that seem strange to anyone else?
"The John Newbery Medal" retrieved from www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/aboutnewbery/aboutnewbery.cfm
"John Newbery, Father of Children's Literature" retrieved from www.mothergoose.com/History/Newbery.htm
Atwater, Richard and Florence. Mr. Popper's Penguins. Scholastic, Inc. 1938. 139 pages
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