One Who Won--Twice

In the flurry of the holidays, you might have missed this little despair-inducing gem in the New York Times, which I'll quote here in toto:

Study Finds Less Diversity in Newbery Books

A study of books that have won the Newbery Medal for children’s literature has found that their protagonists are increasingly likely to be white, male and from two-parent households, even as American families become more diverse, Bloomberg News reported. The study, conducted at Brigham Young University, looked at the race, sex and family background of characters in 82 books that won the award between 1922 and 2007. It found that fewer books featuring black and Hispanic characters had won from 1980 onward than in the years from 1951 to 1979. “The Newbery is given for literary quality; ethnicity, gender, nothing of that is necessarily taken into consideration,” Pat Scales, president of the Association for Library Service to Children, which awards the Newbery Medal, said. She added, “We owe kids good stories that reflect their lives and give them a more global view.”

Arghh!  So much for progress. 

So it's a good moment to raise a glass to the beautiful and talented Jacqueline Woodson, author of not one but two Newbery-Medal-winning books. 

I met Jackie at Pine Manor College's MFA program, where we were both teaching, and we quickly learned we had
something unusual in common:  we had both been raised as Jehovah's Witnesses and both left the left religion (and both have families that continue to deal with the ramifications of participating).  I was drawn to Jackie's warmth, candor, and sense of humor, and then, as I started to read her work, I came to love Jackie's moving, provocative, heartfelt human stories of love and compassion that cross borders of class, race, and sex.  They're so realistic, so hard-hitting, and yet so hopeful.  They never pull a punch, so you can trust the hope they offer.

My nephews and niece all have signed copies of her Newbery-Medal-winning picture book Show Way, a gorgeous story of intergenerational love, quilts, and survival that's based on Jackie's own family history--and that ends with her daughter Toshi.  If you have young relatives, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.  (And can I just say that it's really rare for the Newbery to be given to a picture book?)

Jackie's quick to share herself with people.  We're both committed to mentoring, and when she learned about Amara, my Little Sister, Jackie immediately gave me signed copies of six of her middle-grade and young adult titles to take back with me as gifts for her.  Amara loved them (without knowing a thing about Jackie's two Coretta Scott King awards, two National Book Award Finalists, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, or the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement).  Amara especially liked Locomotion, a novel-in-poems that she spontaneously read aloud (I kid you not:  I only heard about it after the fact) to her two little sisters.  Amara has had a difficult life, and she has no patience for "those dumb Harry Potter books."  But Jackie's speak to her.  As one reviewer wrote, her work "places the characters in nearly unbearable circumstances, then lets incredible human resiliency shine through."  No wonder a book display of her titles shimmers with silver disks.

Jackie's newest Newbery-Medal winner is the 2007 middle-grades novel Feathers (as in Emily Dickinson's line, "Hope is the thing with feathers"), which I cannot wait to read.  Given that she churns out about a book a year, she's tough to keep up with--and an inspiration to all of us writers out here!