A Very New York Novel Wins Newbery Medal. By Motoko Rich

A Very New York Novel Wins Newbery Medal.
By Motoko Rich

With its complex structure, evocation of time travel and resonant 1970s New York setting, “When You Reach Me,” a novel of mystery and friendship, won the John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature on Monday.

Librarians and bloggers who write about books for young people had widely tipped the book, by Rebecca Stead, as a favorite before Monday’s announcement. The novel, which takes place in 1979 on the Upper West Side, tells the story of Miranda, a sixth grader whose best friend, Sal, stops talking to her. Meanwhile an anonymous writer begins sending her notes that suggest she needs to figure out how to prevent a future tragedy.

The award, considered the most prestigious honor in children’s literature, was conferred by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, at the group’s midwinter conference in Boston.

Though there has sometimes been a disconnect between Newbery judges and the youthful reading public, that’s not the case this year: “When You Reach Me” has spent eight weeks on The New York Times best-seller list for children’s chapter books.

“We are so very excited about this book because it is exceptionally conceived, finely crafted and highly original,” said Katie O’Dell, chairwoman of the Newbery committee and manager of school-age services at the Multnomah County Library in Portland, Ore. “Every scene, every nuance, every word is vital both to character development and the progression of the mystery that really is going to engage readers and satisfy them.”

The association also awarded the Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children to “The Lion and the Mouse” by Jerry Pinkney.

Mr. Pinkney’s book is a nearly wordless adaptation of Aesop’s fable about how the king of the animal kingdom is helped by one of its smallest creatures. Rendered in watercolor and pencil, the book sets the story in the Serengeti plain of Africa.

“You turn the page, and you’re caught up in the drama of what’s happening in a really thoughtful, brilliant way,” said Rita Auerbach, chairwoman of the Caldecott committee and a retired school librarian who described Mr. Pinkney’s command of watercolors as “unparalleled.”

Mr. Pinkney — who had been named as a Caldecott honoree, the runner-up prize, five times before winning this year’s medal — was also a favorite for the award.

This year, for the first time, the Young Adult Library Services Association, also a division of the American Library Association, awarded a prize for a nonfiction work, to “Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith” by Deborah Heiligman.

Walter Dean Myers was named the first-time winner of the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Speaking by telephone from her home on the Upper West Side, where she also grew up, Ms. Stead, the Newbery winner, said she loved writing for children and for middle school readers in particular. “I think they are open in a way that older people are not,” she said. “And so it gives me this feeling of freedom and it really sort of helps me on a creative level to think and to imagine a child audience.”

Ms. Stead, 42, who had a prior career as a public defender and has written one other novel for young readers, said she wanted to set “When You Reach Me” in the location and time of her own childhood in New York. The apartment in the book, she said, is modeled on her mother’s apartment, and Miranda’s school is very similar to Public School 75 on West End Avenue and 96th Street, which the author attended as a child.

Another seed of the novel came from a newspaper article about a man who had lost his memory and then, while hypnotized, told the police his wife and two daughters had been in a car accident. But when the police circulated his picture, a woman came forward and said she was his fiancée, that they had no children, and that there had been no car accident.

“Sometimes when you’re in an open frame of mind, a story like that can suggest something completely different and impossible,” added Ms. Stead, who imagined a story about someone who might be able to travel through time to save a life. “I found it very moving that you could have a character with a secret mission to save someone. I became intrigued by the idea of whether a loop like that was possible, and I became very interested in the idea of trying to create a puzzle.”

Mr. Pinkney, 70, said in a telephone interview from his home in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., that he had illustrated close to 100 books, seven of which he also wrote. He has consistently returned to old fables, but “The Lion & the Mouse” is the first time he has produced a book with no written narrative. (There are a few animal sounds.)

Mr. Pinkney conducted extensive research on the Serengeti so that he could draw authentic pictures. “Even the butterflies and other creatures are all from the Serengeti,” he said.

“There’s nothing like doing work where in fact you influence, you may inspire, you might educate, children,” Mr. Pinkney said. “In order to exercise your imagination there’s no better place but working for children because they have incredible imaginations.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/books/19newbery.html?ref=books