Children's Bookshelf: Letter to the Editor

-- Publishers Weekly, 1/15/2009

I always enjoy your e-newsletter, and especially got a kick out of the recent sturm und drang over the Newbery. Seems there is naysaying and breast-beating and finger-waggling every few years right before the big award is to be announced. Ratchets up the suspense, wouldn’t you say? I’m always surprised, though, that while experts always lament something, be it the Newbery’s lack of popular titles/accessible subject matter/humor/girl protagonists/boy protagonists/ethnic characters and so on, the paucity of Newbery-winning poetry is never mentioned. How come verse, be it free or formal, so rarely sports the shiny gold sticker? Especially with all the wonderful poetry, strong voices and innovative novels in verse published over, say, the last 10—15 years. Should we add a poetry thread to the Newbery debate? Let’s hear from rhymesters and poetry fans!

Mary Quattlebaum