Newbery Books

Adri's Newbery books 

 

As I’ve previously discussed, books and reading, both fiction and non-fiction, has always been a big part of my life and it was for Adrianna as well. One of the things I would collect for her were Newbery Medal books.

This award has been given annually by the Association for Library Service to Children to the author of “the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children” since 1922. The other big award for children’s literature is the Caldecott Medal which is awarded annually for the most distinguished picture book, and together these are the most prestigious awards for children’s books in the US.

Ever since she was born, I’d hunt through the stacks of children’s books at Half Price Books across the country, at first in Austin but later in Dallas, San Antonio, Madison, Wisconsin… anywhere where there were books, I’d be searching with my printed-out list of Newbery books and cross them off as I found them for her. It was a never-ending treasure hunt as those who scour used book stores in a similar manner can surely relate.

Later, when I actually worked at HPB it was almost like cheating, because I’d get to see all the books even before they were sorted, priced, and shelved as they came through the buy area. Plus, I got a 50% discount. It sort of took the fun out of the hunt… but only sort of.

The thrill of the hunt was a secondary to actually sharing them with Adri, of course. Before she could read, I’d read them to her, and later she’d devour them herself. There were other great books that were not Newberys, obviously, such as the entire oeuvres of Judy Blume, Louise Fitzhugh, and countless others, and we enjoyed those books as well, but you could never go wrong with blindly buying a Newbery. The ALSC knew what it was doing.

Once Adri was about 13 or 14, however, I started to slow down. In the end I’d found 56 Newberys for her, which was over 70% of all Newbery books extant at that time.

I had built her a desk/hutch/bookcase when she was about eight which had three adjustable shelves as well as a fold-down door that served as writing surface. She loved it and always wanted to bring it over to her apartment for the boys, but there was never room. I put all the Newbery books on those shelves for her, as well as some of the other special books and of course “Where the Wild Things Are” front and center.

When we purchased our house almost twenty years ago, we made one of the bedrooms hers, and the bookcase/desk lived in a corner. Years later when we converted her room to a guest room, the bookcase remained, waiting for a time when Adrianna would have room for it in her own house. That of course never happened, but now that room has many remembrances of Adri, the collection of Newberys on her desk as well as an entire wall of photos of her with her boys.

I took this picture today of the Newberys, a gloomy overcast rainy morning that is brightened up just a bit by all the spines of the volumes on the shelves and memories of our time together reading them. Books that were the pinnacle of children’s literature the year they were released. Books that brought joy to my daughter as well as myself. Books that live on for others even though she does not… yet another melancholy happy-sad reminder of my daughter.