Sunday, June 17, 2018

Newbery Rewind: 1924

Here we are again. This one I read while my new Mock Newbery group was meeting, so it was interesting to match it against current Newbery contenders. I will be posting soon about how that went, what books they liked and what they didn't. For now....

1923


  • King Tut's tomb is open in Egypt.
  • Warner Brothers studio is established
  • Time Magazine publishes its first issue. So is the first issue of Weird Tales.
  • In September, the Great Kanto Earthquake leaves over 100,000 dead in Japan.
  • T. S. Eliot's poem The Wasteland is published in its full form.
  • Bambi by Felix Salten is published in Austria
  • Louis Armstrong makes his first recording, "Chimes Blues", with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band.
  • Both Yankee Stadium (US) and Wembley Stadium (UK) open their doors.
  • Mt. Etna erupts.
  • Pancho Villa is assassinated.
  • President Warren G. Harding, dies of a heart attack and is succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge, who becomes the 30th President of the United States.
  • Interpol is created.
  • The Walt Disney company is founded.
  • Actor and director Sir Richard Attenborough is born
  • Astronaut Alan Shepherd is born.
  • Frozen food is invented by Clarence Birdseye.
  • The first incarnation of the Hollywood sign goes up (Hollywoodland).
  • Edwin Hubble discovers galaxies outside the Milky Way.
904372Once again, there are no honor books. So the winner of the Newbery Award for 1924 is....
The Dark Frigate by Charles Boardman Hawes

Thus we have our first posthumously awarded Newbery.  Hawes submitted the finished manuscript shortly before he unexpectedly died in July; the book was published in October. He was also the first winner to be born in the United States. As you may remember, his book The Great Quest was an honor book the first year that the award was given.

This story is full of action and adventure, a pirate story that glosses over very little. In many ways it reminds me of Treasure Island. The writing is fairly good; however, I feel like after the first few chapters, we lose track of our teen (twenty-something?) protagonist amongst all the colorful figures on the ship. It is also extremely sexist. In the end, I feel they likely gave him the award because he died unexpectedly. Wouldn't be the last time the Newbery was influenced by outside events more than the actual content of the book.

With all the recent discussion about some Newbery honor books being too "old" for the award, I find it very interesting that this author's works were once so prized by the committee. They were considered children's books even though they were filled with vice and violence. By today's standards they would likely be teen books or even adult books. Yet many feel the award has somehow strayed from it original intent. I say again, this award is for children birth to 14, inclusive. Stop trying to make it a "middle grade" award; that is not and has never been its purpose.


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