Re: [LM_NET] HIT: Newbery (--Edward Tulane, love it or hate it?)

[Lisa Hunt <lisa3moon@YAHOO.COM>]

How elegantly you expressed it Judy:  "I can't tell you how exciting it is when I 
do school
visits and show the cover to a gym full of 150 kids and they cheer. Hooray--we 
picked a book that kids love and read, even when it's not assigned."
   
  That's the point.  It is our job to elevate books that children will love.  They 
depend upon us to find those books for them, because TV marketing just won't answer 
this need.

Judy Freeman <BKWSSF@AOL.COM> wrote:
  Hi Jennifer England and other LM_NET Edward Tulane readers--

Thanks, Jennifer, for your compilation of Edward Tulane
reactions. I love seeing LM_NET discussing a book.
I wish we did more of it--open, frank discussions of
our reactions to a controversial book are so stimulating
and interesting. Hey, we can't talk politics on the listserv,
so let's talk books more often.

"Goddess"? Oh dear. I'm afraid I can't conjure up
that image of myself. If you've ever met me, you'll
know there's not much goddess-like about me.
I'm just another hard-reading, book- and chocolate-loving
librarian, like everyone else. (Although the Greek
goddesses were jealous, petty, scheming, proud,
vain, and dangerous. I sure hope I don't fit any of those adjectives.)

As to Edward, of course I know all the contradictory
reactions that poor heard-hearted rabbit has engendered.
And you know that I wrote the teacher's guide for the
book for Candlewick (take a look at www.edwardtulane.com),
so I am intimately acquainted with every thought in his
selfish little brain. (I read the book more than 20 times
while plumbing its depths for ideas, questions, and
discussion points. I handed in a 24-page teacher's guide;
they edited it down to 12.) I loved the book, as you know,
and have found kids tend to love it, too. All that rabbit
torture resonates in their souls, allowing them to live
his trials vicariously. And grieve with him a little, and
then see how he grows as he faces adversity, loss, and
tragedy, and finds that he can survive. (As Tina Turner
sang, "What's love got to do with it . . . just a second-hand
emotion." Well, as Edward finally figures out, plenty.)

Sure, there are parallels to classics like The Velveteen Rabbit
and Hitty, but Edward's his own rabbit. Did you know
Kate DiCamillo received a 3-foot melamine rabbit as
a gift from a friend, and one night dreamed it was
at the bottom of the ocean? That's what gave her
the germ of the plot. Maybe the dream was wishful thinking--
wanting that giant rabbit taking up space in her house
to go away.

What has bothered me about some of the criticism
is the personal side to it--an almost glee in disliking
the book and taking it out on the author, and that has
made me uncomfortable. I'm always disappointed when
I dislike an author's book--I come to each book I read
with great expectations, and then, if I'm disappointed,
I feel sorry the relationship didn't work out. That's why
I'm so grateful I don't have to review (in print) any book
I dislike. I'm elated to review the ones I love and to spread
the word about them. I don't expect anyone to agree with
me--that's up to you, not me. We are privileged to live in
a society of diverse opinions.

Lots of grownups found Edward's trials too much,
and then there's that illustration of him hanging
as a garden scarecrow on a cross that sent some people
over the deep end. It didn't bother me--that's
the illustrator's take on things, and I didn't find Edward
particularly Jesus-like. He was entirely too self-centered
and sorry for himself. A column in the Washington Post
ripped into the book--"When Bad Things Happen to Bad
Bunnies." I don't think the book is without flaws, which
is fine with me, too--what book is perfect?--but I found
it such a thoughtful and enigmatic read, that here I am,
2 years after first reading the galleys, still thinking about the story.

The other night at a dinner at ALA, our table was talking
about Edward T., and, as you can predict, the opinions
were divided. One person said that she was creeped out
at the appearance of the grandmother, Pelligrina,
throughout the book. I said, But what makes you think
she was actually there and not just a figment of Edward's
guilty conscience? She said, Huh, I hadn't thought of it
that way. Someone said, I hate the scene at the end where
Edward wants to leave everyone. It didn't really make
sense and was contrived. And I said, That's my favorite
chapter--he wants to die to be with the one person he's
learned to love fully and lost, and the people he's interacted
with through the book--all of whom have been changed
because of their contact with him--won't let him give up.
(That's the chapter I wrote up as a Reader's Theater,
on the edwardtulane.com website.)

It's interesting to me that people's reactions are so
different. (Mama by Jeanette Winter is another
controversial book that people disagreed on.)
At my BER seminars this year, I've asked all the folks
who have read the book to rank it, 1-10, by holding
up their fingers. The reactions mirror what Jennifer
found in her informal survey. This is a book that has
caused readers to react. Their opinions run from loathing
to loving. One person recently told me he found it too
sentimental. As an adult, I can see that; as a 10-year-old
reader encountering Edward's issues for the first time,
I think the sentiment is complex and real.

What I love about the book is the fact that there are
no easy answers. That kids can think deeply about it,
talk it over, and continue to ponder its meaning for a
long time. And it's a book that opens up to you each
time you read it again--with lots of layers to consider.
Kate DiCamillo never writes down to her readers, and
gives them such rich, elegant language. Yes, he's selfish.
Some people have said, Well, why does a rabbit have to
feel love anyway? Children love their toys unconditionally.
But here's this rabbit, given to Abilene as a present by her
grandmother, and the least he can do is love her back.
He's so smug and superior and sure his way is the right
one. Don't we know people like Edward? As the china doll
tells him towards the end, "If you have no intention of loving
or being loved, then the whole journey is pointless."
Children internalize interesting life lessons when they
discuss the meaning of loving and being loved. 

And in the whole debate about Edward, note how many
different opinions people have about this book--they're
rarely indifferent. People want to talk about it, argue
about it. Personally, I don't really care if you love
a book I hate and vice versa. It's the discussion process
that interests me. There are so many children's books
out there. How could we all agree? Yes, I'm disappointed
it didn't win the Newbery--though I didn't expect it to,
as I knew of several on the committee who were not fans.
If you haven't read the book, give it a try--and a second
reading will prove interesting as you see how it's constructed
he second time around. The other element is the read-aloud
part--that the book is powerful when read aloud to the folks
for whom it was intended--real kids.

The Newbery is not a popularity contest, but we need to
keep the child as reader in our sights at all times.
I was on the Newbery for Bud, Not Buddy in 1999,
and I can't tell you how exciting it is when I do school
visits and show the cover to a gym full of 150 kids
and they cheer. Hooray--we picked a book that kids
love and read, even when it's not assigned. I get the same
reaction for Edward Tulane, Clementine,
Al Capone Does My Shirts, and The Lightning Thief
(some of my recent choices for Newbery that didn't make it). 

And here comes a new crop of books. It's our job, now,
to start reading those 2007 titles to find books no kids, teachers,
and librarians can live without. I've already got 25 boxes of them
calling to me from my basement, especially the nonfiction one,
as I'm on this year's Sibert Committee. As Bud Caldwell says,
Here we go again . . .

Judy Freeman
Children's Literature Consultant
"Wild About Books" columnist, School Library Media Activities Monthly
Author of the all new Books Kids Will Sit Still For 3
(Libraries Unlimited, 2006; www.LU.com)
65 North Sixth Avenue
Highland Park, NJ 08904
732-572-5634 / BKWSSF@aol.com
www.JudyReadsBooks.com

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        Lisa Hunt
  School Library Media Specialist, elementary
  National Board Certified Teacher
  Moore, OK
  lisa3moon@yahoo.com 





 
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