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Portrayals of Diversity In Newbery Medal-Winning Children’s Literature
Do You See What I See?: Portrayals of Diversity in Newbery-Medal-Winning Children’s
Literature
Introduction
Children’s literature plays a significant role in society because it reflects values and
attitudes that will be passed to children as they read (Lystad, 1980). “Their (authors’ and
illustrators’) work offers young readers a powerful means for developing personal understanding
of the diversity and uniqueness of all people. It is crucial that those understandings be built upon
a foundation of facts, not misinformation, distortions and stereotypes.” (Noll, 1995, p 40)
The Newberry Medal is presented annually by The American Library Association,
Association for Library Service to Children. The committee concentrates on literary quality and
the quality of presentation. Criteria for the award include: interpretation of theme, accuracy,
clarity, organization, plot, characters, setting and style (American Library Association, 2006).
According to publisher Stephen Roxburgh, the Newberry Award promotes the sale of
more books than any other literature award, including the National Book Award and the Pulitzer
Prize. Newbery books have a large readership, and are consistently among the most requested
books in bookstores and libraries. The Newbery Medal also means free publicity and esteem
both for the publisher and the author of the book (“Newberry Award,” 1997, p. C10).
Smith (1957) and Elkins (1967) noted that award-winning literature has often served as a
representative sample in understanding and describing all children’s literature. Between 1930
and 1985, Newberry award books were the sample in 27 dissertation studies (Lukenbill &
Stewart, 1988). A census-level study of Newbery award-winning literature has never been
performed. Prior studies have covered no more than a 25-year span. Even more recent studies
(Rowe, 2004, Kaltenbach, 2005) only touch upon smaller samples of Newbery winners and
avoid utilizing a census-level approach. Studies of children’s literature have focused on specific
Convention