The Madman of Piney Woods
Our final book to reconsider is THE MADMAN OF PINEY WOODS. The first time around Nina rightly noted that despite a leisurely pace, the storytelling elements–plot, character, setting–make this a worthy book to discuss. We only had three comments, but they were all packed with good insights.
- Is this book too heavy-handed or didactic?
- Are the voices distinct and individual?
- How well are the tragedy and humor balanced?
- Does the ending rely too heavily on knowledge of the previous book?
Since historical fiction has historically been a Newbery favorite, it’s always interesting to see whether the Scott O’Dell Award (which is typically announced in mid-January–will be a predictor of Newbery recognition. REVOLUTION and THE MADMAN OF PINEY WOODS seem like the most likely suspects here. I always find that it’s good to start comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges before comparing apples to oranges. Thus, I always find genre comparisons a good warm-up exercise. How do you think these two compare? And how does MADMAN compare to the field at large?
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As I’ve gone back through our shortlist looking for a third place vote, I’ve been impressed by every single book, even those that aren’t my particular taste, and I think I’d have to listen really carefully to what was said at the table to choose among so many fine candidates!
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About Jonathan Hunt
Jonathan Hunt is the Coordinator of Library Media Services at the San Diego County Office of Education. He served on the 2006 Newbery committee, and has also judged the Caldecott Medal, the Printz Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. You can reach him at hunt_yellow@yahoo.com
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I’m still hoping to reread this before Sunday, but something that stands out to me from a distance is the integrity of voice. As the story deepens and get more complex, as the boys move from “fun” to start to understand and see through the adult world, and understand what time does to people and a community, their voice is always their own, there’s no forced authorial perspective. In tis way, it stands alongsde Asti’s POV in WEST OF THE MOON for me.
I read it for the first time after you added it to the shortlist, and I was very glad that I did. It’s a truly excellent book. The voices (which I found to be quite individual), the terrific humor balanced with darker moments both experienced and retold, the characterization (of Benji and Red, both their families, and other characters), and the suspenseful weaving of the plot all struck me as distinguished.
My recollection of Elijah of Buxton is very fuzzy as to specifics, so the ending may not have had as much impact on me as on someone who remembers Elijah and Cooter well (I remembered Elijah, but nothing about Cooter). Yet as someone without that background, the ending still had a strong impact, as clearly Cooter was beloved by the characters who had known him long ago and the depth of their feelings and relationships was clear from the text itself without the recollection of what happened in the earlier book.
It makes my top 7, but not my top 2 (still The Family Romanov and Brown Girl Dreaming). I’m not sure where I rank it in comparison to my other top choices, but I think in my personal rankings it’s up there with The Crossover and West of the Moon, but ahead of Revolution and El Deafo.