Russell Freedman
Russell Freedman–like Jason Reynolds–actually has two strong Newbery contenders: WE WILL NOT BE SILENT (five starred reviews plus Kirkus Prize shortlist) and VIETNAM (four starred reviews). Both of them are quintessential Freedman: crystal clear prose, elegant book design, carefully selected primary sources, and thoughtful, intelligent analysis.
I first became familiar with the story of Hans and Sophie Scholl, the protagonists of WE WILL NOT BE SILENT, from Newbery Honor book HITLER YOUTH. Of course, in that book they were just one of several profiles in courage, whereas here they are the sole focus.
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Several have mentioned here that the title coupled with the subject of resisting a fascist leader have given this book new relevance. While I agree and while the Newbery committee might also, it’s unlikely to be the thing that pushes this one over the top.
VIETNAM is actually my favorite of the two, and is a book that I could easily flirt with for a nomination. Freedman distills a very complicated war with his characteristic style. I think it could appeal to the same group of children who like SAMURAI RISING (which we have discussed ad naseum) and DIVE! which we have not.
I’ll also admit it’s awfully hard to not compare these books to a pair of books from last year, THE BOYS WHO CHALLENGED HITLER and MOST DANGEROUS, both of which outshine these. Of course, the committee won’t be making this comparison, but it’s awfully hard not to let that cross your mind.
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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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It’s hard to look at this year’s crop of nonfiction and not judge it with last year’s, but WE WILL NOT BE SILENT is very much an outstanding entry in the canon. Having great familiarity with the Geschwister School because my mom hails from southwestern Germany, I was anxious to see how this history would be interpreted for a young audience. I needn’t have feared: Freedman does a marvelous job building the tension and he has a fine hand with deft characterization and plotting devices.
I’m one of the people who weighed in on the politics angle, but that’s shone through in several books this year (most notably in WHEN THE SEA TURNED TO SILVER), and though I am aware that isn’t a factor in committee decisions, it would be deeply satisfying to see recognition from a committee (perhaps Sibert of YALSA nonfiction) on that front.
In Newbery terms, like SAMURAI, SILENT doesn’t rise to the top for me, even though I very much loved it.
SCHOLL, not SCHOOL. Thanks, Autocorrect!
If I had read VIETNAM a couple of years ago, I would have been all over it for Newbery, but it’s hard to have the same reaction, coming off MOST DANGEROUS last year. While the Newbery cannot compare these two books, I think it would be interesting for middle school students to do so. They each have distinctly different takes on the subject, and each take has its own merits. Would be a great book report assignment to compare and contrast the two.
I can answer the MOST DANGEROUS perspective of my middle school students, Jonathan.
Those who have read MOST DANGEROUS love it. Capital L Love it. (They generally love Sheinkin, and seem to love him despite my own personal gushing over his books – my students are happy to tell me if I’m “wrong”.)
VIETNAM is on my next book order. I can’t wait to hand it to one of the many kids who have read DANGEROUS. If I remember, I’ll let you know what they think…
I just read VIETNAM and it feels completely different from MOST DANGEROUS. Freedman is focused on Vietnam and his approach reminds me of the one he used for his WW! book (can’t recall the title) — slowly unpeeling/unpacking a terribly tangled and complicated history. For me (someone who was active in the anti-war movement) it seems obvious, but to young readers I’m sure it is as challenging to understand the US’s involvement in Vietnam as it is to understand WW1. It is a rich and well-done history, but doesn’t rise to the top for me Newbery-wise. I’m not totally sure why — maybe that it seems a bit dense somehow? And this is coming from someone pretty familiar with the material covered. It just didn’t come alive for me as other books he has done of this sort, say the WWI book which I remember finding fascinating.
One way it differs from both WE WILL NOT BE SILENT and SAMURAI RISING is that it is not centered around specific individuals. For some readers I would guess it helps to have these to navigate the broader historical landscape. (Not for Newbery discussion as it is last year’s book and can’t be included on the table, but I think this is also what makes it different from MOST DANGEROUS — that is it is filtered through Ellsberg’s experience.)
Yes, to what you’ve said in the last paragraph, but de-centering the individuals definitely gives it a point of view (in Common Core parlance) just as much as the Sheinkin does. I mean you don’t get the sense from Freedman that four lying presidents played significant roles in the escalation of the war, or that a whistleblower played a significant role in ending it. In Freedman’s book, the events happen, but individuals aren’t portrayed as driving the events themselves . . .
Yes, I think VIETNAM suffers somewhat by not being focused on people . Like Monica, I so remember the times and even lost a husband to the war. This is a good history, I think, but it does not rise to the top for me as does WE WILL NOT BE SILENT. That one really has stayed with me – making me wish I had the courage those teens did! VIETNAM echoes the fact that the war was a disaster for a long time, as we said at the time “old men sending boys off to die for little good reason”. As Monica said, the story just doesn’t come alive for me either.
Although we have both books at my school, I’ve only gotten around to reading WE WILL NOT BE SILENT. it rises up for a lot of reason, but maybe not to my top seven. So glad to have it my collection. As I’m equally glad to have VIETNAM there as well. A few years ago my sixth grade teachers were asking about books that covered that war. THE WAR TO END ALL WARS had just come out and I asked a friend who knows kid-lit non-fiction very well if there was an equivalent for the Vietnam war, she assured me there wasn’t. I should have known Freedman would get around to it eventually.
ENYA shortlist!
http://www.ala.org/yalsa/nonfiction-award