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November 9, 2018 by Roxanne Hsu Feldman

Connecting the Ancient to the Future and Far Away to the Near By

November 9, 2018 by Roxanne Hsu Feldman   12 comments

AThousandBeginningsAndEndingsHas a short story collection contributed by more than a dozen authors ever appeared on the Newbery roster?  I don’t believe so.

There have been some gold and silver stickers affixed to the covers of  folk story collections. For example, 1925 winner Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger (of South American folk tales,) 1948 honor The Cow-Tail Switch, and Other West African Stories by Harold Courlander, 1969 honor When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer, and 1993 honor The Dark-thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural by Patricia McKissack.  And that was the last time (25 years ago) that a folk tale anthology received any Newbery accolade, unless one counts the 2010 honor title Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin as loosely fitting into this category since the author did piece together a singular narrative inspired by various Chinese folk stories.  (It seems to be the only Asian folklore inspired title to ever be seen on the Newbery roster.  Please correct me if this is not the case.)

Although none of the above consideration should enter into the Newbery literary discussion, it nevertheless makes me excited to see Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman’s vision realized so beautifully and completely: an anthology of fifteen entertaining tales, diverse in genres and settings based on many different Asian myths, penned by authors who had cultural, intimate, and personal experiences with the original stories.  It is indeed a feat!

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To me, the success of an anthology lies in three areas and A Thousand Beginnings and Endings hits the mark for all three – thus warrants serious consideration for the 2019 Newbery.

First, there must have a baseline quality for each of the stories in the collection.  Yes, some might be more successful than others, for different readers with different tastes, but over all, each story has to have merits.  To me, all of the authors satisfy this criterium and quite a few exceed expectations.  For example, the vivid dystopian cautionary tale “Steel Skin” by Lori. M. Lee (Hmong) is thrilling and unexpected.  In the South Korean epic myth inspired video-game fantasy “The Land of the Morning Calm,” E. C. Myers delivers an emotionally profound story of mourning.  Pure adrenaline fun could be found via the quest of a modern-day teen girl vampire in “Code of Honor” by Melissa de la Cruz (Filipino.) And then there are the realistic slice-of-life middle-school friendship drama “Girls Who Twirl and Other Dangers” by Preeti Chhibber parallels the tale of the goddess Durgā (Hindu) and eleven other freshly re-imagined tales.

Second, a successful anthology would have a distinct theme that is carried out thoroughly by all the contributors, under the mindful stewardship of the editors.  I especially appreciate Oh & Chapman’s insistence on the divers offerings, the #OwnVoice authorial views, and the informative story notes appended after each retelling.

Finally, an anthology. with many contributors from different backgrounds and with different viewpoints, would deepen and expand the readers’ understanding of the thematic through line.  By reading these tales, young readers definitely would see the richness of different mythological traditions and thus gain fresh understandings of the vastness of Asian Cultures which often are mis-represented as a singular, rigid culture by western readers.  The choice of having different genres: fantasy, sci-fi, realistic fiction, horror, etc. and several tales set in present day or the future further emphasizes the fact that all these cultures are not in stasis.  Rather they are continuously evolving.

 

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About Roxanne Hsu Feldman

Roxanne Hsu Feldman is the Middle School (4th to 8th grade) Librarian at the Dalton School in New York City. She served on the 2002 and 2013 Newbery Committees. Roxanne was also a member of 2008-2009 Notable Books for Children, 2015 Best Fiction for Young Adults, and the 2017 Odyssey Award Committees. In 2016 Roxanne was one of the three judges for the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards. You can reach her at at roxannefeldman@gmail.com.

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Comments

  1. Eric Carpenter says

    November 9, 2018 at 7:49 pm

    It’s been a while since I read it but SHEN OF THE SEA (1926 newbey medal) at least claimed to be an anthology of “Chinese folk tales”?

    • Roxanne Hsu Feldman says

      November 9, 2018 at 11:57 pm

      Ah… but these tales were inventions of the author — some are even western tales flavored with oriental exoticism. I consider this similar to Just So Stories by Kipling. The author never went to China. He did not study Chinese mythology. I imagine that if this anthology were to be published today, serious backlash would ensue. Agree?

      • Eric Carpenter says

        November 12, 2018 at 8:12 am

        Absolutely that’s why I wrote “claimed to be”. This book would certainly not be published today.

      • Joe says

        November 13, 2018 at 4:57 pm

        It wouldn’t be published at all. It’s both horrifically offensive and dreadfully boring. What a combo!

  2. Julie says

    November 12, 2018 at 4:56 pm

    He would be disemboweled.

    • Roxanne Hsu Feldman says

      November 12, 2018 at 5:30 pm

      That’s pretty harsh, Julie. I might just give him a really stern look and a long lecture!

  3. Evelyn Schwartz says

    November 13, 2018 at 1:40 pm

    This book sounds marvelous – particularly in a middle-grade landscape thirsting for folklore-inspired adventure tales. Haven’t read it yet and was about to order it for my 3-6 library – but noticed that it said for Grade 8 and up. For people who’ve read it – would this disqualify it for the Newbery? What do people think of it being written for a child audience? Curious as to see why, if the age limit is based on possible goriness (and given the similar propensity of Greek/Norse mythology made popular by Rick Riordan) whether this compilation/retelling feels similar or not.

  4. Evelyn Schwartz says

    November 13, 2018 at 1:42 pm

    Oops, just re-read the description – I see now that it is not a compilation of retold folktales (ala Neil Gaiman’s Norse Gods) – but short stories inspired by Asian folklore.

    But I’m wondering, for those who’ve read it, how the age of the audience holds up?

  5. Roxanne Feldman says

    November 13, 2018 at 5:09 pm

    I’d say this is 6th grade and up. Do others agree?

  6. Amanda Snow says

    November 13, 2018 at 6:16 pm

    This one sounds fantastic, but I’m wondering whether it’s actually eligible. Within the Newbery manual, the first definition states “Reprints, compilations, and abridgements are not eligible.”

    • Roxanne Hsu Feldman says

      November 14, 2018 at 8:56 pm

      Ah… what does “compilations” mean here? I always thought that it meant of stories / pieces originally published elsewhere prior to the year of publication and thus not eligible. All the stories in this anthology are original, never published before. Did I interpret the definitions incorrectly?

      • Amanda Snow says

        November 26, 2018 at 3:43 pm

        Nope, I think you’re correct!

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