Mock Newbery Fantasy Contenders: Mapmaker, Ogress and Windswept
This seems like an especially rich year for children’s fantasy and we’ve had some conversation about several titles in comments from previous posts. I’ll put three on the table today as possible Newbery contenders, but also welcome input about any of the several others that fit into this broad category.
THE LAST MAPMAKER by Christina Soontornvat
A double-Honor winner in 2021 (for ALL 13 and A WISH IN THE DARK), Soontornvat clearly is not interested in writing the same kind of book twice. Like several other books from this year, THE LAST MAPMAKER doesn’t have a lot of fantasy elements. The world is imagined, but the only real magical piece (unless I’m forgetting something) is the dragon. It’s a highly involving adventure, narrated in the first person by Sai, a very strong lead character. She’s bold and ambitious, but far from perfect. As her role in the expedition becomes more prominent, her choices become more difficult and more impactful. Sai’s personal growth is intrinsically tied to the events she experiences and to the fully developed world she inhabits. Her ultimate success is convincing and very satisfying.
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There’s a bit of a plot stretch around Bo: It makes sense that Sai catches him picking pockets (“Most people wouldn’t have even noticed. But most people didn’t have a world-class pickpocket for a father” (125)). But then Bo stows away, and it’s Sai who finds him, and he turns out to be the Captain’s child. But that feels okay for the plot of a grand adventure. Overall, I think this book is a complete success. My personal reaction as a reader, though, wasn’t as strong as my critical evaluation. In other words: I didn’t love the book. That statement has no value in a Newbery discussion, but it tells me I should re-read this one and try to articulate why it’s not at the top of my list when it checks so many literary element boxes.
THE OGRESS AND THE ORPHANS by Kelly Barnhill
Barnhill’s THE GIRL WHO DRANK THE MOON was the last fantasy book to win a Newbery Medal (2017). Can she repeat? The playful narrative voice plays a strong role in this book, addressing us directly and clearly deciding what to tell us, and when, in order to draw us in. This approach can be fun, and funny, but can potentially lead the reader to take the events less seriously. I think Lynne Rae Perkins does it just right in VIOLET & JOBIE IN THE WILD; it didn’t work at all for me in OSMO UNKNOWN. With OGRESS, I’m kind of in between.
The narration introduces the world, the characters, and the conflict within the village nicely. It takes a while; not much really happens in present time until Cass runs away (p 161). But the storytelling set-up is still enjoyable and intriguing, and when the conflict does start happening, we’re already strongly invested in the characters and their world.
But the narrative style, and to some degree the nature of the Mayor, kind of lessens the tension. While the Mayor and the bad dragon are introduced as ominous, dangerous villains, they (actually “he,” once it’s clear to everyone that the Mayor is the dragon) shift more towards comical. As Meredith said in a comment in a previous post: “it was hard for me to take him seriously.” Maybe the book works more as satire than as straight fantasy/adventure, but for a while at least I thought it might succeed at both: keeping up the tension and reader involvement while at the same time mocking the Mayor, and by extension any real-life figures of whom the Mayor might remind us. It fell a bit short for me, but there’s still a lot to like about this book.
WINDSWEPT by Margi Preus
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This is the most full-blown fantasy of the books mentioned here, with magical ribbons, kidnapping winds, spells from the pages of fairy tales, and more. In a neat variation, though, it takes place in the distant future of a world like ours, as the kids find “artifacts from the Other Times” made of metal and plastic. As in OGRESS, the fantasy is partially a vehicle to call attention to the problems of our world, such as book banning and pollution.
The storytelling approach is clever: It’s Tag telling the tale, to a group of ogres who plan to eat her, but we don’t learn that for a while. When we do, we see that her telling can turn out to be the thing that saves the day. I thought that worked well and also enjoyed the mix of fantasy, realism, and social commentary. On the other hand, the plot didn’t fully grab me. The twists and turns often seemed arbitrary and kind of distracting from the main goal of the quest. Like the bits with Shortcut the folksinger and his bus. The scene in which they disguise Puff the bus as a dragon and fool the ogres is one example where the premise was so odd that there was no real tension attached to the risky trick. The world of this story never fully comes together for me, especially in comparison to something as complete as THE LAST MAPMAKER, even though it’s strong in some areas.
I like all three of these books, but none is quite at the nomination level for me (though MAPMAKER might get there). I also rate HEALER AND WITCH by Nancy Werlin highly. A COMB OF WISHES by Lisa Stringfellow and Pam Munoz Ryan’s SOLIMAR have strengths and child appeal, but they don’t seem distinguished to me. And I didn’t finish OSMO UNKNOWN AND THE THREEPENNY WOODS by Catherynne M. Valente, so will leave others to judge. I haven’t read, but am looking forward to BLACK BIRD, BLUE ROAD by Sofiya Pasternack Are there others that should be on our radar?
I put the three books I featured above in order of my Newbery ranking, with MAPMAKER at the top. If you read more than a couple fantasies this year, can you rank your top 2 or 3?
Filed under: Book Discussion
About Steven Engelfried
Steven Engelfried retired from full-time library work a couple years ago and now works as a part-time Youth Librarian at the West Linn Public Library in Oregon. He served on the 2010 Newbery committee, chaired the 2013 Newbery Committee, and also served on the 2002 Caldecott committee. You can reach him at sengelfried@yahoo.com.
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I still need to read WINDSWEPT but for many of the reasons you said OGRESS and MAPMAKER don’t seem like winners to me. I should probably reread MAPMAKER again and OGRESS has grown on me particularly because of the development of major and minor characters. I was most impressed with how she portrayed the dragons mind and I felt like I was really inside it.
I really enjoyed OGRESS but I’m not sure about Newbery quality. MAPMAKER has gotten a lot of buzz, but honestly, I read it early in the year (February? March? Somewhere around then) and I’m having trouble remembering much about it, which is not a great sign to me. It seemed like it should be a winner, but I kept getting bored and not really wanting to pick it up. I did also read SOLIMAR and thought it was fine, but not Newbery-worthy. I will have to check out HEALER AND WITCH!
I’ve not even read one complete page of BLACK BIRD, BLUE ROAD, and I am curious what Steven will think of it. A book that begins “Hello! Come in. Sit down. Don’t be scared. This is a very important story…” (1) is begging to be compared to OSMO and OGRESS. Interesting choice to address the reader as “dear listener” later on the page and brilliant transition to page 2, which I suppose I should start reading. Still, for me this is a strong page 1, but as Steven says, the mileage of this kind of narration may vary with reader, though I do think it is an effective device for children, so helps the “excellence of presentation” criterion. I was less impressed by WINDSWEPT’s choice of having the story narrated not to the reader. I know Meredith suggested it would keep the reader engaged with guessing who the listeners might be, but I am not sure being present for a story being told to someone else can be more engaging than having a story told to you. And I thought it wasn’t that big a mystery nor a terribly satisfying reveal—it just sort of meant the book was really in media res.
Though it does just occur to me that a somewhat similar device and reveal at the very end of VIOLET AND JOBIE was satisfying—emotional, a little bittersweet, and bringing some closure when closure seemed impossible after what happens to Violet with so few pages left.
Curious what is it about HEALER AND WITCH that it doesn’t make your top 3.
I actually do rate HEALER AND WITCH fairly high. Reading back my post, I can see that it looks like the three I mentioned are my top three fantasies of the year, but HEALER is up there too. I just chose those three, probably including WINDSWEPT because it was freshest in my mind. Sorry I wasn’t clear about my choice of those three.
As for HEALER, plotting, characters, and themes are all real strong. I like the way it starts about being about the use of magic: Sylvie’s journey happens because of the magic she mis-used on her mother, and the goal of her quest is to learn how to reverse it. But along the way it becomes just as much about friendship and trust (with Martin, then Robert) and ultimately about Sylvie asserting her own independence. All of which could have happened in a historical novel, but the magic element gives it a different flair. Sylvie’s triumph over Madame du Bois could be disappointing if you’re expecting a big battle of magic power, but that’s not what the book (or their relationship) is about. HEALER has two nominations so far and I’d love to hear from others who see it as a Newbery contender.
One of the nominations is mine — as a historical novel, I think setting and information are also strong. For example, I like how, through Martin’s wide-eyed reactions, we get a nice visceral and cumulative sense of the difference between a 16th-century village and town and city. I like how, in a year where there’ve been complaints about heavy-handed messaging in some books under discussion, Martin’s show-stopping speech (258) works so well and credibly. I think this is because, unlike some other books where readers might feel talked-down to, the speech is coming from the younger Martin to the older Sylvie. I think the credibility comes from the fact that he is not being unrealistically precocious or being possessed by the author, but essentially reciting something told to him by grandmere Sylvie, something he’s been turning over in his mind throughout the book, and perhaps even now hasn’t fully absorbed or understood, but it’s what Sylvie needed to hear right then. It ends up feeling a little like Linus’ recitation in the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. So high marks for character, plot, theme, and style there. I thought the first escape from Madame du Bois via the inquisitor (232) was a high point in plotting in its cleverness in a how-can-she-possibly-get-out-of-this situation. Much better than a magic battle in terms of character and plot. And just after, Werlin and Sylvie even manages to find some dimensions in the inquisitor’s character without downplaying all that is wrong about him. I thought Sylvie’s and Robert’s night in the church (277-ish) was one of the most perfect and yet quietest climaxes I’ve read this year–hitting all six criteria – plot, character, theme, setting, style, and even information in the sense that it shows young readers intimacy among characters older than they that is not physical intimacy, that they can imagine and understand and look forward to even if they haven’t experienced this kind of conversation and deep sharing yet.
Excellent argument for HEALER AND WITCH, Leonard. I had forgotten about that surprising interaction between Syvie and the inquisitor. Really, I think that every character proves to be more complex that we think when we first meet them…which is kind of how real life works, but not always in books. And is really important because part of Sylvie’s quest is figuring out the wide world and the people in it. We see her character development in part through the ways she sees and responds to others, so the nuances there make her growth even more convincing…
I really enjoyed Healer and Witch, suggested it to a friend and she really liked it too.
So thanks for bringing our attention to it, Leonard, and for making such a great case for it.
I reread Black BIrd, BLue Road over last weekend and thought it was just as engaginging as my first read. It’s a beautiful and unique story, and, unless something changes my mind, I plan to nominate it in November.
Like another commentor, I read THe Last Mapmaker early in the year. I enjoyed it very much, (especially the way the author presents characters a certain way but they turn out to not be what they seem). This fact was especially true with the antagonist, whom I thought was very believable and frightening. I am still debating whether to nominate that one as well.
Ogress, of the kids fantasy I’ve read this year, had some of the most GORGEOUS, want-to-crawl-inside of it prose for me. So rhythmically fitting with the book overall.
I thought MAPMAKER started out strong, but got weaker as the book progressed. Bo the pickpocket is given an interesting backstory, but felt like a one-note character, and the overall plot seemed too similar to “Treasure Island” (which isn’t necessarily a flaw, I guess).
But the real problem is that Sai betrays her mentor — she lies and gets him kicked off the expedition — and there isn’t any kind of reckoning afterwards. Sai never mentions this to her mentor afterwards, and the book concludes with the two of them happily running the mapmaking business together as if she hadn’t stabbed him in the back. I just . . . it seems like a weird thing to have no repercussions for her actions? It weakens her overall character arc, and that’s not a good thing.
My guess as to why this is: the mapmaker originally died in an earlier draft — leading to an ending where Sai inherits the mapmaking business and runs it herself — but that was considered too brutal for middle grade (although the title “The Last Mapmaker” makes a lot more sense that way). Instead, the mapmaker is banished from the expedition. He’s left alive at the end, but I feel like I can see the scissor marks.