Lord Randolph Churchill once summarized
the career of Benjamin Disraeli in one line: "Failure,
failure, failure, partial success, renewed failure, ultimate
and complete victory." The parallel is not exact and
might sound a little cruel, but it nicely encapsulates the
career, so far, of the fabulously talented children's book
author Laura Amy Schlitz, who this past week won the 2008
Newbery Medal for most distinguished contribution to children's
literature.
Haven't heard of her? A year and a half ago, almost no one
had -- apart from the parents and children of the Park School
in Baltimore. It was while working there as a librarian
that Ms. Schlitz, something of a frustrated thespian, wrote
the series of monologues set in a 13th-century English village
that would eventually become "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!"
-- the remarkable and poignant book that has just won her
the Newbery.
[Illustration]
I'm still in a daze of incredulity," Ms. Schlitz says.
"I haven't begun to think through what the Newbery
might change in my life."
What the prize changes, of course, is the cover of the book
of anyone who wins. Booksellers immediately stamp gold foil
medallions on every copy, and that imprimatur not only secures
the book's place for decades on innumerable library and
school shelves, but also nudges it toward the canon of children's
greats.
As with any prestigious award, the Newbery also brings new
readers to the author's other works, which in this case
is a particularly welcome effect. Ms. Schlitz has a rich
and humane style of writing, with stories that manage to
be both sparkling and substantial. Better still, her storytelling
is a return to the moral traditions of the greatest and
most enduring tales, yet with not the slightest taste of
cod liver oil nor any of the tiresome left-leaning didacticism
that has characterized so much writing for children since
the late 1960s.
She is a gift that has fallen into my lap," says Mary
Lee Donovan, Ms. Schlitz's editor at the publishing house
Candlewick.
How Ms. Schlitz fell into that lap was the happy accident
dreamed of by millions of aspiring writers. Urged by parents
at the Park School to find a publisher for the kind of medieval
Spoon River Anthology she'd written for fifth-graders to
perform, Ms. Schlitz sent unsolicited copies to 11 publishers.
It was rejected 10 times but spotted in the slush pile of
the 11th by a quick-witted employee and immediately seized
upon as something wonderful.
In this instance, the quick wits belonged to Danielle Sadler,
Ms. Donovan's assistant at Candlewick. And the manuscript
would become this year's Newbery winner.
It was so obviously the work of someone brilliant,"
recalls Ms. Donovan. "Here was this blinding talent
new to children's books. I kept thinking, 'Why hasn't she
done this sooner?' "
That was all seven years ago, however. Troubles with first
one and then another illustrator kept forcing back publication
of the manuscript that had caught Candlewick's eye.
In the meantime, Ms. Schlitz kept writing. In the summer
of 2006, Candlewick published "The Hero Schliemann,"
an illustrated biography for middle-grade children about
the willful, grandiose explorer who discovered the site
of ancient Troy. Shortly thereafter came "A Drowned
Maiden's Hair," a charming and mordant melodrama for
older readers about an orphan adopted by three old ladies
to act in their phony séances.
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