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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that flips through the pages of history to

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Speaker 1: deliver old news in a new way. I'm Gade Lucier,

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Speaker 1: and today we're talking about the origin of the coveted

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Speaker 1: Newberry Medal, the top prize for outstanding children's literature in

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Speaker 1: the United States. The day was June two. The Newbery

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Speaker 1: Medal was awarded for the first time as a way

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Speaker 1: to recognize excellence in children's literature. The inaugural winner was

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Speaker 1: The Story of Mankind by Dutch author and illustrator Hendrick

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Speaker 1: Wilhelm van Loon. The Newbery Medal was the first award

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Speaker 1: of its kind. Before its creation, no one had thought

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Speaker 1: to honor book aimed at children, as the genre wasn't

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Speaker 1: considered real literature. The Newberry Medal was the brainchild of

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Speaker 1: Frederick G. Melcher, a former bookseller and a lifelong bookworm

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Speaker 1: who believed that quote A great nation is a reading nation.

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Speaker 1: Throughout his long and varied career, Melcher did whatever he

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Speaker 1: could to help keep the US a reading nation. In

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, he took over as editor of Publishers Weekly,

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Speaker 1: a trade news magazine aimed at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and

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Speaker 1: hardcore bibliophiles. A year later, Melcher teamed up with two

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Speaker 1: prominent librarians to help promote literacy among the nation's school children.

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Speaker 1: His partners were Anne Carol Moore, the superintendent of Children's

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Speaker 1: Works at the New York Public Library, and Franklin K. Matthews,

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Speaker 1: the librarian of the Boy Scouts of America. Together, the

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Speaker 1: three of them established Children's Book Week, which is now

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Speaker 1: the long running national literacy campaign in the country. Over time,

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Speaker 1: Melcher noticed that not many new children's books were being

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Speaker 1: published each year, fewer than five hundred in the early

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Speaker 1: nineteen twenties. Worse yet, the few new books that were

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Speaker 1: published didn't receive much coverage, hardly any promotion or reviews,

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Speaker 1: and definitely not any awards. It was with that sad

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Speaker 1: state of affairs in mind that Melcher came up with

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Speaker 1: the idea for an annual award honoring the best new

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Speaker 1: children's book of the previous year. In June of nineteen

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Speaker 1: twenty one, Melcher pitched his idea to a group of

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Speaker 1: children's librarians at the American Library Association, or the A.

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Speaker 1: L A. He also proposed naming the award after John Newberry,

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Speaker 1: an eighteenth century English author and publisher who was often

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Speaker 1: called the father of children's literature. Newberry obviously wasn't the

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Speaker 1: first to write stories for young readers, and he wasn't

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Speaker 1: the first to publish them either. He was, however, the

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Speaker 1: first person to put any real effort into publishing books

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Speaker 1: exclusively for children, Like Melcher decades later, Newberry had lamented

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Speaker 1: the lack of children's books on the market, and to

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Speaker 1: help make up for it, he wrote and published about

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Speaker 1: two hundred of his own, proving in the process that

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Speaker 1: young readers were both a vital and profitable audience. The

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Speaker 1: children's librarians at the a l A loved Melcher's idea

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Speaker 1: for the Newberry Medal. The following year, he submitted a

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Speaker 1: formal proposal to the group's executive board. In it, Melcher

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Speaker 1: outline the official purpose of the Newberry Medal. Its three

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Speaker 1: main objectives were as follows. To encourage original creative work

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Speaker 1: in the field of books for children. To emphasize to

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Speaker 1: the public that contributions to children's literature deserve similar recognition

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Speaker 1: to poetry, plays or novels. For adults, and to give

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Speaker 1: those librarians who make it their life work to serve

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Speaker 1: children's reading interests an opportunity to encourage good writing in

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Speaker 1: that field. The proposal also defined how judging would work.

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Speaker 1: Each year, the winner would be chosen by a committee

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Speaker 1: of educators, librarians, publishers, and book reviewers, all of whom

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Speaker 1: would be members of the a l A's Children's Division.

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Speaker 1: The board eagerly approved Melcher's proposal, and later that summer,

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Speaker 1: the Newberry Medal was awarded for the very first time.

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Speaker 1: The award itself was and is a physical bronze medal

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Speaker 1: designed by Renee Paul Chambelan. On one side, it depicts

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Speaker 1: an author, perhaps John Newberry himself, handing copies of his

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Speaker 1: book to a young boy and girl. The other side

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Speaker 1: of the medal shows an open book with a torch

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Speaker 1: behind it, as well as an inscription. It reads quote

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Speaker 1: for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

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Speaker 1: Beginning that year, each winning author would receive their own

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Speaker 1: copy of the medal with their name engraved on it.

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Speaker 1: Future reprints of Newberry winning books typically featured the bronze

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Speaker 1: medal on their cover as well, sometimes as an embossed seal.

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Speaker 1: The awards recipient in nineteen twenty two was The Story

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Speaker 1: of Mankind, a nonfiction history book written specifically for young readers.

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Speaker 1: It provided an anecdotal account of the history of Western civilization,

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Speaker 1: stretching from the prehistoric age to what was then the

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Speaker 1: present day. To help bring these historical events to life,

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Speaker 1: the book also featured pen and ink illustrations by the author,

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Speaker 1: Hendrick Villam van Loon. He wrote and illustrated several nonfiction

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Speaker 1: books for children, but the Story of Mankind was by

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Speaker 1: far as most famous. As a historian and a grandfather,

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Speaker 1: Van Loon was committed to making history more lively and

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Speaker 1: engaging for children. In fact, he originally wrote The Story

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Speaker 1: of Mankind for his grandkids. They're stuffy. School textbooks had

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Speaker 1: scented human history as little more than a list of

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Speaker 1: names and dates, but Van Loon's book turned it all

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Speaker 1: into one big, sweeping adventure. It's not the most popular

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Speaker 1: Newberry Medal winner today, and it may seem like a

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Speaker 1: strange first choice for the award, but at a time

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Speaker 1: when so few books were being written with children in mind,

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Speaker 1: Van Loon's earnest effort to make history more intriguing was

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Speaker 1: well worth celebrating. The story of Mankind is still in

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Speaker 1: print today, and the book's timeline has even been brought

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Speaker 1: up to date through the inclusion of new writing by

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Speaker 1: historian Robert Sullivan. The Newbery Medal was well received by

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Speaker 1: the industry, the public, and the press. Melcher In the

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Speaker 1: a l A continued to give it out each year,

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Speaker 1: and in n seven they even created a second award,

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Speaker 1: the Caldecott Medal, to honor the year's best children's picture book.

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Speaker 1: Every year, the committees for both awards also recognized a

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Speaker 1: handful of other books deemed worthy of attention. These were

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Speaker 1: only known as runners up, but in nineteen seventy one

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Speaker 1: the official name was changed to honor books. The Newbery

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Speaker 1: Medal was born of the desire to create an American

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Speaker 1: children's canon, to establish a reliable list of high quality

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Speaker 1: titles for parents, teachers, and librarians to recommend young readers.

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Speaker 1: On that count, the award has been a resounding success.

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Speaker 1: As of two anniversary of the Newbery Medal, almost every

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Speaker 1: book that's received the award is still in print and

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Speaker 1: readily available at stores, schools, and libraries across the country.

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Speaker 1: In the last few decades, Newberry winners have become much

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Speaker 1: more reflective of the world we live in as well.

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Speaker 1: This has added some much needed diversity to a cannon

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Speaker 1: that had long focused mostly on white male perspectives, two

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Speaker 1: categories that many young readers don't fall into. The other

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Speaker 1: goal of the Newbery Medal was to encourage the writing

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Speaker 1: of new, original, creative stories for children, and it's on

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Speaker 1: that count that the award has been maybe even more successful.

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Speaker 1: Only about four hundred and fifty new titles for young

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Speaker 1: readers were published in two but today more than thirty

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Speaker 1: thousand or published each year. Of course, not all of

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Speaker 1: those titles are going to be worth a child's time

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Speaker 1: or a parent's money, but that's where awards like the

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Speaker 1: Newberry Medal come in. A bronze seal on the cover

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Speaker 1: is no guarantee that you'll like what's inside. Some of

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Speaker 1: the books are nearly a hundred years old, after all,

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Speaker 1: but it's still a good starting point. After all, if

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Speaker 1: you can't trust your librarian, who can you trust. I'm

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Speaker 1: gave Louisier and hopefully you now know a little more

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Speaker 1: about history today than you did yesterday. You can learn

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Speaker 1: even more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at t d i HC Show, and if

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Speaker 1: you have any comments or suggestions, you can always send

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Speaker 1: them my way at this Day at I heart media

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Speaker 1: dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show,

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Speaker 1: and thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back

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Speaker 1: here again tomorrow for another day in History class