International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature

a book on its way. Thomas Kempe was doing quite well even before the

announcement of the award—4,500 hardback in the first year—but this continued

with another 5,500 in the next, followed by a startling (to me at least) 63,000

paperback in 1976...

Lively 1979:70–71

As Liz Attenborough has said in another context: ‘If an award goes to a bad book itwon’t help it
sell, and it won’t help it last’ (Bradman and Triggs 1983:4).
One of the main dangers to prize-winning authors is if they try to reproduce that
winning formula. Robert Westall has described how his writing was affected when he
won an award for his first published work:

And then Machine Gunners won the Carnegie, and it felt like the whole world was

watching; for a month I couldn’t write at all. The burden of all their expectations

was totally flattening. My target figure had grown from one to thousands; how could

I please them all. To my shame, I tried. Crawlingly and contemptibly, though

unconsciously, I tried. The amount of swearing in my books dropped; the

intellectual content, the scholarship and research grew. I began writing books for

the children of publishers, librarians and the literary gent of The Times... Now that

I am at least conscious of what I was doing, I look around and see so many ‘good’

children’s books written for the same bloody audience. Books that gain splendid

reviews, win prizes, make reputations and are unreadable by the majority of

children.

Westall 1979:37–38

Westall’s final point is a criticism levelled frequently at the winners of children’s book
awards; particularly the more established ones. The early years of the Newbery Medal
saw the selection committee-asking itself such questions:

The responsibility for the Medal was never held lightly. Were the award books too

literary? too old in appeal? Were some indeed read more by the high-school ages?

Were they running too much to the girls’ side? Where were the strong red blooded

books for boys?

Smith 1957:60–61

The Carnegie Medal was frequently criticised for similar reasons. One librarian called
the winners ‘the great unread’, and critics have cited particular winners:

The God Beneath the Sea, the Carnegie medal winner, is an outstanding book; but

it is not for children. This award reflects the attitude of too many children’s

librarians who are so concerned with the elevation of literary taste that they are

blind to effective methods of raising it.

Murison 1971:162

THE CONTEXT OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE 507