(TW: This post contains one racist illustration from literature.)
We finally have a second installment of the Newbery Challenge! It really shouldn’t have taken this long to get through one book, but you see, I had to read two novels!
The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle is the second installment of the Doctor Dolittle series. Being a bookworm, I had to revisit Book 1 first to compare to Book 2. When I was a wee lass, I read my grandmother’s aged copy of The Story of Doctor Dolittle. Upon rereading a copy recently, I was pleasantly surprised to find out most of the racist qualities had been removed. I had been bracing myself, you see, for some fleeting memories of outrageous depictions of African peoples.
This second book, unlike the The Story of Doctor Dolittle, is from the point of view of a boy who becomes an apprentice for the doctor. I can just see publishers then, telling author Hugh Lofting, “Yeah, yeah, the first book was great. But I’m not sure of the child reading this really knew this was written for them. Insert a child main character to hammer in this concept of literature for children.”
Honestly, I don’t know why this book won the Newbery Medal. Then again, I didn’t read the runners-up. That’s a challenge for another day.
Allow me to list the positives for both books first. Rereading Story, I got to revisit the true pleasure it is knowing these animal characters. Jip the dog! Gub-gub the pig! Dab-dab the duck! Chee-chee the monkey! Remembering their names alone reacquainted me with their personalities. Much like one of my favorite books, Charlotte’s web, these Dolittle books show a pro-animal mentality. Pets and other animals need doctors, after all, so why not learn their language to better serve them? The concept of giving glasses to a normal old horse was revolutionary to me when I was a kid. Rereading Story made me excited to rediscover the Pushmi-Pullyu! I also remembered that this book taught me the word “stowaway.”
The same pleasures could be said for the discovery of the Great Glass Sea Snail, and, at last, the meeting of Dolittle and “the greatest naturalist ever born,” Long Arrow. The voyage Dolittle went on in Voyages was exciting, to be sure, but the the narrator of child apprentice Tommy Stubbins stilted everything. I wanted to hear more from Dolittle’s animal friends, who went all but silent, unless you count Polynesia who can’t shut up. (It turns out that in the movie staring Rex Harrison, Stubbins is even more annoying and pointless. You also get a cathartic laugh when Dolittle tries to speak to the natives of Spider Monkey Island in broken English, to which one of them replies, “What a funny accent.”)
Now for the glaringly bad parts. Both Eurocentricism and the ignorance of African regions are quite evident in this work of fiction. Even as a kid reading The Story of Doctor Dolittle for the first time, I cringed at depictions of Prince Bumpo and his family. Moreso, we have AN ENTIRE CONTINENT Dolittle travels to and it’s simply referred to this blob of land called “Africa.” Never mind the vast differences between the desert and the jungle, let alone north and south regions. Nope. Just Africa.
Being a curious kid who will finish any book I put my mind to, I read Story in its entirety. Racism and all. Those awful depictions were an education to how people used to think, one I was loathe to reread. One can write an entire post on this subject. I refer you to the blog posts of Philip Nel and Leaves & Pages for further discussion. The debate between this and other books clearly isn’t new.
Bumpo rejoined the cast in Voyages and I was pleased to see him as I am rooting for his well-being. However, I made note to pay attention to how he was written. In the rewrite of Story, he’s portrayed as a dreamy bookworm with a somewhat flowery way of speaking. (I especially loved it when he said they should “tiptoe incognito” someplace.) I was pleased to find out in Voyages that he has attended Oxford. Well done, good chap! But as soon as he joins everyone one their sea voyage, he appears to be shoved into the role of cook. Exqueeze you? He’s a prince! I’m no royalist, but Bumpo should be the one giving orders here.
I was further miffed (to say the least) when the illustrator of my copy, Scott McKowen, drew Bumpo’s clothes in a suspicious way. He and Dolittle lived through the same shipwreck, but Bumpo is drawn wearing clothes that resemble a slave’s while Dolittle is in full dress. Why didn’t Dolittle’s clothes get ripped up in the wreck? Why wouldn’t Bumpo change into his usual attire as Dolittle did? Bumpo is described as wearing “a fahionable frock coat with an enormous bright red cravat.” Where’s that, Scott? I was promised a cravat!
I’m sorry to say that I didn’t pay as much attention to Long Arrow. I’m simply thankful Lofting didn’t write him speaking broken English. Rather, he and Dolittle had to speak to each other in Eagle because it was the only language they shared in common. I’m not sure I liked McKowen’s illustrations for Long Arrow, either. I’m not sure about anything anymore.
And then there’s Polynesia the parrot. She’s said to be so wise and cultured, yet she constantly refers to the color of Bumpo’s skin and in Voyages she doesn’t speak kindly about the natives of Spider Monkey Island. She may be a vessel for Lofting’s prejudices. Before I carry on too much, let me say this is a series I won’t be continuing.
As I close this blog post, I’m thankful children’s literature has gotten better in terms of writing and most certainly with its correction of prejudices. I have a long way to go with this Newbery Challenge, and we all still have a long way to go for the future of literature.
The first John Newbery Medal was awarded in 1922. One hundred years ago! Can you believe it? What year is this?
I found a biography about Newbery that is, appropriately, a children’s book! Author Michelle Markel did a wonderful job inserting excitement into the words, and illustrator Nancy Carpenter inserted children into everyday life in the eighteenth century in a way that reminded us kids were probably everywhere, despite what historical paintings would tell us.
I especially loved that part about parents reacting negatively to the idea of children having fun stories to read. “Many mums and dads worried that if their little nippers read fun books, they’d turn wild as beasts!” I encounter this all the time at my local library. Parents say things like, “graphic novels aren’t real books,” forgetting that comics foster an appreciation for art, and they do have words in them; or “that book is too easy for you, so you’re not allowed to read it,” as if being a year too old for a book’s reading level depletes that book’s contribution to our lives! But I digress.
Thank you, John Newbery.
Balderdash! by Michelle MarkelThe first Newbery Medal went to The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon. I was honored to be able to read this book but, oh boy, it does not hold up.
First off, let me say how surprised I was that (1) this is a non-fiction book. I always thought the Newbery Medal for literature went to fiction, as I consider fiction to be literature and non-fiction to be a collection of facts. (2) Look at this behemoth! 662 pages of questionable history. How can a kids book be so thick? Granted, with so many updates being added throughout the years, the first publication was closer to 500 pages.
Where do I begin? This brick is a collection of biased, Western-centric and Christian-centric meditations on one man’s perceptions of the world. It was written for his young relatives, and so I think van Loon’s conversational manner is what granted him the Newbery Medal as it was written to be a conversation with a child. I understand the charm of this writing style, but it got a little annoying when he told us he didn’t want to talk about x, then proceeded to tell us all about x.
By the time we got to the Greek civilizations, I decided to skip the chapters that didn’t look interesting. This is a bad sign for my reading enjoyment. When I doubt the accuracy of a HISTORY BOOK, how can I enjoy it? I’m sorry to admit that I didn’t finish reading this book. I skipped around out of curiosity, sure, but was this worth a full read? Maybe not.
The chapter that made me yeet this book out of my reading list was the chapter on Jesus. I appreciate the details van Loon tried to insert about Jesus and the apostle Paul. However, this chapter tried to pass off letters between Aesculpaius Cultellus and Gladius Ensa as fact. Maybe I’m just really bad at internet research, but I’m pretty sure no such letters happened. This goes beyond waxing poetic. I want to read a history book, not a sappy evangelical creative writing exercise.
So, does this book deserve the Newbery Medal? Perhaps. I’m curious about the runners-up, The Great Quest and Cedric the Forester. These are both pieces of historical fiction. Knowing this, maybe the Newbery committee decided some “actual history” would be a better selection for their first award.
Criticisms of this book:
Obvious racism. “The heat of the sun and the biting wind of the cold winter had coloured his skin a dark brown.” Excuse you? Are you implying white was the default color? My modern sensibilities could have told me to stop reading the book for this alone. It is a hard pill to swallow when we remember that people used to pass off their racism as scientific fact. Which brings me to my second criticism:
Passing off opinions as fact. Van Loon likes to label which societies were noble and which were worth existing. I cannot count how many times this happened.
Very dated opinions of histories and peoples. Well, duh, this was published in 1922. This time period in which this was published had so many problems, I need say no more.
Praises for this book:
A few eloquent passages about why one time period or another deserves recognition. As Christian-centric as this is, at least there was a chapter on Islam.
The author tried to get into the heads of various leaders or laymen who lived during ancient times and modern times. What were these fuddy duddies thinking when they formed their various governments? Van Loon has some opinions about that.
There are some eloquent, introspective passages. Take his last chapter in the original publication. Van Loon attempted to explain the Great War, which had just finished, and write about the end of this history: where we are now in 1922.
…It ts very difficult to give a true account of contemporary events. The problems that fill the minds of the people with whom we pass through life are our own problems, and they hurt us too much or they please us too well to be described with that fairness which is necessary when we are writing history and not blowing the trumpet of propaganda.
Chapter 63: A New World
Too deep, van Loon. Too deep.
Should you read this book? If you want to know what one man thought was worthy of publishing about the entire world, go ahead. If you want to know what one man thought of various peoples, go ahead. If you want to use this book as a way to teach what people Way Back When thought of the history of their world, go ahead.
Our next book is The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle, and I’m very excited.
I’ve always wanted to read every Newbery Medal winner. These books, along with the Newbery Honor novels, have always carried an air of prestige for little old me. If they’re deemed so worthy of praise, they must be the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the most favoritest of all.
But why stop there? John Newbery isn’t the only guy who loves children’s literature. I’ve read so many other novels with different award stickers slapped onto the cover, how can I pick just one awesome book over another?
Presenting the list of awards:
Batchelder Award – for translated books
Belpré Award – author or illustrator whose work best portrays Latine culture
Caldecott Medal – most distinguished American picture book for children
Geisel Award – for beginning readers
Kirkus Prize – for young readers’ literature
National Book Award – for young people’s literature
Newbery Medal – for distinguished contributions to American literature for children
Pritz Award – for the best book written for teens
Walter Dean Myers – for outstanding children’s literature
Newbery, followed by Caldecott, will dominate this list for a while. I look forward to watching the other awards find their way onto the list.
LET THE READING GAMES BEGIN!
Post #1: Newbery biography + the first Medal winner
Befferkins, the Random 