Dead End wins top Kidslit prize
A sly, Gothic and quasi-autobiographical tale of a boy who is grounded by his parents and sent to type obituaries for a neighbor, leading to a string of comic adventures, has won the John Newbery Medal for the year’s most outstanding contribution to children’s literature. The winning book, Dead End in
Norvelt, was written by Jack Gantos, a perennial favorite for the Newbery and other awards. It was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
The award, considered the most prestigious in children’s literature, was announced earlier this week by the American Library Association at its annual midwinter meeting in Dallas.
Speaking by telephone from Boston, where he lives, Gantos, 60, said he drew from his own childhood experiences growing up in Norvelt, a small town in western Pennsylvania. To research the book, he frequently drove from Boston to Pennsylvania, often accompanied by his daughter, Mabel, who is now 15.
Once there, Gantos took photographs and interviewed relatives and residents of the town. It took about a year and a half to do the research, some of which was conducted at libraries in Boston, and finish writing the book.
“It has a tremendous amount of humor in it,” he said. “But I wanted to have the important substance of history in it. I wanted that history to be enlivened by people.”
Viki Ash, the chairwoman of the Newbery committee, said Gantos’ book first stood out for its humor, then for its charm.
“On the surface it’s a book that is hilariously funny,” Ash said. “But there’s a depth to the book as well. The voice of the narrator, the setting which is just so vivid and the unexpected tenderness in this boy who is kind of geeky.
“It was the difference between a slapstick comedy and a comedy that has depth and character.”