Scott O'Dell

Sara L. Schwebel

This is the first authoritative edition of one of the most significant childrenÕs books of the twentieth century. Winner of the 1961 Newbery Medal,ÊIsland of the Blue DolphinsÊtells the story of a girl left alone for eighteen years in the aftermath of violent encounters with Europeans on her home island off the coast of Southern California. This special edition includes two excised chapters, published here for the first time, as well as a critical introduction and essays that offer new background on the archaeological, legal, and colonial histories of Native peoples in California.ÊSara L. Schwebel explores the composition history and editorial decisions made by author Scott OÕDell that ensured the success ofÊIsland of the Blue DolphinsÊat a time when second-wave feminism, the civil rights movement, and multicultural education increasingly influenced which books were taught. This edition also considers how readers might approach the book today, when new archaeological evidence is emerging about the ÒLone Woman of San Nicolas Island,Ó on whom OÕDellÕs story is based, and Native peoples are engaged in the reclamation of indigenous histories and ongoing struggles for political sovereignty.

The Complete Reader's Edition

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Jocelyn Van Tuyl

The oldest and most prestigious children’s literature award, the Newbery Medal has since 1922 been granted annually by the American Library Association to the children’s book it deems "most distinguished." Medal books enjoy an outsized influence on American children’s literature, figuring perennially on publishers’ lists, on library and bookstore shelves, and in school curricula. As such, they offer a compelling window into the history of US children’s literature and publishing, as well as into changing societal attitudes about which books are "best" for America’s schoolchildren. Yet literary scholars have disproportionately ignored the Medal winners in their research. This volume provides a critically- and historically-grounded scholarly analysis of representative but understudied Newbery Medal books from the 1920s through the 2010s, interrogating the disjunction between the books’ omnipresence and influence, on the one hand, and the critical silence surrounding them, on the other. Dust Off the Gold Medal makes a case for closing these scholarly gaps by revealing neglected texts’ insights into the politics of children’s literature prizing and by demonstrating how neglected titles illuminate critical debates currently central to the field of children’s literature. In particular, the essays shed light on the hidden elements of diversity apparent in the neglected Newbery canon while illustrating how the books respond—sometimes in quite subtle ways—to contemporaneous concerns around race, class, gender, disability, nationalism, and globalism.

Rediscovering Children’s Literature at the Newbery Centennial

Dust Off the Gold Medal

An English professor describes the historical novels traditionally used in the classroom for the past thirty years, including Johnny Tremain and Island of Blue Dolphins that are now out of step with current historiography and social sensibilities, particularly where race is concerned. Simultaneous.

Sara L. Schwebel

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