The Aronson article gave me a new perspective on YA book awards. I know it’s a little dated but I would have never guessed if I didn’t see the dates on the books he was discussing. First of all it was interesting to get a little Bio on the Printz Award. I always wondered how awards were named, and this article gave me a little insight on how it happened. It was also interesting how they named the article after a librarian instead of a teacher. I think it symbolizes (although I don’t think it was intended to) the idea that that forcing students to read lowers their drive to go out and discover books on their own. This keeps them from discovering a true love of reading. In contrast, the library has thousands of books available for checkout, and it symbolizes freedom to pick and choose and grow at one’s own will.
I wondered whether the central debate (Popularity vs. Literary Excellence) is a big deal in the world of adult awards. I do not believe it is because I remember Aaronson implying that people assume literary excellence leads to adult popularity. For the Printz award it seems like the debate is actually between Teen popularity and Adult popularity.
Like I said before, I thought this article was written earlier so I was really shocked to find out that the Printz was the first award of its kind, the first award for books for ages 12-18 (I wonder if it is one of the factors for the continuing boom of the YA sector of books) However once the article was put into chronological perspective it made more sense. One thing I found quite interesting about the article was the idea that they would market the award toward teens. One example of this was the idea that the winner would go on MTV rather than Today. This makes sense since the award is made for teen books, therefore teens should be the ones exposed to the winner.
The bulk of the article argues that the Printz award should focus on literary excellence rather than popularity. However it was interesting how the author does not just choose one side or the other. Rather, he makes a unique argument. He stresses that contrasting popularity to literary excellence is an insult to teens. He argues that teens are very smart they are not just “dumber forms of adults.” He also states that teens are sometimes able and willing to understand things that adults are not. He asserts that teens are not just once big blob, who all like one thing. They will like many types of books. So because they are so vast and different, just picking one book as the most popular one would be an insult to the diversity of teens.
The article was refreshing. It is nice to see an advocate for teens who acknowledges their positives instead of just treating them like a charity case. This is an author who is willing to challenge teens so they can grow. Adults need to change their thinking to model Aronson’s. It will challenge the teen population and help them improve and help create a next generation that the last one will be proud of.
--Amer Rasheed
