Calvin Prof Earns Second Newbery

February 4, 2008 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Summary: A Calvin professor last month earned one of literature's highest
awards.

Full story see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2007-08/schmidt-newbery-honor2.html

A Calvin College professor of English recently received one of the most
prestigious national literary awards in the field of children’s literature.

Gary Schmidt’s latest young adult novel, The Wednesday Wars (Clarion Books,
2007), was named a 2008 John Newbery Honor Book by the American Library
Association (ALA). Schmidt also received the honor award in 2005 for his novel
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy.

“It was a different feel,” says Schmidt. “The first time around you
feel, ‘Wow, this is amazing,’ as you’re getting a different recognition
than you’ve ever gotten before. … It’s an affirmation of the work you do.
It was a quieter sweetness.”

The Wednesday Wars, set in 1967, tells the story of Holling Hoodhood, a
seventh-grade Presbyterian whose classmates are all Jewish or Catholic. Holling
is forced to spend every Wednesday afternoon with his teacher, Mrs. Baker,
while all his peers attend Hebrew school or catechism. The title refers to the
“war” that develops between student and teacher (who could have two hours
off each Wednesday afternoon were Holling not in her class) and also to the
larger war that serves as the backdrop of the novel.

“The book begins with my own time growing up during the war in Vietnam.
Society was really decaying,” says Schmidt.

The Wednesday Wars is directed toward young adults who, according to Schmidt,
are living in an era that aligns, yet greatly differs, with Schmidt’s
adolescent experience. In his literature, Schmidt likes to ask the questions
that adolescents are asking to discover their identities.

Schmidt received the news of his latest Newbery honor at the North Bridge Inn
in Concord, Massachusetts during his annual New England Saints Interim, a
January class that explores the historical settings of American literature. He
and his wife, Anne, called their children back home, then celebrated with the
students.

“The students had bought us a cheesecake, and we went down to the Old North
Bridge there and reenacted the battle. And that was our celebration.”

Schmidt’s next novel, Trouble, due in March, is a tragedy-romance based in
1976 about the relationship between two neighboring Massachusetts towns—one
of the established middle-class and the other of Cambodian refugees.

Contact Schmidt at schg@calvin.edu

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Received on Mon Feb 4 23:40:32 2008