Meet the Macon native who guided the selection of the 2021 Newbery Medal winner
What’s the best phone call you ever made?
Telling your mom and dad they were going to be grandparents? Extending a job offer to a new employee?
For Dr. Jonda C. McNair, calling author Tae Keller to inform her she had won the 2021 Newbery Medal for her book “When You Trap a Tiger” is near the top of the list.
McNair is the chair of the Newbery Award Selection Committee, the group of folks responsible for determining who would receive one of the two most prestigious awards in U.S. children’s literature (as well as several runner-ups, or honors winners).
It’s an important decision: winning the Newbery Medal can make someone’s career (receiving the coveted gold seal on your book’s cover is certainly a boon for sales) and the committee represents the Association for Library Services to Children, a division of the American Library Association. In other words, there are a lot of librarians, authors, readers (children and adults) and book publishers paying attention.
McNair’s Macon roots
The story of that phone call doesn’t begin in Columbus, Ohio, where McNair teaches at The Ohio State University as the Charlotte S. Huck Endowed Professor of Children’s Literature (more on Huck later). Nor does it begin last month, when the awards were announced.
It starts in Macon, where McNair grew up, attending Springdale Elementary and graduating from Mount de Sales Academy before heading to the University of Florida.
“I wanted to be a school teacher, so I majored in elementary education,” she said, adding she was in a program where she earned a master’s degree after staying an extra year. “Along the way I met Dr. Linda Leonard Lamme, who really turned me on to children’s books. She told me I should go home and teach for a few years and think about getting a Ph.D.”
So McNair came back to Macon and taught kindergarten, first grade and second grade in the Bibb County School District. That’s when she got more good advice: apply to a doctoral program at Ohio State, where should could learn from Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop. Bishop is an icon in multicultural children’s literature research.
Bishop was in the endowed professorship named for Charlotte Huck at the time. Huck organized the first course in children’s literature at Ohio State, founded the Ohio State Children’s Literature conference and “built a nationally respected program” offering master’s and doctoral degrees in children’s literature, according to a University of the Redlands profile of her.
“I flew up for the interview and they accepted me into the program,” McNair said. “I was here from 1999 to 2003, and I had a chance to work with Dr. Bishop, who was my adviser on my dissertation.”
After earning her doctorate, McNair went to teach at Clemson University, where she remained until she received a phone call last year from her alma mater. They wanted her to apply for the same endowed professor position Bishop was in when McNair attended Ohio State, the one named after Huck. They just had to convince a Southerner to leave the South, again.
“Clemson is not that far away from my mama,” McNair, whose mother still lives in Macon, said.
But the appeal of the job, and of stepping into a position once filled by her mentor and named after a giant in children’s literature won the day.
Experience abounds
Complicating McNair’s move back to Ohio was the COVID-19 pandemic. Another challenge was chairing the Newbery committee.
But McNair had plenty of experience to pull from. One of the requirements of professional organizations is serving on award committees, and McNair had done her fair share of service: she was a member of and chair of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Jury, she chaired the CSK Committee and she served as a member of the Randolph Caldecott Award Selection Committee (awarded to the most distinguished American picture book for children).
The Newbery committee receives recommendations sent to the American Library Association, and from librarians, trade publications, publishers and other committee members. After an initial meeting in January 2020, they began to read. McNair said she read “hundreds and hundreds” of books as part of the award process.
Committee members suggest books they’ve read and liked to other members. Then in October, the committee begins to narrow down the books to the final medalist and honorees.
That process “can get pretty intense,” McNair said. “People are passionate about certain titles. When I first agreed to serve, one thing people told me was it would be a challenge navigating all the personalities on the committee. What helped was our orientation a year ago. We really sort of bonded, and that made the work a lot easier. We really liked and supported one another.”
Diversity and inclusion in literature are important to McNair. Her bio at Ohio State reads, in part, that she “specializes in literature intended for youth with an emphasis on books written by and about African Americans.” Two of her research interests are “African American children’s literature” and “culturally diverse children’s literature.”
But while the 2021 medal and honor winners reflect McNair’s and the ALSC’s values, she said that is more a reflection of the books’ quality than a specific intention to select a certain number of authors from diverse backgrounds.
“Before you do the balloting, you make sure to talk about the commitment to inclusion and equity,” she said. “The awards are going to matter, they’re going to impact libraries. We want books to function as windows and mirrors for children.
“And we want to be open about any biases and prejudices we have that might impact what we consider to be ‘distinguished.’ How do our identity markers, feelings, cultural norms and beliefs impact our decision process?”
Trapping an award
Keller’s “When You Trap a Tiger,” was one of the first books McNair read over the summer. It made such an impression, she said she read all others with it in mind as a standard.
“I knew it was going to be either a medalist or an honor, it’s so special,” she said. “When I read the first page, the author had this commanding voice that immediately spoke to me and pulled me in. And it didn’t fall apart as the book went on.
“The plot was original and interesting, and I loved the style, the infusion of Korean folktales.”
And those phone calls? McNair said they were a memorable experience, and she admitted she was a little nervous ahead of them. They proved to be “a lot more emotional” than she expected.
“Tae Keller, she was completely shocked,” McNair said. “I read the script, told her she’d won, and she was so taken aback. ‘Is this real? Can you repeat that?’ It’s a lot of fun.”
Honor winners included Kimberly Brubaker Bradley for “Fighting Words,” Erin Entrada Kelly for “We Dream of Space” and Carole Boston Weatherford for “Box: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom.”
Author Christina Soontornvat won two honors for “All Thirteen: The Incredible Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team,” and “A Wish in the Dark.” Her phone died during her call with McNair, but a quick recharge and some deft handling by a committee member ensured the surprise of her two honor selections wasn’t spoiled.
Now that McNair’s committee responsibilities are wrapping up, she said she looks forward to reading at a more leisurely pace.
She might even pick up a book written for adults.
