More About Neil Gaiman

When the Youth Media Awards were announced at this year’s ALA Midwinter Meeting, I took the morning off work, set up my computer to see the webcast, logged on to Twitter, too, just to see how the two compared, time-wise, and logged in to my public library account so that I could put holds on all the books that sounded interesting. When my husband came home, he said something like “wow, this is like the Super Bowl for you, isn’t it?” Yea, it kind of was like the Super Bowl. When a team wins the Super Bowl, do you think that any of its members ever swear? I’ll bet they do, and so did Neil Gaiman, when he was told that he won the Newbery for his The Graveyard Book. He didn’t swear on the phone (as he did when he was told he won the Hugo, for SF) but he did swear in his Twitter feed. “F---!!!! I won the F---ING NEWBERY THIS IS SO F---ING AWESOME. I thank you” Sure, it was a little over the top, maybe, but at least he was happy to get it! Apparently, at ALA, some librarians were upset by his use of adult language. One of the blogs I follow is by Roger Sutton, long-time editor of the Horn Book magazine, which reviews children’s books. Roger Sutton doesn’t let his involvement in children’s publishing stop him from publishing grown-up thoughts and links to even more grown-up thoughts. It strikes me as gutsy for these people who work with children’s books to communicate as adults. I am glad that they do, because I’m afraid that if we ask of our children’s authors that they live lives that are always fit for children’s ears and eyes, then no one who’s the least bit interesting will ever want to write for children again. Swear on, people.