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Title: Formulaic
Review: Here's the formula: 1 part politically correct message (instead of racism against blacks in the south or racism against Japanese in the west, here we get an entirely new approach -- racism against Japanese in the south) plus 1 part disease of the month (lymphoma) plus 1 part non-western ethnicity = Newbery award. Let me quote a recent article by the Director of Research at the National Endowment for the Arts lamenting the decline of reading, especially among boys: "Both boys and girls are unlikely to choose books based on an 'issues' approach, and children are not interested in reading about ways to reform society." Why hasn't the Newbery committee figured this out? This year's award should have gone to Sea of Trolls, by Nancy Farmer, a book that neither boys nor girls can put down. Wake up, Newbery committee, or you will find yourself deemed irrelevant by readers out here.
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