NEWBERY THEMES- 1930's

1930:
Hitty Her First Hundred Years - HISTORY - FANTASYrealm - HEROINE - DOLL CULTURE
A Daughter of The Seine - HISTORY - BIOGRAPHY - FRENCH REVOLUTION - HEROINE
Pran of Albania - HISTORY - EUROPE - 1800's - MULTICULTURAL - HEROINE - WAR
The Jumping-Off Place - HISTORY- AMERICANA - HOMESTEADING/PIONEERS - PRAIRIES - HEROINE
The Tangle Coated Horse - MYTHOLOGY - ANCIENT IRELAND
Vaino - HISTORY - FINLAND & RUSSIA - KALEVALA (Epic Poetry) - WAR
Little Blacknose - AMERICANA - INVENTION - TRANSPORTATION - BIOGRAPHY

1931:

The Cat Who Went To Heaven - FOLK TALE - JAPAN - MULTICULTURAL - BUDDHA - JAKARTA
Floating Island - FANTASY elements - GEOGRAPHY - TROPICS - DOLL CULTURE
The Dark Star of Itza - MULTICULTURAL - CENTRAL AMERICA - MAYAN - HEROINE
Queer Person - INDIGENOUS AMERICAN allegedly -
Mountains Are Free - FOLK TALE - SWITZERLAND - BIOGRAPHY - WAR
Spice And The Devil's Cave - HISTORICAL FICTION - PORTUGAL - INDIA - SPICE TRADE - 1490's - AGE OF EXPLORATION - COMMERCE
Meggy MacIntosh - HISTORIC FICTION - AMERICANA - REVOLUTIONARY WAR - HEROINE - SCOTTISH AMERICANS - NORTH CAROLINA
Garram The Hunter - MULTICULTURAL - AFRICA - NIGERIA - WAR -
Ood-Le-Uk The Wanderer - MULTICULTURAL - INDIGENOUS allegedly - ARTIC REGIONS

1932:

Waterless Mountain - INDIGENOUS allegedly - NAVAJO allegedly - SOUTHWEST
The Fairy Circus - FANTASY - FAIRIES
Calico Bush - PIONEERS - MAINE - HEROINE
Boy of The South Seas - MULTICULTURAL - POLYNESIA allegedly - NAUTICAL
Out of The Flame - FRANCE - 1500's - KNIGHTHOOD - HISTORICAL ELEMENTS
Jane's Island - MASSACHUSETTS - MARINE BIOLOGY - HEROINES - NATURE
Truce of The Wolf - SHORT STORIES - ITALY - LITERATURE

1933:

Young Fu of The Upper Yangtze - MULTICULTURAL - CHINA - 1920's - WAR
Swift Rivers - AMERICANA - LOGGING - MINNESOTA - MISSISSIPPI RIVER
The Railroad To Freedom - HISTORY - BIOGRAPHY - CIVIL WAR - UNDERGROUND RAILROAD - HEROINE
Children Of The Soil - SWEDEN - 1900's - FANTASY ELEMENTS - FOLK BEINGS

1934:

Invincible Louisa - BIOGRAPHY - HEROINE - AUTHOR
The Forgotten Daughter - HISTORIC FICTION - ROMAN - HEROINE
Swords of Steel - CIVIL WAR -
The ABC Bunny - PICTURE BOOK - ALPHABET
The Winged Girl of Knossos - MYTHOLOGY - ANCIENT GREECE/CRETE - HEROINE
New Land - HOMESTEADING/ RANCHING - WYOMING - 1930's
Big Tree of Bunlahy - SHORT STORIES - LITERATURE - IRISH
Glory of The Seas - HISTORIC FICTION - 1850's - WESTWARD EXPANSION - NAUTICAL - COMMERCE
Apprentice of Florence - HISTORIC FICTION - CONQUEST OF CONSTANTINOPLE - 1453 - BYZANTINE TO OTTOMAN - COMMERCE

1935:

Dobry - MULTICULTURAL - BULGARIA
Pageant of Chinese History - MULTICULTURAL - HISTORIC span - CHINA
Davy Crockett - AMERICANA - BIOGRAPHY
A Day on Skates - MULTICULTURAL - NETHERLANDS - FRISIA

1936:

Caddie Woodlawn - HISTORIC FICTION - PIONEER - 1860's - WOMANHOOD - HEROINE
Honk The Moose - TRUE EVENT - FINNISH AMERICA - YOUNGER READERS - ANIMALS
The Good Master - MULTICULTURAL - HUNGARY - RANCHING - PRE-WAR - HEROINE
Young Walter Scott - BIOGRAPHY - AUTHOR - SCOTLAND
All Sail Set - NAUTICAL - HISTORY - AMERICANA - ADVENTURE

1937:

Roller Skates - CHILDHOOD - SUPERVISION - DEATH - CLASS - NEW YORK - HEROINE
Phebe Fairchild - 1830's - RURAL - CONNECTICUT - HEROINE
Whistler's Van - WALES - POST WWI
The Golden Basket - BRUGE/FLEMISH BELGIUM - HOTELS - TRAVEL
Winterbound - GREAT DEPRESSION - RURAL - CONNECTICUT
Audubon - BIOGRAPHY
The Codfish Musket - AMERICANA - LOUIS & CLARK EXPEDITION - WESTWARD EXPANSION

1938:

The White Stag - MYTHOLOGY - MULTICULTURAL - HUNGARY
Pecos Bill: The Greatest Cowboy of All Time - AMERICANA - TALL TALE
Bright Island -
On the Banks of Plum Creek - PIONEER - PRAIRIE - FAMILY ADVENTURES - HEROINE

1939:

Thimble Summer - GREAT DEPRESSION - RURAL - FAMILY ADVENTURE - HEROINE
Nino - MULTICULTURAL - ITALY
Mr. Popper's Penguins - FANTASY ELEMENTS - ANIMALS
Hello the Boat! - HISTORIC FICTION - 1800's - TRANSPORTATION
Leader By Destiny: George Washington, Man and Patriot - BIOGRAPHY - AMERICANA
Penn - AMERICANA - BIOGRAPHY

In the 1930's, the themes and structures of medal winners continues along the same topics - history, literature, and exposure to a multicultural world. Books on the seas are changing from the swashbuckling examples of Robert Louis Stevenson and trending toward functionality and specific American moments. The history, too, is moving away from the middle ages and colonial backdrops and increasing toward the prairies and Westward Expansion. We find that the first book on prairie life is not penned by Laura Ingalls Wilder, about pioneers of the 1800's movement, but a more contemporaneous form of homesteading. Marian Hurd McNeeley wrote of homesteading in South Dakota in her 1930 book during the years prior to the Great War and Sarah Lindsay Schmidt wrote of homesteading in Wyoming during the Depression era.

Biographies have increased, particularly, those on American themes. The multiculturalism expands in a Eurocentric fashion; but these are the non-English cultures of immigrants that came to America and often settled into unique American communities. Further, I noticed that the cultures selected were those, often slighted by the more English Protestant perspective; those tending toward the Eastern Block.

The biggest leap for change was in the marked increase of heroines as subjects and co-subjects of the novels. Of course there is precedence for females in Literature through well-known heroines from the turn of the century, Anne of her gables, green and Rebbeca of Sunnybrook; not to forget the Little Women of the preceding generation. In the non-Newbery world, Nancy Drew is making her debut as well.

There is a modern complaint that "old" books are steeped in didacticism. however, after citing the books from the previous paragraphs, I could not help but observe that didactic elements had already been largely removed by treasured works of Victorian and Edwardian writers. Alice In Wonderland, Wind in The Willows, Kidnapped, and Peter Pan are clearly written for amusement. Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm may have some very mild didacticism, but to their own generations that would have been imperceptible; that which seems didactic to our perspective was commonplace in their world. How interesting then, that the selected Newbery works, thus far, have re-imposed didactic mores. It is not that these books are uninteresting, but that the majority carry a cornucopia of knowledge, teaching, or traditional heritage. "The Old Tobacco Shop" is the most free of didactic intent; in following the beloved nonsense pattern of the Victorians, it exists solely for the amusement of the reader. Both the works by Charles Boardman Hawes are of the swashbuckling pattern of Stevenson's works, though they may carry some historic details that lend themselves toward educational benefit. A mere handful of Newberys avoid any exertion toward enculturation and exist for frivolity.