When is the award successful? For some time now, I’ve been thinking about how books and science, the realms of this section, deal with prizes. Take the Grangers and Brushes Children’s Book Awards. Last week, the Dutch Writers’ Collective Publicity Foundation announced the Bronze and Silver winners and no less than 45 prizes were awarded. Journalist Pjotr van Lenteren grumbled that Gouden Griffel is less successful because there are too many winners. Everyone remembers the 1972 winner: King of Catorine by Jean Terlo. But who won two years ago? specially.’
This is not a fair comparison. If van Lintern had asked who won in 1972, no one might have known either. Perhaps an enthusiast wisely replied that two Gouden Griffels were honored at that time and that too little captain Received one from Paul Beagle. The only winner of 2020 was Away, aloof, alone by Pete Westra. Less well known of the winners from 1972, but this was also an exceptionally great year.
Is the winner’s fame what makes the award successful? I was cautiously wondering how many people know who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2020 or 1972. And if that says anything about how important or successful this award is. I also thought about the scientific conference where an endless number of prizes were awarded. For the best thesis, for the best collaboration, for the best presentation, for the best poster, in all sorts of categories, it’s been going on over and over again. During the dinner afterward, the Chairman said he created all of these awards because young people could then put them well on their resume, which helped with scholarship applications.
Sure, 45 prizes for children’s books is a lot (but I’m not complaining, because come back to your life, which I made with Edward van de Wendel and Fleur de Guede, I received a silver pen and a bronze brush, so you know I don’t want to put the importance of these awards into perspective in any way). At the same time, it is not surprising that children’s books are awarded in different categories, because children of different ages read completely different books. With four age groups plus poetry and information books, you are in six categories. If you distribute bronze and silver several times per category to both writers and illustrators, you will inevitably receive dozens of awards.
Is that bad? Van Linten selected his top three players out of all the winners and put them in the spotlight. In the library, children see a lot of books with silver/bronze stickers from which to choose the one they like the most. Dozens of writers and illustrators feel valued and appreciated (something that is also being worked on in the scientific world). Perhaps it is better for Dutch writers’ collective propaganda to give a series of books a little more attention than a single book. Just like in the sciences, you may want less important prizes for academic stars.
The common denominator between books and science is that they feel that the media pay so little attention to their awards. It’s, of course, news-nothing moments. But writers understand better than scholars that the media often complain about not getting enough attention Creates a great news moment†
