Posted by There’s an amusing article at Fuse#8, "Fat Insufferable Cats", about the OCLC list we posted a couple of days ago. The article laments the inclusion of the eh, how shall we say, ‘less literary’ children’s books on the OCLC Top 1000, beginning with #15, Garfield. Indeed, a fat insufferable cat.
Recall that the OCLC list “contains the Top 1000 intellectual works that have been judged to be worth owning by the ‘purchase vote’ of libraries around the globe.” (Likely the first time a Garfield book has been labeled an “intellectual work”, even in this back-handed manner.)
It is satisfying to see twenty-four Newbery Medal books on the OCLC Top 1000, although one wonders why more libraries are not stocking the other sixty award winning books. As one might expect, Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time is the foremost Newbery in the OCLC Top 1000, coming in 257th overall, with nearly 10,000 libraries worldwide carrying the book.
It is a bit surprising that Mildred Taylor’s Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry is the 2nd Newbery on the list (and 373rd overall). Thunder/Cry hasn’t received the pop culture notoriety of a number of other award winning books, and yet comes in ‘ahead’ of such stalwarts as Holes, Caddie Woodlawn, Sounder, and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh.
