Rodda Book Award

I didn't set out to write a book that centered so firmly on a character's spiritual development. There are certainly reasons not to do so. It is a quirk of American culture that we would rather talk about sex and violence than God. To be fair, I think this stems in part from our religious diversity. I think, for most people, the impulse to keep spiritual matters private is a reflection of their respect for those who believe differently, or not at all. For the most part, it's a wise and generous impulse. However, removing faith from public discourse completely is its own kind of lie. Faith is not rare. Across cultures, continents, centuries, praying together is one of the most common things families do.

When I chose Malheur County as a setting for Heart of a Shepherd, the spiritual element migrated into the story as naturally as the millions of migratory birds who populate the sky of this remote and beautiful landscape. Malheur County is the southeasternmost county in Oregon. It borders Idaho and Nevada. It's the size of Massachusetts and is home to fewer than 30,000 people. It was settled by Irish and Basque immigrants, people for whom Catholicism is not just their religion, but also a vital part of their cultural identification. It would have been dishonest to leave faith out of this story. The more I thought about Brother's search for a way to become a man among the men of his family, the more it felt natural for his faith to be part of the answer.

Nevertheless, having included faith in the story, I was reasonably certain I would never be able to sell it. Have you stepped into a chain bookstore lately? The marketplace for books is designed to help people find sparkly, urban, purple and black, undead things. Who would choose this refreshingly blue and green, decidedly unsexy, completely vampire-free story?

Jim Thomas, my editor at Random House, chose it. I had been sending him manuscripts for a few years and he'd always said, "This is great writing, send me something else." When he said yes to this one I thought, "Really?" It seemed like the most commercially unviable thing I'd ever written. But he was able to say 'yes' to a book like this because he knows that you are here saying 'yes' to books like this; books that have, not just an engaging plot and fun characters, but also substance, a theme worth discussing. You, and the Oregon Council of Teachers of English who chose Heart of a Shepherd for the Oregon Spirit Book Award, and the Women's National Book Association, who gave it a Judy Lopez Honor Award, and the state book award committees in Tennessee and Hawaii who nominated it for their children's choice awards. You are the people who make literary fiction for children possible.

Here is an unhappy truth about the book business; even after the honors I just mentioned, two starred reviews, and three best book of the year lists, Heart of a Shepherd is still not carried in the chains in hard cover or paperback, not at all by Borders, and only to a limited and regional extent in Barnes & Noble. And here is the silver lining to that particular rain cloud: I have not needed them. Heart of a Shepherd earned out its advance in 10 months. It was in its fourth printing in less than a year. This was accomplished almost entirely on the strength of libraries and independent bookstores. It happened because you read this book, loved it, bought it, and told other people about it. That is real power in the marketplace. Because you and I, and also my publisher, know that children need more than "sparkle" from their books. They want more than "sparkle." But leave them to face the marketplace alone, and "sparkle" is all they are likely to find.

So, thank you, all of you, for being a light to the reading children in your congregations. It is a great comfort to me as a writer to know that no child comes to the bookshelf alone, but is always there on the wings of parents, teachers, librarians, and ministers who have taught them to read, read aloud, and then read alongside, and always, always talked with them about the substance of their reading in light of their own life. That is how a nation becomes literate -- not just able to pass a reading benchmark, but truly literate. It is absolutely essential, not just to the soul of each child, but also to the intellectual, cultural, and economic life of this country. Thank you.

It has been an amazing year for this little cowboy and me. I think of all the honors Heart of a Shepherd has received, the one that has moved me the most is this: it was chosen at the Portland Community College's Adult English Language Learner Program as the first novel in English to be read by their students. Wow! I spoke to the students one afternoon and had a chance to meet a man who told me a bit about his life -- two jobs, one car, many children and grandchildren living in his small house. The result was that he often did his homework on the bus on the way to class.

He said to me, "I often feel ashamed because I know my schoolwork is easy -- not easy for me -- but I know how simple it looks to other riders. But this book; I was proud to read this book on the bus. And now that I know that I can, I will read it out loud, in English, to my grandchildren."

That, friends, is the birthplace of literacy, and honor enough for a lifetime. Thank you.