Following has become a big thing on social media platforms, but it has been around in other forms for a long time. I can’t even guess how many times I’ve heard people talk about “following the career” of someone who started as a barely known and moved on to great success. I’m using this meaning for my blog today.
I first met Meg Medina in 2012 when she won the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award presented during the Kaigler Book Festival at the University of Southern Mississippi for Tia Isa Wants a Car. In her brief acceptance speech, she moved the audience to both laughter and tears. In gatherings during the festival, she was open and warm. I expected good things to ensue. I just didn’t know how good. I have been following her career ever since.
Moving ahead to 2018, I read her middle grade book Merci Suarez Changes Gears and told all my children’s book buddies that I knew who was going to win the Newbery Medal, which has been called the “Oscar” of children’s literature. I was glued to the ALA awards in early 2019, listening carefully and waiting as that award came last. I loved being right.
Now, in the newest development, Meg has been named the National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature. Thanks to modern technology, I was able to watch the ceremony. She is still open and warm, but is no longer a beginning writer. Her books, from picture books to young adult, are all wonderfully written. (If you have a person in any of these age groups that you gift with books, you may want to look at her list.)
She had several quotes worth remembering in her speech and interview. She talked about being forty when her first book was published after she had held several other jobs, including teaching, that she enjoyed. She said, “No age, no time, blocks you out of what you want to be.” She gave a Latino metaphor to say how ready she was for this new task, “I have my roller skates on.” She finished with the assurance, “You can’t say I’m not going to be intense.” Since I have been following her career for more than a decade, I’ve seen intensity in her writing, her support for other writers, and her connections with her readers. The Library of Congress made a good choice in this selection, and I am looking forward to watching what she does.