Critical Reception: Critical and semi-critical response
As the years went by, people began to wonder how much children actually liked the Newbery winners, which were selected by adults. A couple of studies tried to answer this question. Zeligs (1940) gave her sixth grade students a list of Newbery winners as selected reading. Later in the school year she surveyed them to see how many of the books they had actually chosen to read. Only a few of the books had become popular to any degree; Trumpeter was not one of them. Out of 150 sixth graders, only two boys had read the book.
However, Cundiff (1943) showed that some children did enjoy Trumpeter. She asked children to write letters to her telling her what they thought of the Newbery Medal books. The children’s comments on Trumpeter include the following: “I liked this book very much. It kept me in suspense. I think it is an ideal book for boys.” “This is a very fine book and I'm not exaggerating” (334). The researcher concludes of the project as a whole, “Has this proven anything? Nothing except that under favorable circumstances most children to whom they are suited like these distinguished books for children…. The result to me is a firmer conviction that if children are introduced to these books by a person who knows them and likes them, the children will, for the most part, like them too.” (334-335).
Yet the concerns about the Newbery winners in general, and Trumpeter in particular, did not go away. Patterson (1956) observed, “[The Trumpeter of Krakow] was one of those items highly tauted by adult choosers of books for young people but seldom read by the young people themselves” (381). And Petitt (1960) wrote, “in The Trumpeter of Krakow… the historical scene strangle[s] the importance of the individual. In this book the characters exist only in an attempt to bring history to life; they do not live themselves” (625).
However, Cundiff (1943) showed that some children did enjoy Trumpeter. She asked children to write letters to her telling her what they thought of the Newbery Medal books. The children’s comments on Trumpeter include the following: “I liked this book very much. It kept me in suspense. I think it is an ideal book for boys.” “This is a very fine book and I'm not exaggerating” (334). The researcher concludes of the project as a whole, “Has this proven anything? Nothing except that under favorable circumstances most children to whom they are suited like these distinguished books for children…. The result to me is a firmer conviction that if children are introduced to these books by a person who knows them and likes them, the children will, for the most part, like them too.” (334-335).
Yet the concerns about the Newbery winners in general, and Trumpeter in particular, did not go away. Patterson (1956) observed, “[The Trumpeter of Krakow] was one of those items highly tauted by adult choosers of books for young people but seldom read by the young people themselves” (381). And Petitt (1960) wrote, “in The Trumpeter of Krakow… the historical scene strangle[s] the importance of the individual. In this book the characters exist only in an attempt to bring history to life; they do not live themselves” (625).