Is Newbery Losing Touch with Children?

I found this recent article on the Newbery award via bookshelves of doom. Our very own Anita Silvey wrote it, and she raises an excellent point: most of the recent winners are not very popular.

...a librarian at my local public library confessed that she had no interest in learning “what unreadable Newbery the committee was going to foist on us this year.” Then, a few weeks later at an education conference, I was startled to hear several teachers and media specialists admit they hadn’t bought a copy of the Newbery winner for the last few years. Why? “They don’t appeal to our children,” they explained patiently.