World Literary Awards

← Back to Home

Doris Gates

ドリス・ゲイツ

Doris Gates

Profile

Gender
Female
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Fresno, California, United States

Career

Occupations
children's author, librarian
Active Years
1930-1960

Awards

Newbery Honor
1941
Work: Blue Willow
Organization: American Library Association
Result: Honor
Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
1961
Work: Blue Willow
Result: 受賞
Commonwealth Club of California Book Award (silver)
Work: Blue Willow
Organization: Commonwealth Club of California
Result: 銀賞
Horn Book Magazine Best Books of the Year (selected)
Work: Blue Willow
Organization: Horn Book Magazine
Result: 選出

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Blue Willow

1940 Children's novel (realistic fiction) 172 pages

Set in the late 1930s San Joaquin Valley, the novel follows ten-year-old Janey Larkin, daughter of a migrant family, who cherishes a Blue Willow plate inherited from her great-great-grandmother. The plate symbolizes the permanent home she longs for. Faced with poverty, her mother's illness, and the instability of migrant life, Janey and her family rely on love, friendship, and hope to overcome their hardships.

homemigrant laborpoverty and classfriendshiphope and imagination

Bibliography

  • Blue Willow (1940)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
realistic, social-problem oriented prosesensitive depiction from a child's viewpoint
Recurring Motifs
Blue Willow plate (symbol of home)movement vs. permanencefamily bonds

Legacy

Blue Willow is regarded as a pioneering realistic-problem novel in children's literature, notable for its frank depiction of rural and migrant workers' life. Honored as a Newbery Honor book and continually read and studied, its manuscript is held in the May Massee Collection at Emporia State University.

Academic Societies

  • American Library Association

Archives

  • May Massee Collection, Emporia State University

In Popular Culture

  • Frequently cited as a representative example of realism in children's literature

Quotes

  • “Family life in the thirties in a poignant story that has outlasted the era it tells about.”
    Source: Joanne Oppenehim, Choosing Books for Kids (1986)
  • “a tender and beautifully written book.”
    Source: May Hill Arbuthnot, Children and Books (1964)

Trivia

  • Blue Willow has been called the "juvenile Grapes of Wrath."
  • The manuscript is held in the May Massee Collection at Emporia State University.