Genuine answer to why it stopped, at least part of it: the kids that were forced to read those books and mostly hated them finished growing up into writers and - crucially - public librarians and we fucking hate them and stopped giving them awards or buying them.
Actually mostly GenX did this, rather than Millennials (only a few elder Millennials my age actually had to suffer the Newberry Bleakness), but it was . . . emphatic. GenX hated those books and GenX got onto the Newberry Committees and went "fuck this shit". :P (Listening to GenX librarians rant about this is a great time especially if you give them wine first. The younger-Milennials/Zennials will sometime be like "wait that was a thing?" and BOOM OFF GOES THE CURRENT HEAD OF YOUTH SERVICES!)
Why is it always fantasy book-style magic that needs to be dispelled, rather than the sort of supernatural things that people really do believe in as adults, like crystal healing and possession by demons and magical-type conspiracy theories?
Because at the time there was the assumption that the former led to the latter so that if you could Educate and Elevate the Children you would inoculate them against that other nonsense. That adults were around who believed that nonsense was proof that their brains were rotted by Crap when they were children.
no subject
Actually mostly GenX did this, rather than Millennials (only a few elder Millennials my age actually had to suffer the Newberry Bleakness), but it was . . . emphatic. GenX hated those books and GenX got onto the Newberry Committees and went "fuck this shit". :P (Listening to GenX librarians rant about this is a great time especially if you give them wine first. The younger-Milennials/Zennials will sometime be like "wait that was a thing?" and BOOM OFF GOES THE CURRENT HEAD OF YOUTH SERVICES!)
Why is it always fantasy book-style magic that needs to be dispelled, rather than the sort of supernatural things that people really do believe in as adults, like crystal healing and possession by demons and magical-type conspiracy theories?
Because at the time there was the assumption that the former led to the latter so that if you could Educate and Elevate the Children you would inoculate them against that other nonsense. That adults were around who believed that nonsense was proof that their brains were rotted by Crap when they were children.