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It’s almost Thanksgiving and the work of ALSC’s awards committees are getting busy!

Applications are due for most awards and grants on Thursday, December 1, 2011, so time is running out! ALSC gives away $82k a year in awards, grants, and scholarship. To apply for these one of these awards and grants, please visit the ALSC Professional Awards page. Below are a list of awards and grants:

Awards

ALSC Distinguished Service Award honors an individual member who has made significant contributions to and an impact on, library services to children and ALSC. The recipient receives $1,000 and an engraved pin at the ALSC Membership Meeting during the ALA Annual Conference.

The Penguin Young Readers Group Award provides a $600 stipend, provided by Penguin Young Reader’s Group, for winners to attend their first ALA Annual Conference. Applicants must have less than 10 years of experience as a children’s librarian and work directly with children.

The Maureen Hayes Author/Illustrator Award was established with funding from Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, in honor of Maureen Hayes, to bring together children and nationally recognized authors/illustrators. This award provides $4,000 to fund an author/illustrator visit to a library.

Grants

Bookapalooza! Each year the ALSC office receives almost 3,000 newly published books, videos, audiobooks and recordings from publishers for award consideration. After the awards are given out, ALSC selects three libraries to receive a Bookapalooza collection of these materials (estimated to be worth $10,000 each) to be used in a way that creatively enhances their library service to children and families.

Louise Seamen Bechtel Fellowship provides a $4,000 stipend to allow a qualified children’s librarian to spend a month or more reading at the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature, which contains a special collection of 85,000 volumes of children’s literature published mostly before 1950.

ALSC/BWI Summer Reading Grant provides $3,000 in financial assistance to a public library for developing outstanding summer reading programs for children.

ALSC/Candlewick Light the Way Grant was formed in honor of Newbery Medalist and Geisel Honoree author Kate DiCamillo. The award consists of a $3,000 grant to assist a library in conducting exemplary outreach to underserved populations through a new program or an expansion of work already being done.

Donna Hanley, 2011 Melchor Scholarship Winner at the Arizona Library Association conference in Tucson, AZ

The first class at University of Arizona was a 7 day “library boot camp.” I live in rural Arizona and all of my college education so far has been through distance learning and online classes. The time spent down in Tucson was extremely fulfilling! Being able to talk, share and explore library principles, theories, and current library issues with other students who share my passion for libraries for 7 full days was like going to librarian heaven.

I currently work as a high school library manager and I have worked as a children’s librarian at my previous employer. I know that this practical experience is a strong foundation for my current education. Further enriching my education experience, I attended the Arizona Library Association conference in Tucson, AZ this past November. I attended different workshops, volunteered at the AzLA booth and attended the AzLA awards breakfast to receive the Louise A. Stephens Memorial Scholarship. Louise A. Stephens was a children’s librarian, library manager and had a strong commitment to libraries. She is a great example of commitment to libraries and youth services.

I know that the future of libraries is evolving but I believe that library services to children will always be a fundamental part of the library profession. I appreciate this chance to fulfill my dream so I can help others reach theirs.

Today’s guest blog post comes from Donna Hanley, recipient of the 2011 Frederic G. Melcher Scholarship. She is currently the Library Manager at the Saint Johns High School Library in Saint Johns, Arizona. She’s also a graduate student in Library Science at the University of Arizona’s School of Information Resources and Library Science (SIRLS).

Each year ALSC gives away nearly $50k in scholarships to applicants interested in pursuing a career in children’s librarianship. For more information on ALSC Scholarships like the Frederic G. Melcher Scholarship or the Bound to Stay Bound Books Scholarship, please visit ALSC’s Scholarship page.

2012 DSA winner Linda A. Perkins with two adorable friends (Photo credit: Victoria Marugg)

The Distinguished Service Award is given to “an individual member of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) who has made significant contributions to and an impact on, library service to children and/or ALSC.”

At the Monday board meeting Perkins noted that she had “stood on the shoulders” of ALSC leaders who came before her. Perkins time with ALSC has included serving on the ALSC Board of Directors three times, including once as the ALSC President (1991-92). A strong advocate for multiculturalism, during her tenure as president she helped build a relationship with REFORMA that eventually led to the creation of the Pura Belpré Award. She has also been integral in the development of El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day) as a national celebration.

You can read more about Linda’s fantastic career in the official news release of Linda A. Perkins as the 2012 Distinguished Service Award recipient.

Congrats Linda!

Thank you! ALSC has helped me in one of the biggest ways possible by awarding me with the Melcher Scholarship. I cannot explain the gratitude I have in receiving this assistance. Since my scholarship application our family business has not done any better, only worse. This scholarship has alleviated some of the financial pressure we are enduring, so thanks again.

So far my schooling is right on schedule as planned. My plan was to take two courses per semester so I would receive my Library Media Endorsement (Type 10) on my current elementary teaching certificate by the end of this school year. I am registered for the final two courses this spring semester: Media Productions and Curriculum in School Libraries. Media Productions sounds like fun in that I will be learning many ways to incorporate technology and media into a school library media program. The Curriculum in School Libraries course will reinforce not only the library /technology standards, but the new Common Core Standards as well. Upon completion of these two courses, I will still need to complete an internship in May/June. After that I will be eligible to apply for my Library Media Endorsement, but will still need three more courses in order to receive my Masters in Library and Information Science.

I love the Dominican University program. The people I have met so far, professors and classmates alike, have truly been inspiring. I have made quite a few dear friends, developed professional relationships with many of my professors, and have learned a lot in the process! I’ve enjoyed meeting face-to-face in a classroom setting, versus an online course. I am more of a people person, so this face-to-face contact has worked for me.

It is difficult for me to pinpoint one class as my favorite because I have really enjoyed them all. If I had to choose one that was most interesting to me, I’d have to pick School Libraries. Not only did I have a phenomenal professor for this course, but I also learned a lot about the actual job of school librarianship. While working on two group projects, I made two of my closest graduate school friends whom I continue to keep in regular contact.

I hope to get a full-time certified position for next school year. There aren’t many school library media positions posted so far, but I plan on applying for many once they are posted. I also have the opportunity to apply for a job in the school district where I am currently working which would be a perfect fit for me.

Unfortunately I was not able to attend the most recent ALA conference due to school, work, and family time commitments, as well as due to being strapped financially. I hope to attend a more local conference in the near future. I would like to find out about various professional development seminars or workshops and how other newer professionals are doing with their job search.

As I mentioned before, I am grateful the assistance I have received from ALSC. Hopefully I will get a job as a school library media specialist next year. Then I will continue my coursework until I receive my MLIS. Thanks again!

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Today’s guest blog post comes from Patricia Prodanich, recipient of the 2011 Frederic G. Melcher Scholarship. She is currently thea graduate student in Library Science at Dominican University in River Forest, IL.

Each year ALSC gives away nearly $50k in scholarships to applicants interested in pursuin

For many – myself included – a highlight of the ALA Annual Conference is sitting in on meetings of the Notable Children’s Books Committee and listening as they discuss new materials.

This ALSC committee is charged with identifying the best of the best in children’s books. According to the Notables Criteria, “notable” is defined as: Worthy of note or notice, important, distinguished, outstanding. As applied to children’s books, notable should be thought to include books of especially commendable quality, books that exhibit venturesome creativity, and books of fiction, information, poetry and pictures for all age levels (birth through age 14) that reflect and encourage children’s interests in exemplary ways.

This year, the committee has 9 hours of meetings which are open to any registered conference attendee interested in listening to the discussions. Their open meetings are in the Morial Convention Center,  Rooms 298-299, from 1:30 to 4:30 on Saturday, June 25, Sunday, June 26, and Monday, June 27.

Midway through the year, there are 54 titles on the discussion list. Here is the complete list of books to be discussed at the Annual Conference in New Orleans, grouped in the order they will be discussed.

Fiction (including fiction graphic novels and fiction verse novels)

Bauer, Joan. Close to Famous. Viking Childrens Books

Billingsley, Franny. Chime. Dial Books for Young Readers

Burgis, Stephanie. Kat, Incorrigible. Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Engle, Margarita. Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck. Henry Holt & Co.

Holm, Jennifer L. The Trouble with May Amelia. Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Lai, Thanhha. Inside out and Back Again. HarperCollins

Magoon, Kekla. Camo Girl. Aladdin

Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan. The Secret River. Illus. by Leo and Diane Dillon. Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Reedy, Trent. Words in the Dust. Arthur A. Levine Books

Schmidt, Gary D. Okay for Now. Clarion Books

Sepetys, Ruta. Between Shades of Gray. Philomel Books

Shang, Wendy Wan Long. The Great Wall of Lucy Wu. Scholastic Press

Stephens, John. The Emerald Atlas. Alfred A. Knopf

Picture books

Clement, Nathan. Job Site. Illus. by Nathan Clement. Boyds Mills Press

Compestine, Ying Chang. The Runaway Wok: A Chinese New Year Tale. Illus. by Sebastià Serra. Dutton Children’s Books

Czekaj, Jef. Cat Secrets. Illus. by Jef Czekaj. Balzer + Bray

Evans, Shane. Underground. Illus. by Shane Evans. Roaring Brook Press

Goodrich, Carter. Say Hello to Zorro! Illus. by Carter Goodrich. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Hall, Michael. Perfect Square. Illus. by Michael Hall. Greenwillow Books

Henkes, Kevin. Little White Rabbit. Illus. by Kevin Henkes. Greenwillow Books

Lamb, Albert. Tell Me the Day Backwards. Illus. by David McPhail Candl

What do a medieval girl with a disability, a large, really, really gay teen musical star, and a Boovish alien all have in common?

They’re characters voiced in audiobooks honored in the 2011 Odyssey Awards! I attended the Odyssey Award reception and heard fabulous speeches and readings by some of my very favorite audiobook narrators. Katherine Kellgren (pictured), Nick Podehl, Emma Bering, Emily Jane Card, Macleod (pronounced “McLoud”) Andrews, and Bahni Turpin gave wonderful speeches at this year’s reception. We also heard Katherine Kellgren, Nick Podehl, and Macleod Andrews read from their honored books.

For an audiophile such as myself, it was certainly a thrill to meet some of my favorite narrators. And I’m kicking myself for not picking up each and every audiobook honored because they all sound fantastic. Believe me, I’ll be rectifying that oversight as soon as I get home!

Coming back from ALA is always time for reflection. When the conference is in a city like New Orleans, one of my favorite cities in the world, the reflection includes fun times, music, and great food. But this ALA conference was a little different for me. As a member of the 2011 Laura Ingalls Wilder Committee, I got to meet and spend a little time with our chosen awardee, Tomie dePaola. Not only did I get to have lunch with a legend in children’s literature, I got to meet a really nice, interesting, and fun man. Tomie dePaola is gracious — he was so genuinely happy to win the Wilder Award, and treated our committee with nearly as much awe as we have for him. I can honestly say that serving on the Wilder committee has been one of the shining moments in my career as a librarian. With the daunting task of reading, for TWO years, the complete works of quite a few heavy hitters in children’s lit, I thought it might sometimes get tiring. It never did. Even though I missed out on some of the new books I wanted to read, and even though I declined many an invite in favor of staying home to read a stack of books, it was a truly wonderful and eye-opening experience, shared with four other insightful and brilliant people. The rewards of choosing Tomie dePaola certainly became clear to me after our announcement was made public. So many people agreed with us! Our committee was quite proud to come to the conclusion that for the five people sitting in that hotel room in San Diego, the right, perfect choice was Tomie dePaola. So if you’ve read this far and are still wondering what exactly the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award is for, think of it as a lifetime achievement award for children’s book authors and illustrators. The official definition states that the award, given every two years, “honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.” For more information, here’s the link on the ALSC site. If you are a member of ALSC, you can help the 2013 committee by sending suggestions to Martha Parravano, the chair of the 2013 committee at mparravano@hbook.com. And I highly recommend that you go read every Tomie dePaola book you can get your hands on, all at once, and immerse yourself in the mastery of storytelling and illustration that his books provide. Congratulations, once again, Tomie dePaola!

The Louise Seaman Bechtel Fellowship provides a $4,000 grant to a qualified children’s librarian to spend a month or more reading and studying at the Baldwin Library of the George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville. The Baldwin Library contains a special collection of 85,000 volumes of children’s literature published mostly before 1950. The fellowship is endowed in memory of Louise Seaman Bechtel and Ruth M. Baldwin” (ALA.org).

The deadline to apply to this year’s Bechtel Fellowship is December 1st, 2011. Application material/information is available on ALSC’s Professional Awards page. Applicants must:

• Be personal members of ALSC as well as ALA; organizational members are not eligible
• Currently be working in direct service to children, or retired members who complete their careers in direct service to children, for a minimum of eight years
• Have a graduate degree from an ALA-accredited program
• Be willing to write a report about his/her study; the report will be submitted to the ALSC Office, for distribution to the Bechtel Committee and for possible inclusion in Children and Libraries, and to the Director of the Smathers Libraries and the Director of the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature and Media at the University of Florida
• If selected, retired Fellowship winners would agree to present a minimum of three public programs based on their research project to children in libraries or schools following the completion of their Fellowship period

Please send your application to Bechtel Fellowship Committee chair Ellen Ruffin, 118 College, #5148, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406.

For some people, autumn might be all about football or the first day of school o leaves changing color…but in the children’s book world, it’s Mock Awards Season! As the Newbery, Caldecott, and all the other Committees carry out their highly confidential tasks of selecting distinguished books, the rest of us wonder just what they’re thinking…and sometimes try to duplicate it with Mock Award events.

Mock Awards programs are a long-time tradition. For decades, teachers, librarians, and other children’s literature experts have worked with kids and adults, in-person and online, in a few hours or over weeks or months, reading, discussing, and finally voting on some of the year’s best books. To help organizers develop effective programs, ALSC published the first Newbery & Caldecott Mock Election Kit, written by Kathleen Staerkel, Nancy Hackett, and Linda Ward Callaghan in 1994. A revised edition came out in 2001, and I just finished a new revision. The 2011 edition of the Newbery and Caldecott Mock Elections Tool Kit has been revised and updated and is now available in ebook form through the ALA Store.

My first chance to participate in a Mock Elections program was way back in 1994, when Ellen Fader and Steve Armitage hosted a Mock Caldecott for the Oregon Library Association. The winning book? The group selected All the Places to Love by Patricia Maclahlan, illustrated by Mike Wimmer. I don’t remember how the actual Medal winner fared (Smoky Night by Eve Bunting and David Diaz). Since then I’ve taken part in and presented a bunch of mock events for the Oregon Library Association and worked with many groups at schools and in libraries. Right now I’m working on a Mock Newbery event for fifth graders and one for librarians; I have to decide pretty quickly which books from the current year to include, which is always one of the toughest tasks…there are too many good books!

In conjunction with this publication, I’m hosting a webinar on Wednesday, October 5, 2011 from 7:00 – 8:00 pm (Central Time). In this one hour session we’ll look at the nuts and bolts and program goals of organizing a Mock Election. I’ll share some of the most effective ways to share information about awards criteria, using examples than include a three-time Newbery Honor winner and a pigeon who wants to break a rule. You’ll also see useful examples of how to model book evaluation techniques with a group, featuring such worthy figures as Grandma Dowdel and Stanly Yelnats. I’ll even share my top three all-time choices for demonstrating the complexities picturebook illustration with children and adults with art discussion anxieties.

For more information about the Newbery and Caldecott Mock Elections webinar on , including information about the digital download/webinar discount, please check the ALSC online education site, http://www.ala.org/alsced.

Steven Engelfried is the Youth Services Librarian for the Wilsonville Public Lib

One of the 2011 Louise Seaman Bechtel Fellowship recipients, Victoria Penny from the First Regional Library in Hernando, Miss., talks about her experiences at the Baldwin Library at the University of Florida:

I truly feel that the Bechtel Fellowship experience changed my outlook in a number of ways. I have an increased awareness of the value of special collections, whether to a department, a university, or a discipline as a whole. Through personal interaction I have gained a much greater appreciation for those who collect, maintain, and nurture these collections.

Having the chance to focus on a specific topic for a month was invigorating. I obtained more insight into research in the field. I have an even stronger desire to study how the historical and cultural milieux impact children’s literature, and vice versa. I am more interested than ever in ecocritical approaches to children’s literature. I want to stay current with writing by scholars in this area. I am seeking to learn more about how language and images in children’s books describe the natural world and how we humans, particularly children, interact with nature.

To apply for the 2012 Louise Seaman Bechtel Fellowship, check out the ALSC Professional Awards page. Applications are due December 1, 2011. For more information, contact the committee chair, Ellen Ruffin at Ellen.Ruffin@usm.edu.

Each year at the midwinter ALA conference, a variety of children’s books and media awards are announced at the ALA Youth Media Awards. This press conference is attended by 1500 or so interested children’s librarians, book publicists, editors, and other children’s literature enthusiasts. It is the culmination of a year’s worth of reading by dedicated committees committed to selecting the best of the best.

Called by some the “Oscars of children’s literature,” these awards create much speculation by book lovers around the country. Much of the fun of these awards is all the reading and talking in the months leading up to the announcements about the excellent new books being published.  The speculation about what might win these major awards – especially the Caldecott and the Newbery – has spawned a wide range of blogs and conjecture focusing on these topics. At my library, we use a Mock Caldecott blog and a  Mock Newbery blog  to help our customers begin to think about titles which may be contenders. The speculation about what might win has spawned a wide range of blogs around the country which focus on these topics. Here is a sampling:

• Calling Caldecott (The Horn Book)

• Heavy Medal – A Mock Newbery Blog (School Library Journal)

• Maricopa CountyMock Caldecott, Newbery and Printz Discussions for 2012  (Glendale, Arizona)

• Maryland Mock Newbery

• The Eva Perry Mock Newbery Book Club Blog  (Wake County, North Carolina)

•  The SJCPL Mock Newbery  (South Bend, Indiana)

• You Choose the Next Newbery at KCLS     (Issaquah, Washington)

And, of course, there are the well-known and equally well-loved bloggers who post their own predictions like Elizabeth Bird over at Fuse # 8 Productions or Laura, a 6th grader who blogs about books at Laura’s Life.

It’s time for the discussions and speculation to begin in earnest. Are there blogs you follow to stay on top of great new books to read?  What books have you read that you think are really strong this year?

Looking for some extra money for your library? Or maybe you really want to attend Annual Conference for the first time, but don’t have the funds? ALSC Professional Awards can help! Each year ALSC gives away over $82k in awards, grants, and scholarships to its members. Why not apply? Hurry! Applications for most of these are due December 1, 2011.

Bookapalooza

Each year the ALSC office receives almost 3,000 newly published books, videos, audiobooks and recordings from children’s trade publishers for award and notables consideration. At the end of the year, after the awards have been given out, ALSC selects three libraries to receive a Bookapalooza collection of these materials (estimated to be worth $10,000 each) to be used in a way that creatively enhances their library service to children and families.

Louise Seaman Bechtel Fellowship

This fellowship provides a $4,000 stipend to allow a qualified children’s librarian to spend a month or more reading at the University of Florida’s Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature, which contains a special collection of 85,000 volumes of children’s literature published mostly before 1950.
ALSC/BWI Summer Reading Grant

This $3,000 grant provides financial assistance to a public library for developing an outstanding summer reading program for children

ALSC Distinguished Service Award

This award honors an individual member who has made significant contributions to and an impact on, library services to children and ALSC. The recipient receives $1,000 and an engraved pin at the ALSC Membership Meeting during the ALA Annual Conference.

The Maureen Hayes Author/Illustrator Award

This $4,000 award was established with funding from Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, in honor of Maureen Hayes, to bring together children and nationally recognized authors/illustrators by funding an author/illustrator visit to a school or public library that has not before had the opportunity to host one.

Light the Way: Library Outreach to the Underserved Grant

This $3,000 grant is sponsored by Candlewick Press in honor of author Kate DiCamillo and the themes represented in her books. The grant will be awarded to a library with exceptional outreach to underserved populations in efforts to help them continue their service.

The Penguin Young Readers Group Award

This award provides a $600 stipend, provided by Penguin Young Readers Group, for up to four winners to attend their first ALA Annual Conference. Applicants must have fewer than 10 years of experience as a children’s librarian and work directly with children.

Here at ALSC Headquarters, we’re excited about the recent Youth Media Awards announcements. We had a great Midwinter Meeting and now it’s back to business. One of the first things we wanted to explain the process for purchasing your new award seals.

Foil seals depicting the ALA/ALSC Batchelder, Belpre, Caldecott, Carnegie, Geisel, Newbery, Odyssey, Sibert and Children’s Notable Media medals are available in packages of 24 seals (gold or silver) through the ALA Store. Additionally, seals are also available in bulk.

We take a great deal of pride in being able to offer these awards and so we try to make it easy to obtain these seals quickly. And, our gold and silver seals will help your patrons spot recommended books more easily. For more on the awards and ALA Permissions, please check out the ALSC Frequently Asked Questions section.

Many people viewed the blog post earlier this month which listed the titles discussed as possible Notable Children’s Books for 2011. From the ALA ALSC page, here is a complete list of the 2011 Notable Children’s Books. Congratulations to all the authors and illustrators!

Each year a committee of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) identifies the best of the best in children’s books. According to the Notables Criteria, “notable” is defined as: Worthy of note or notice, important, distinguished, outstanding. As applied to children’s books, notable should be thought to include books of especially commendable quality, books that exhibit venturesome creativity, and books of fiction, information, poetry and pictures for all age levels (birth through age 14) that reflect and encourage children’s interests in exemplary ways.

Younger Readers

April and Esme, Tooth Fairies.  By Bob Graham. Illus. by the author. Candlewick.
On their first assignment, two young tooth fairy sisters journey by night into the huge world of humans to collect a young boy’s tooth and fly it safely home.

Back of the Bus.  By Aaron Reynolds.  Illus. by Floyd Cooper.  Philomel.
A young boy and his mother take a familiar ride on a city bus unaware of the historic event they are about to witness: passenger Rosa Parks refuses to move from her seat.

Big Red Lollipop.  By Rukhsana Khan.  Illus. by Sophie Blackall.  Viking.
Rubina’s excitement over an invitation to a birthday party is dimmed by her mother’s insistence that she take her younger sister Sana with her.

Bink and Gollie. By Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee. Illus. by Tony Fucile. Candlewick.
Dissimilar, yet steadfast friends, celebrate the ups and downs of their daily escapades in three lively chapters that explore compromise, asserting independence, and jealousy. Geisel Award Book

Chalk. By Bill Thomson.  Illus. by the author. Marshall Cavendish.
In this wordless picture book, three young children arrive at the park to find a bag of colored chalk that turns their imaginary drawings into something very real.

City Dog, Country Frog. By Mo Willems. Illus. by Jon J. Muth. Hyperion.
Unleashed on his visit to the country, a dog meets a new friend in frog and together they experience the seasons and the cycle of life.

Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin. By Duncan Tonatiuh. Illus. by the author. Abrams.
The universality of childhood experiences is shown through the lives of two cousins, one in the United States and one in Mexico. Belpré Illustrator Honor Book

Fiesta Babies. By Carmen Tafolla. Illus. by Amy Córdova. Tricycle Press.
The simple rhyme scheme is embellished by colorful illustrations of multicultural babies and toddlers celebrating at a local fiesta. Belpré Illustrator Honor Book

Grandma’s Gift. By Eric Velasquez. Illus. by the author. Walker.
This personal tale is based on the author’s special relationship with his grandmother, who influenced his dream of becoming an artist. Belpré Illustrator Award

Hip-Pocket Papa. By Sandra Markle. Illus. by Alan Marks. Charlesbridge.
The papa

On Friday, April 15, 2011 bestselling children’s author Lois Lowry will give the 2011 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture in St. Louis, Mo. The event begins at 7 P.M. and will take place in the Main Reading Room of the St. Louis County Library (SLCL).

The event is free and open to the public. Tickets can be obtained by visiting St. Louis County Library’s event registration page, http://www.slcl.org/arbuthonot/.

Congratulations to Dudley Carlson, winner of the 2011 Distinguished Service Award!

For more about the award and the award winner, please check out the official ALA press release!

Congratulations to the city, the library and the schools of Biddeford, Maine for being awarded the 2011 Hayes Award!

The Hayes Award, sponsored by Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, is designed to provide up to $4,000 to an ALSC member library to fund a visit from an author/illustrator who will speak to children that might otherwise not have had the opportunity to hear from a nationally-known author/illustrator.

The McArthur Public Library, which serves Biddeford and the Biddeford Intermediate School Literacy Team will be putting together a program, One Book, One School, One Library, a community-wide event that includes writing workshops, a book talk and a social event.

Thanks go out to the sponsor of the Hayes Award, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing for making one town’s dream come true!

For more on the McArthur Public Library’s plans and the 2011 Hayes Award, please read the official ALA press release.

Congratulations to the Richmond Public Library in Richmond, California, winners of the 2011 Light the Way Grant!

The grant will help Richmond fund their Literacy Bags for Bilingual Families project. With the help of the bookmobile librarian, the library plans to partner with a local elementary school to ensure that families receive literacy materials.

The Light the Way: Library Outreach to the Underserved Grant is generously sponsored by Candlewick Press.

For more information on the Richmond Public Library’s project, please see the official ALA press release.

Congratulations to the three libraries who will be receiving materials as part of the 2011 Bookapalooza program! The winners are Houston Elementary School in Spartanburg, S.C., the Meade County Public Library in Brandenburg, Ky. and the Florence County Library System in Florence, S.C.

These highly deserving libraries will all receive a collection of of books, videos, audiobooks and recordings produced in 2010.

For more information on Bookapalooza and the three winners, check out the official ALA press release.

Imagine: bright lights, screaming children’s literature fans, and serious intellectual book talk. Interested?

ALSC is looking for a host site for the 2012 Arbuthnot Honor Lecture. The event is usually held in April or May and it could be at your library, school, etc.

The speaker for this event will be none other than Peter Sís, well known for books like The Dreamer and The Tree of Life.

The application process is pretty easy too. You only need to go to click here and then open the link that says “Apply to Host the 2012 Lecture!” Some rules and restrictions do apply.

The winners of this year’s Bank Street College of Education’s Children’s Book Awards will be honored on March 17th at Bank Street College of Education, 610 West 112th St. NY NY.  Join the committee and winners at 9:30 a.m. for coffee. The presentation will be held from 10:00 to 11:00 followed by book signings.  RSVP to Bookcom@bankstreet.edu.

Everyone in the New York area is invited to meet the winners of :

The Josette Frank Award for fiction
The Flora Stieglitz Straus Award for nonfiction
The Claudia Lewis Award for poetry

The complete list of Best Books will be available online at http://www.bnkst.edu/bookcom/ by March 17.

If your library has been doing neat things for El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros, consider applying for the Mora Award. The Estela and Raúl Mora Award was established by author and poet Pat Mora and her siblings in honor of their parents and to promote El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros (Children’s Day, Book Day), also known as Día. Culminating celebrations of this year-long initiative that links all children to books, languages, and cultures are traditionally held on or near April 30. This year marks the 15th anniversary of Día.

Libraries and schools that host Día programs during spring 2011 are encouraged to submit an application by August 15, 2011. The award will be presented at the American Library Association’s 2012 Midwinter meeting to the most exemplary program celebrating El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros. The Mora Award consists of a $1,000 stipend and a commemorative plaque. Members of REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-speaking, serve as judges for the Award

Application guidelines are available on the REFORMA website www.reforma.org or at http://www.patmora.com/dia.htm.

For additional information please contact the chair of the 2011 Mora Award committee Beatriz Pascual Wallace at beatriz.pascual-wallace@spl.org.

To commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Pura Belpré Award, ALSC and REFORMA have come up with an exciting and entertaining event at 2011 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans. That event now as a date:

Save the Date for the 2011 Belpré Award Celebration!

Please put this in your Annual 2011 schedule and be prepared to celebrate with ALSC and REFORMA. For more information about this event and other ALA Annual happenings, check out ALSC’s program and events schedule, where you can also find a printable PDF schedule of programs that merit your attention.

These events will be updated closer to June when locations are announced. Stay tuned and get ready!