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I am grateful to Robin Adelson, Executive Director,  Children’s Book Council and Every Child A Reader, for inviting me to a wonderful evening in Celebration of Children’s Book Week. It was a night to remember!  Once my videos are finished downloading, I will share some clips from the awards presentation but in the meantime, guess who?

Amy and Betsy Bird (Blogger Fuse8 who is lovely)

Amy and Author Jon Scieszka (HE makes me laugh so much!)

Amy and Rachel Rene'e Russell (Author of Dork Diaries)

SLJ's Rocco Staino and Amy

Last night’s CBC Diversity Committee Kickoff was OH SO FUN! Here are some of  photos and there’s more to come — tomorrow.  I got to this post pretty late…sorry.  The Children’s Book Council introduced new diversity committee and there were plenty of people  in-the-house with great ideas and the future is bright for diversity.

CBC Executive Director Robin Adelson and ME

Ayanna

I was honored to be invited to the Children’s Book Council Diversity Kickoff event tonight!!!  It’s such a wonderful and forward-thinking initiative that I asked CBC’s Executive Director, Robin Adelson, to share the vision and thoughts behind forming this committee.

“The newly formed CBC Diversity Committee is dedicated to increasing the diversity of voices and experiences contributing to children’s literature. The committee is charged with shaping an initiative that will focus on increasing diverse representation within the children’s book publishing industry, comprising those people who work in the industry and those authors and illustrators who create the content as well as the characters and stories they represent. To make a difference, we will focus on recruitment by visiting high schools and colleges, providing resources on the CBC Diversity blog and promoting discourse by hosting panel and roundtable discussions. At the kickoff event we will invite attendees to sign on as partners in this initiative and we will list action steps we expect our partners to take.” (Robin Adelson, CBC executive director)

Right when I was piecing together the reasons why I feel like a thumb, POP! goes the comment from Robin Adelson who GETS ME!!! SHE REALLY GETS ME!!!

Here’s her explanation as to why, as an educator, I’ve always felt like the thumb, since I don’t always think (or agree with) how things are done in schools.

“Amy Bowllan – it would be tough to get a solid grip on anything without a thumb! Your experience as a journalist (by which I means both your skills and all that you have seen, heard and learned over the years) combined with your passion for education and literacy make yours a voice we all benefit from hearing. Thank you for taking the time and initiative to speak up and get others thinking and communicating. I am also grateful for the shout out for Robin’s Roundup and, indeed, for your support of the CBC and our initiatives.”

Somebody in the Youtube world must have the same story. Check out this video and then put your thumbs UP for us thumbs! Happy Halloween, too!