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We’re just back from the ALA Annual Conference, and kicking off the long weekend with some happy news: Lee & Low Books was named Indie Publisher of the Year 2014 by Foreword Reviews!  We are so thrilled, overjoyed, and humbled by this honor. Here’s what Foreword Reviews said about us at the Award Announcement:

Foreword presented Lee & Low Books with its Publisher of the Year award for the minority-owned company’s commitment to diverse voices in children’s literature. Lack of diversity in children’s literature has been a recent topic of discussion in the publishing world, but Lee & Low has focused on filling this void for a couple of decades. “For more than 20 years, Jason Low and his talented team have continued an honorable mission of increasing the number of diverse books available for children,” said Foreword Reviews Publisher Victoria Sutherland. “They are being honored by Foreword for more than books, however. We admire their leadership role in the indie publishing community.”

Thank you all for the outpouring of love and support. We are lucky to have such passionate fans, partners, and readers. Happy Fourth of July weekend, and we’ll see you next week!

Sonia Manzano, Auditorium Speaker

If you ever wondered who Sonia Manzano’s (“Maria” from Sesame Street) favorite Muppet is, here’s her answer: Oscar the Grouch. “He’s negative.” He acts anywhere from age 80 to 8. He stirs up conflict in an otherwise harmonious neighborhood, and this conflict leads to stories.

In fact, Manzano’s new memoir, “Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx” (Scholastic) is all about conflict–her tumultuous childhood in the Bronx, her Puerto Rican roots, and her longing for a “Leave it to Beaver” type of stability. With Maria, she was able to act out (and later, write scripts about) a character that children in inner cities could relate to, and provide them with storylines that offered satisfying resolutions–something they may seldom get in real life. She could be a mirror for these kids, an escape from a hard home life, and a role model.

Manzano thinks her difficult childhood lead to her success. Not in spite of her challenges, but because of her challenges, she was able to become a great actor, writer, and humanitarian.

She spoke quite a bit about the importance of empathy. Sure, people tell their kids to “Be nice.” But what about going beyond that? She questions why some people are afraid to let kids read sad stories. In books, readers are able to connect with characters and feel the deep emotions that dwell within them. It’s the perfect avenue for building empathy, and she believes we should consciously instill this value in children.

Manzano was a fabulous speaker. Many of us in the audience grew up watching her on television, and looked to her as one of the really inspirational and comforting adult figures in our lives. Manzano advocated for television; she pointed out that sometimes TV is a much-needed escape for some children, and that, like a book, it’s just the jumping off point for the imagination: What happens to characters when they’re not on TV, how does the story continue when the set is off? Kids with the freedom to imagine can, and will, grow up to be resourceful and successful adults.

The post Empathy and Oscar the Grouch: Sonia Manzano #alaac15 appeared first on ALSC Blog.

#alaac15 provides space for meetings of all kinds. Although we’re apparently not that “uncommon,” yesterday I attended a meet-up of ukulele-playing librarians at the ALA Networking Uncommons.  We exchanged emails, discussed creating a group FB page and played a few songs.  Perhaps next year, we can have an ALSC session on Using your Uke for Story Time and Outreach. Wouldn’t that be fun?  Check out today’s gatherings at the Networking Uncommons. http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/

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Sunday’s Pura Belpré 19th annual award ceremony featured a vibrant mix of illuminating speeches, laughter, and entertainment that celebrated Latino Children’s Literature.

Highlights included:

• Yuyi Morales’s acceptance speech in which she vividly recounted her positive and life-changing experiences as a young mother and new immigrant visiting the San Francisco Public Library’s Western Addition branch. Ann, a librarian at the branch, put The Watsons Go to Birmingham in her hands and it was the first English language chapter book she loved, that she shared with her son.
• Duncan Tonatiuh invited civil rights leader Sylvia Mendez, the subject of his award-winning book Separate Is Never Equal, to address the audience.
• United States Poet Laurete Juan Felipe Herrera’s speech chronicled his research and writing that documented the extraordinary achievements of Hispanic-Americans.
• Heartfelt speeches by Susan Guevara, John Parra, and Marjorie Agosín.
• A fantastic performance by by Quenepas, a Bomba youth song and dance ensemble.

This fantastic event was hosted by the dream team Reforma and ALSC, and is always one of the highlights of ALA conferences. Next year will mark the 20th Anniversary of the Belpré Award and it promises to be a huge occasion. See you in Orlando!

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Jennifer A. Nielsen reads from her book, A Night Divided with help from fellow authors, Alex Gino (George) and Edwidge Danticat (Untwine).

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There was hardly a dry eye in the audience following Saturday’s screening of the new PBS documentary, The Raising of America: Early Childhood and the Future of Our Nation. This illuminating film featured moving testimonials from families living in poverty or just barely getting by due to the high cost of quality childcare. The film included facts about the critical brain development that occurs during ages 0-5, and how many children in struggling families are missing out on access to stimulating and education-rich environments and opportunities. Instead, stress (in the form of cortisol) is passed on from parent to child, which leaves a lasting imprint on the child’s development and functioning. This stress follows him or her into adulthood…setting the scene for a cycle that can continue for generations.

Clocking in at about an hour, the documentary was extremely powerful and will provoke libraries–and anyone who cares about nurturing a nation of strong, smart, and independent children–to carefully consider ways we can work together as a community to level the playing field for all children. As the film points out, that moment almost came in 1971, when Congress passed a bill for universal childcare and developmental services for young children. Unfortunately, Nixon vetoed it. Imagine the ways this country may be different today had those services been available for all these decades. Isn’t it time for that change to happen now?

Resources at the panel included:

The Raising of America Web site – Features clips from the documentary series, resources, and ways to take action. The documentary DVD was released in June 2015 and will air on public television soon (time TBD).

For Our Babies – A national movement focusing on efforts to support children age 0-3. A book, For Our Babies: Ending the Invisible Neglect of America’s Infants by J. Ronald Lally, is available and a suggested book club choice and conversation-starter.

Early Learning 2.0 with Families: Enriching Library Services for Families – Co-presenter, the California State Library, offered information on the ELF (Early Learning with Families) initiative. Through ELF, California libraries may receive training and resources to support family-friendly and developmentally appropriate services to aid families with children ages 0-5.

The post Giving Every Child a Fighting Chance #alaac15 appeared first on ALSC Blog.

A funny thing happened at the Metreon food court…some friends and I were admiring a woman’s Rad American Women A-Z (City Lights Publishers) tote bag. We just couldn’t resist going up to her and asking “Where did you get that amazing bag?” She said, “I have a family connection.” A few minutes later, Rad American’s illustrator, Miriam Klein Stahl, walked up to us and we were introduced. In a Wayne’s World type moment, we all felt “not worthy!” Ms. Stahl was super gracious and nice, and gave us a stack of Patti Smith stickers. Just goes to show that ALA Annual is always full of surprising and lovely random moments….

The post Random Radness @ #alaac15 appeared first on ALSC Blog.

Newbery Medal winner Kwame Alexander and his lovely daughter have some fun in support of his upcoming picture book, Surf’s Up at #alaac15.

Great fun, and champagne, too!

The post Surf’s Up with Kwame Alexander appeared first on ALSC Blog.

I’m attending many ALSC sponsored events at #alaac15, but sometimes it’s not all about the kids. This fangirl is joining the throng waiting to hear featured speaker Sarah Vowell!

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Good morning. I can’t sleep. It may be that I am still on EST or that I just so excited to be here. My first conference and I’m entering my second day.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend the ALSC Preconference on celebrating the Honor Books. Wow. We all know KT Horning, but just hearing her speak and the wealth of information she had to share was amazing. I tried to take some old fashioned notes using a pen and paper.  I could go on and on about what I learned.  Here are just a few hightlights:

• Honors were called “Runners Up” until 1971
• The records are lost for who the Runners Up were in 1923, 1924 and 1927. What happened to them? KT Horning is determined to find out and I bet she will!
• Before 1958, an author could not win a second award. Would Robert McCloskey have won multiple awards before then if this rule had not been in place?
• Judy Freeman shared that we all must read Travis Jonker’s 6 Theories on “Sam and Dave Dig a Hole” on his 100 Scope Notes blog and to make sure to watch “The Best Book Trailer ever” there posted there as well.

http://100scopenotes.com/2014/10/02/6-theories-on-the-ending-of-sam-dave-dig-a-hole/

• Another idea Judy shared that I will definitely use with students is to have them write sequels to the book.

The afternoon was filled with inspiration from all the authors and illustrators. I spotted Lauren Castillo behind me and screamed. When I did that, I completely startled her. So sorry!

And then there were the opening remarks by Roberta Kaplan on this incredibly, historic day in San Francisco. Plus I got quite weepy when Tech Logic gave the wonderful librarians from The Pratt Library in Baltimore an award. When I ran into one in the Exhibit Hall that evening, I (surprise-surprise) screamed. The bravery and dedication to the community from those librarians and staff amazed me from the days it happened.

I don’t know what today will bring but I hope lots of jumping with old friends, new friends, authors and just fabulous people.

 ***************************************************

–I am a K-5 librarian from upstate NY who is just so excited to be attending her first ALA Conference!

The post #alaac15 Reviewing Friday and looking ahead appeared first on ALSC Blog.

Youth services librarians tend to stick together, but Conference is a great time to meet or work with members from other committees.  Today I attended the Literary Walking Tour of San Francisco sponsored by the Staff Organizations Round Table (SORT), and attended by librarians of all stripes. Only on a librarian’s walking tour will you get a bibliography and annotated list for each of your 45 your tour stops!  I love our job.

From Union Square to the bay, we covered all the literary highlights. One of our stops was City Lights Books, which had people waiting outside for opening time.  Nice to see a city that appreciates books.

SORT Literary Walking Tour outside City Lights Books

The post A Literary Walking Tour of San Francisco at #alaac15 appeared first on ALSC Blog.

One of my favorite things to do at ALA is grab some free library gear! And the best way to do that is to select some ribbons for your name tag! As it says above the ribbons- “If you are one, take one”. Ribbons are great conversation starters with similar members! It helps put you in a club/grouping, which can be amazing when you are surrounded by thousands of librarians! Not all divisions have ribbons, but ALSC has two!

I’ll be sure to add my twitter handle @merbrarian to mine! Librarians love to organize and catalog things, so why should we not catalog ourselves!

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Summer is here and at least in Illinois, it’s heating up fast! With June halfway over, we know that ALA Annual is on the horizon. And what says summer better than San Francisco, California? The theme this year is “Transforming libraries, ourselves.” With 25,000 library affiliated folks coming to town, it’s an event you don’t want to miss!

Unfortunately, I’ll be diligently working in Illinois during ALA Annual, but that doesn’t mean I have to miss out on the conversations. If you’re like me and won’t be in San Fransisco, here’s a guide to staying in touch, from a distance.

If you’re looking for a broad overview of the conference:

1. Get on Twitter. One thing I’ve learned time and time again this past year is that librarians are active on Twitter. Follow the conference Twitter account @alaannual or the general hashtag for the event is #alaac15. Some sessions have specific hashtags, which you can find in the scheduler section of Annual’s website. If you have time to get on early, try to scout out some fellow librarians who will be at ALA Annual. They can be your eyes and ears during the conference.

Note: It’s really hard to actively follow hashtags on Twitter’s general account. I suggest downloading Tweet Deck or use the website Tweet Chat to track the event. I’m partial to Tweet Deck because you can follow multiple hashtags while watching your feed and seeing who is replying to your tweets. It can be a lot of information but a great way to really stay in the loop.

1. Check out ALA’s other social media platforms. Following #alaac15 on Instagram or ALA’s general account for visuals of the event. ALA also has an active Tumblr and Facebook. See this general handout for all the handles and account links.

If you’re looking to dive a little deeper into ALA Annual:

1. Look at the ALA Annual highlights to get an idea for what’s happening during the six days of the conference. So much is going on during those six days, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. This is especially good if you want to look at the big speakers during the conference.
2. Next, take a look at the ALA Annual program book, which is in PDF form on the web. If you’re just interested in the various sessions, skip part I of the program book and jump to part II.
3. In part II, the sessions are broken up program content areas (most revolving around the idea of transformation). I suggest looking for sessions either within a content area or searching (love Control F when searching PDFs) to look for keywords of topics you’re interested in.
4. Once you’ve got a list of interesting sounding sessions, go back to the Scheduler and look up them up. Some sessions have a specific hashtag to follow. I also have been looking up the speakers on Twitter, both for me to follow right now and then during ALA.
5. When looking on the Scheduler, see if any resources, handouts, or additional links have been posted. You might find access to great materials before the conference even begins!
6. Put the session time in your calendar so you know when to be more actively checking Twitter and other social media sites.

Hope that helps and here are some of the sessions I’m hoping to virtually check out:

• DiverseZineties; Promoting Diversity and Self-discovery Through Making Zines with Teens, Saturday, June 27
• Library of the Future—Learning with the Participatory Library at Cedar Rapids Public Library, Saturday, June 27. This was the public library I went to as an undergrad; their new library is gorgeous. Opportunity does arise from tragedy. 
• Voices of Youth: Community partnerships for video production, Saturday, June 27
• From Maker to Make-HER: Leveling the STEM Playing Field for Girls, Sunday, June 28
• Seeing Through Walls: Library-Based Video Conferencing to Connect Kids with Parents in Jail, Sunday, June 28. I worked for The Director of Outreach Services at Brooklyn Public Library. He’s an amazing librarian and his team is doing incredible things with outreach and engagement at the Brooklyn Public Library.
• Yik Yak and the Academic Library, Sunday, June 28 (Sunday Ignite Session topic)
• Naked Truth: connect.create.contribute, Monday, June 29
• What do LIS Students Really Think About Their Education?, Monday, June 29. These are my peers and I did attend the LIS Symposium on Education [it was awesome!]

I’m excited about ALA Annual and the chance to participate virtually. I’ll be tweeting from @hailthefargoats and hope you’ll join the conversation too!