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Hello. This is my first blog post here (or anywhere). I’ll be posting news and information from the world of publishing.

Today, I’m pleased to share the very exciting news from the Children’s Book Council and the Library of Congress that Jon Sciezka has been named the first National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. There was a wonderful celebration this morning at the Mulbery Street Branch of the New York Public Library, including librarians, publishers, media, and a couple of classes from area schools. You can read articles in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post, and more today and in the days to come.

 Here’s the text of the press release:

January 3, 2008

LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS APPOINTS AUTHOR JON SCIESZKA INAUGURAL NATIONAL AMBASSADOR FOR YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE Program To Be Run By Library’s Center for the Book, Children’s Book Council, CBC FoundationLibrarian of Congress James H. Billington has appointed children’s book author Jon Scieszka as the first National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. The position was created to raise national awareness of the importance of young people’s literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education, and the development and betterment of the lives of young people.

“The Library of Congress has long provided free, primary-source educational material for K-12 on the Internet,” said Billington. “The position of National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature is a natural extension of that role. Jon Scieszka will be an articulate emissary, promoting reading and literature among young people, which are important for the health and creativity of our democratic society.”

“Jon Scieszka’s platform will spotlight the diversity and breadth of children’s literature available today and in so doing present a solution to what can be done to change the state of reading in this country,” said Robin Adelson, executive director at Children’s Book Council.

Born in Flint, Mich., Jon Scieszka earned a bachelor’s degree in writing from Albion College and a master of fine arts degree from Columbia University. He held a number of teaching positions in the first through eighth grades before taking a year off to develop ideas for children’s books. He is the author of several bestselling children’s titles, including “The Stinky Cheese Man,” which won a Caldecott Honor medal, “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” and the Time Warp Trio, a chapter book series. Scieszka is the founder of Guys Read (www.guysread.com), a nonprofit literacy organization.

The National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature is named by the Librarian of Congress for a two-year term, based on recommendations from a selection committee representing many segments of the book community. The selection criteria include the candidate’s contribution to young people’s literature and ability to relate to children. The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, the Children’s Book Council (CBC) and the CBC Foundation are the administrators of the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature initiative. Financial support for the National Ambassador program is provided by Cheerios (leading sponsor), Penguin Young Readers Group, Scholastic Inc., HarperCollins Children’s Books, Random House Children’s Books, Houghton Mifflin Company, Macmillan Publishers, Harcourt Children’s Books, Holiday House, Charlesbridge, National Geographic Children’s Books, Candlewick Press, and Marshall Cavendish Publishers.

The appointment was announced today at the Mulberry Branch of the New York Public Library by Center for the Book Director John Y. Cole.

“Cheerios is truly delighted to help launch the post of National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature,” said Ricardo Fernandez, marketing manager for Cheerios. “Providing children with access to books and fostering their ability to grow up to be readers is important to all of us.”

Through its Spoonfuls of Stories program, Cheerios puts books into the hands of children and encourages families to read together. Over the past six years, Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories has distributed more than 30 million books—free of charge—inside cereal boxes and donated more than $2.5 million to First Book, a national children’s literacy organization.

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress was established in 1977 by Public Law 95-129 to use the resources of the Library of Congress to stimulate public interest in books and reading. With public and private sector support, the center carries out its mission through a national network of affiliates in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and in cooperation with more than 80 national reading promotion partners such as the Children’s Book Council. The center plays a key role in the Library of Congress’s National Book Festival, held each year on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. For more information about the center, go to www.loc.gov/cfbooks.

The Children’s Book Council, established in 1945, is the nonprofit trade association of publishers of trade books for children and young adults in the United States. The CBC promotes the use and enjoyment of trade books for young people, most prominently as the official sponsor of Children’s Book Week, the longest running literacy event in the country. The goal of the Children’s Book Council is to make the reading and enjoyment of books for young people an essential part of America’s educational and social goals, as well as to enhance the public perception of the importance of reading by disseminating information about books for young people and about children’s book publishing. The CBC Foundation’s “Every Child a Reader” program seeks to harness the collective power of the children’s book publishing industry to create a positive social impact in the nation’s communities. For more information about the CBC and the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, go to www.cbcbooks.org.

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The American Library Association issued a press release stating a live webcast will be available of the “national announcement of top books, video and audiobooks for children and young adults” beginning at 7:45 a.m., EST, on Monday, January 14.

For you lucky ducks who will be at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in person, the doors of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Ballroom B open at 7:30 a.m. The rest of us are encouraged to bookmark this not-yet-live page at Unikron, a streaming content provider. There are a limited number of connections to the webcast, so I’ll be checking with some friends who will be there (lucky ducks) to see if they will call me long-distance to share the titles added to the ranks of Newbery, Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Odyssey, Carnegie, Pura Belpré, Sibert, Schneider, and Geisel, so I may be sure to post them here in a timely manner.

If you are attending in person and would like to share your experience with the readers of the ALSC Blog, please contact Teresa Walls, blog manager, at [email protected]. Thanks!

There’s only one month until the American Library Association names the winner of the first Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production. This new award, a joint effort of the Association for Library Service to Children & the Young Adult Library Services Association, will recognize the single best audiobook created for listeners ages birth through age eighteen, along with possible honor titles. The award, on the same tier as the Printz, Newbery, and Caldecott awards, establishes audiobooks as a true literary genre. Find out more here.

Do you have time for a Mock Odyssey in the next month? Poll your patrons to see which 2007 audiobook titles they think deserve the Odyssey Award. Or share your choices here with the other ALSC Blog readers. Then log on to the ALA website Monday, January 14th, from 8-9 a.m. (EST) to watch the award press conference and see the announcement live.

The 2008 Odyssey Committee has evaluated 379 audiobooks which total just short of 2000 hours of listening – an amount of time equal to 50 weeks of full-time employment! We are still under the headphones, entering the final stages of listening to the very best in children’s and young adult audiobooks. Be sure to watch for the final selection, and lend your ears to the sound of great literature!

Mary Burkey
Chair, 2008 Odyssey Award Committee

Submitted by Julie Corsaro, ALSC Priority Group Consultant VI (Awards)

1. “The Newbery Medal seems to be selected by a group of librarians who have no idea what kids actually like to read. Kids only read these books for school assignments.”

While the criteria state that the Newbery award is not “for popularity,” it also says “committee members must consider excellence of presentation for a child audience.” There are many recent Newbery winners that combine literary excellence with popular appeal, among them The Tale of Despereaux by Kate Dicamillo, Holes by Louise Sachar, Giver by Lois Lowry, and Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Recent popular honor books include Because of Winn Dixie by Kate Dicamillo, 26 Fairmont Street by Tomie DePaola, Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine and The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis. Among classic honorees that kids love to read, the list is impressively long, including: Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary, Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel, Rascal by Sterling North, The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden, My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Gannett, Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry, Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater and, no less than, Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White.

2.”I still don’t believe you. Why haven’t any of the Harry Potter books won?”

That’s because the Newbery Medal goes to a writer who is an American citizen or resident. The author of the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling, is Scottish. Many countries have national children’s book awards. The Harry Potter books are eligible for England’s Carnegie Medal, the closest award to our Newbery.* Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was a “Commended” Carnegie book, akin to a Newbery Honor book. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was on the Carnegie shortlist.

3. Speaking of “shortlists,” I do a mock Newbery in my library every year, and would love to have a shortlist of possible Newbery winners. Why isn’t one available?

The Association for Library Service to Children and its Board of Directors have determined that in order to insure the integrity of the award process and guarantee committee members the ability to speak freely during their closed session meetings, that “committee members may not quote the opinions of other committee members, or indicate in any way which books are under consideration.” On the other hand, committee members are not only free, but encouraged, to express their opinions about “books under consideration…to obtain a variety of critical opinions.” Finally, “it is understood that all eligible books are being considered up until the selection of the winner is made.”

4. Just like with the academy awards, I think that sometimes a book wins the Newbery as a kind of consolation prize to the author for their book that really should have won. For instance, some of the Newbery winners remind me of Martin Scorsese winning the Oscar for The Departed instead of for Taxi Driver or Raging Bull.

Personal preferences aside, only books published during the calendar year under consideration can be considered for the Newbery. The Newbery committee uses the discussion guidelines of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) of the University of Madison at Wisconsin for their deliberations, including the following recommendation: “Try to compare the book with others on the discussion list, rather than other books by the same author or other books in your experience.” The Newbery discussion guidelines for the Midwinter selection meeting say, “Each book nominated or suggested will be considered.” Conversely, anything NOT nominated or suggested cannot be discussed, including previous publications by an author who has a book currently under consideration. If a committee member happens to bring up a book that isn’t on the table, the Newbery Chair will remind him or her of the guidelines.

5. “Can you say more about this ‘suggestion’ and ‘nomination’ business”?

Sure. To quote from the Newbery Manual, “The Chair solicits suggestions of eligible titles from committee members, usually on a monthly basis. Each time, committee members are asked to suggest books deemed to be strong contenders based on the award criteria.” In addition, each committee member can nominate six titles for the award, usually three in October and another three in December. These titles may be books that have already been suggested for discussion, but they don’t have to be. Both the suggested and nominated titles comprise the discussion list that the committee considers for the award at the Midwinter selection meeting. By the way, members of ALSC can suggest titles for the award by contacting the Chair of Newbery.

6. “Wow. There’s a lot to know. How can I learn more?”

Go to the ALSC web site and locate “The John Newbery Medal Committee Manual.” You’ll find a wealth of information that should answer all your questions.

*Unlike the Newbery, the Carnegie medal can be awarded to a non-Briton, as long as the book is first published in the U.K. The only American to have won the Carnegie is Sharon Creech, an American citizen who resides in England.