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The University of South Carolina’s First Annual Celebration of Latino Children’s Literature Conference will be held on April 26, 2008. The conference theme is “Connecting Cultures and Celebrating Cuentos.” In addition to breakout sessions related to Latino children’s literature, there will be keynote sessions with Dr. Kathy Short, Yuyi Morales , and Lucia Gonzalez. Dr. Kathy Short from the University of Arizona will discuss international children’s literature and intercultural understandings through youth literature. Lucía González will read from her forthcoming bilingual picturebook The Storyteller’s Candle/ La velita de los cuentos during the luncheon break. Author Yuyi Morales (Little Night) will close the conference with a grand finale performance followed by a book signing of conference and local authors.
Registration prior to March 31 is $55 for full-time Students (with Professor’s Verification) $55.00 and $65 for General Attendees. Fees increase after March 31.
The evening prior (April 25) will feature a free community celebration of El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day) beginning at 7:00 p.m. and featuring Yuyi Morales’ storytelling.
Just One More Book!! is one of the ALSC Great Web Sites for Kids, filed under Literature & Languages’ Favorite Children’s Stories category. Advertising- and sponsorship-free, Just One More Book!! (JOMB) is a podcast powered by passion. Mark and Andrea, a husband and wife team, both work full-time jobs and squeeze in a recording session during their morning coffee ritual after dropping their eight-year-old and six-year-old daughters off at school and before heading to work themselves. They publish four shows a week: Mondays being interviews; Wednesdays and Fridays are book chats; Saturday’s content varies.
During their conversation for this approximately 15-minute podcast, Andrea and Mark answer my questions. Mentioned are:
Did you know that one of ALSC’s listed organizations will hold an exciting conference in Atlanta, Georgia, from March 26 – 29, 2008?
The Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) Annual International Conference and Exhibition: Beyond Standards: Reaching Every Child’s Potential has much to offer librarians who serve youth.
With over 225 sessions, 30 exhibitors, and inspiring and knowledgeable keynote speakers, including literacy professor and researcher Richard Allington, librarians can learn a great deal alongside our ACEI colleagues who also serve the literacy needs of young people.
One of the fundraiser’s for the Texas Library Disaster Relief Fund each year is a raffle for a piece of original art by a noted children’s book illustrator. You don’t have to live in Texas to take a chance on art. This year Diane Stanley has donated a piece of art from the book, Charles Dickens - The Man Who Had Great Expectations. The 13 in. by 12 in. original full color gouache illustration features a Christmas holiday scene. This would look great in any library or home. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the upcoming TLA conference or by mail (must be received by the Texas Library Association office by March 31). The drawing will be held at the conference in Dallas on Thursday, April 17 and you could be the lucky winner. You don’t need to be present to win (although we do love to hear the winner scream with delight) so pass this opportunity on to your friends, neighbors, and other children’s book fans. Please take a chance on art. Go to www.txla.org/html/wells/gallery.html for additional details and a raffle ticket form that can be printed out to send with your check. The Disaster Relief Fund helps Texas libraries that have been affected by disasters.
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American Library Association President Loriene Roy seeks nominations of librarians who use gaming technology for learning, literacy development and community development. Applications will be accepted through April 21. Self nominations are encouraged.
The Fort Wayne Museum of Art in Fort Wayne, Indiana, is exhibiting works by Allen Say from now until April 20, 2008. The exhibit includes works from El Chino, Grandfather’s Journey, Home of the Brave, Kamishibai Man, Music for Alice, The Sign Painter, and Tree of Cranes. Allen Say will be at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art for a book signing from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., Sunday, March 16, 2008.
The Award Winner for 2008: Birmingham, 1963 by Carole Boston Weatherford (Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press)
Two Honor Books: Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems by John Grandits (Clarion Books)
This Is Just To Say; Poems Of Apology And Forgiveness by Joyce Sidman (Hougton Mifflin)
Sylvia Vardell posted about it on her blog, Poetry for Children. The Lee Bennett Hopkins Award for Children’s Poetry is administered by Pennsylvania State University College of Education and the Pennsylvania State University Libraries.
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Educators and librarians have until April 15, 2008, to apply online for Picturing America, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), in cooperation with the American Library Association. Picturing America is part of the NEH’s We the People initiative.
If your application is selected, you receive a set of 20 laminated posters (images on both sides) and a teacher resource guide. The application guidelines list the image/poster information and the award information, including “Schools and libraries are required to keep as many of the posters as possible on continual exhibit in classrooms or public locations in the school or public library during the September 2008 through May 2009 grant term.”
Questions about Picturing America may be directed to:
American Library Association
Public Programs Office
50 East Huron
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 280-5045
(800) 545-2433, extension 5045 www.ala.org/publicprograms [email protected]
National Endowment for the Humanities
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Room 511
Washington, DC 20506
(202) 606-8337 www.neh.gov [email protected]
Technology plays an important part in your role as a children’s librarian, school library media specialist, or other stakeholder in providing quality library service to children. Do you feel the need for easy access to updates and information about cutting-edge technology and its use with the kids you serve?
The ALSC Children and Technology Committee needs your input. Please complete the brief survey we have created for you. The survey will be available until Saturday, March 1, 2008.
Thank you!
Christopher J. Borawski, MSI
Chair, ALSC Children and Technology Committee
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The Educational Paperback Association (EPA) has awarded its 29th annual Jeremiah Ludington Memorial Award to Anita Silvey, a professor in the Master of Arts in Children’s Literature program at Simmons College. The Ludington Award, named after EPA’s founder, is presented annually to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the paperback book business. Past winners have included Mary Pope Osborne, Marc Brown, Seymour Simon, Tomie dePaola, Richard Peck, Lois Lowry and Paula Danziger.
Recipients of the Ludington Award receive a framed certificate and EPA presents a $2500 check to the charity of their choice. Ms. Silvey has selected the James Marshall Fellowship at the University of Connecticut to receive the charitable donation.
Shortly after reading on our blog Bradley Debrick’s post about tagging, I read Matt Raymond’s post on the Library of Congress blog about the Library’s pilot project with Flickr, an online photosharing site. The Library of Congress is posting photographs which no copyright is known to exist and asking people to comment, make notes, and add tags. Matt Raymond shortly afterward shared how well-received that partnership has been thus far.
I am excited about the project and believe its potential for students of all ages is incredible. The Library of Congress’ Flickr profile page states:
We’ve been acquiring photos since the mid-1800s when photography was the hot new technology. Because images represent life and the world so vividly, people have long enjoyed exploring our visual collections. Looking at pictures opens new windows to understanding both the past and the present. Favorite photos are often incorporated in books, TV shows, homework assignments, scholarly articles, family histories, and much more.
The Prints & Photographs Division takes care of 14 million of the Library’s pictures and features more than 1 million through online catalogs. Offering historical photo collections through Flickr is a welcome opportunity to share some of our most popular images more widely.
Are there ways you envision using this project with young people?
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ALSC is pleased to announce that Henrietta Smith has been selected as the winner of the 2008 Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Smith is professor emerita from the University of South Florida. Over her long and storied career, she has been a teacher, mentor, and inspiration to many children’s librarians and ALSC members and she is a nationally recognized expert in the field of multicultural children’s literature. She has served on numerous ALSC committees, including Newbery and Caldecott, and has long been active on the Coretta Scott King Award Task Force. She has edited two editions of The Coretta Scott King Awards Book: From Vision to Reality, published by ALA Publications. Congratulations, Henrietta!
– KT Horning
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Tasha Saecker of Menasha (WI) Library posted the 2008 American Indian Youth Literature Award, given by The American Indiana Library Associaiton (AILA), on her Kids Lit Blog.
For more information about the award criteria, please visit the AILA site, click on Activities and select AILA Native American Youth Services Literature Awards.
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As you may know, ALA’s youth media award winners will be announced at a press conference on Monday morning, January 14 at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting. You can learn about the winners in person, via Web Cast, or directly from your cell phone via text message. Here is where you can go to find out more:
2) The wiki page is also ready, showing off all three ways to learn about the winners: In Person, by Web Cast, and Directly to Your Cell Phone via Text Message at
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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On Monday, December 17, Nerdfighters took over YouTube.
Ok, first you might ask, what is a Nerdfighter? According to John Green, author of Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines, and one half of Brotherhood 2.0 , a Nerdfighter Is like a regular person, only instead of being made of bones and things, a Nerdfighter is made of awesome. Nerdfighters are people who tend to like books, make friends online with other people who like books (there’s a lot of Harry Potter Nerdfighters) , and I was personally introduced to the Brotherhood with this video from July 18: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvvFiZyEyTA
So, what does all this mean? If you become engrossed in watching the Brotherhood Vlog, you’ll see challenges and secret projects. But the biggest and best Secret Project happened on December 17. The plan was simple: Nerdfighters would take over YouTube by posting videos that featured the same center screenshot and by commenting and rating en masse. Brother Hank orchestrated an e-mail sign up list and then sent out instructions for the ones posting videos as well as those who were to help by watching, commenting, and rating. And guess what - -it worked! For nearly 24 hours, the most discussed and most rated videos on YouTube did not feature large breasted women or Britney Spears news, they were all videos with the same center screen and they all promoted a charity. And several of those charities were libraries and book charities such as First Book or Reading is Fundamental.
My video was for First Book. You can watch it here:
When I got home from work (many people reportedly took the day off work or skipped school to do this project) I got online and started watching. Imagine my surprise when I saw another First Book (and libraries) video. I watched it immediately, and was even more surprised when I saw Ann Crewdson on it! Some of you may recognize Ann’s name from this blog. Anyhow—here’s that video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb35Qkb8weQ
This video got over 33,000 views, 1074 ratings, and over 2400 comments, making it one of the hottest vids of the day!
So, the project worked. It was a testament to the power of a group of dedicated people. I was so impressed with the videos that young people posted. The young Nerdfighters are an amazing gang of kids. (The older ones rock, too.) If you want to see the official explanation video, I’ll link to that too. Check out the responses to that video for more awesomeness. You’ll never lack for a charity to give to again. Go Nerdfighters! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQQOeT6ld3A
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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!
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Are you one of those children’s librarians that’s always looking for something new to add to your story times–a new fingerplay, a twist on old fairy tales or an activity? As children’s librarians, we’re always looking for innovation in the most unlikely of places and transforming ordinary household materials into works of art. I ran across this article in The Seattle Times about bubble wrap. How many of us have used bubble wrap to create art projects?–It could look like corn for a thanksgiving story time or be used as a new art tool for orange tempura paint. These 11-year olds were challenged to use bubble wrap, creating good for the world. I think we can relate!
I attended the workshop Saturday morning conducted by the ELVEN (Educators and Librarians in Virtual Environments) Institute in Second Life and it was tres excellent! Thanks to Teresa Walls and Kelly Czarnecki for the headsup, I went to their website and filled out a form that asked me to rate my interests from 1-4 from navigation, communication, clothing and shopping, use of SL for preK-12 education, to use of SL for teacher education. Dewey Jung, Puglet Dancer and the team of ELVEN assistants conducted the 2-hour basic course on Second Life in a classroom-like setting using a virtual LCD projector. The organization was impeccable with 4 main presenters (Blu Heron, Pia Klaar, Dewey Jung, Zotarah Sheperd) taking 20-30 minutes each to cover a topic. Notecards and materials were passed out to each avatar between segments. Student avatars were assigned an assistant to answer questions through IM. My assistant was Bronte Alcott (yes, she was a former English teacher) and she was great! Many questions that had been bugging me in the back of my mind were answered–such as if you “forced midnight” does it make it midnight for everyone around you? The answer is no. How do you get rid of avatars’ names when you’re trying to see the board? Going into Edit–preferences–general (tab)–and checking on “show names temporarily” will get rid of the names above the head. If that big furry wolf avatar’s head is blocking your view of the instructor, use “camera control” to get around it. Learning how to maneuver and use camera controls makes a huge difference on the quality of your Second Life experience from simple viewing to building prims. And I even learned how to make a notecard from “Inventory” to take home my own notes on the lecture. Please IM me (Gisk Akina) if you would like a copy of the workshop’s transcript. I would highly recommend taking a class from them if you are new to Second Life. Everyone at the Institute was so nice and helpful! Who says you have to have a physical person next to you to learn Second Life? Thumbs up ELVEN Institute! Taking the workshop made me realize that virtual instruction works for me. Visit the ELVEN Institute’s web site for more information on their workshops: http://elveninstitute.org/
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Many libraries like to include high quality films in children’s programs. But of course, we need a public performance license to do this and it can be hard to find good films that we want to use. I’ve worked with KIDS FIRST! , a non-profit organization, for a couple of years and once again they are offering a great deal (free) for public libraries. The performance license is included with the DVD so it’s all legal. At the end of the program your library can even keep most of the films for the collection (although the public performance license expires).
KIDS FIRST! is offering a FREE screening program for libraries. The program runs from November 15 -January 15, 2008. The program includes fun selection of titles from studios, including Arthur and the Invisibles, Deck the Halls, Toddworld: Appreciating Differences, Goosebumps, Land Before Time: The Wisdom of Friends, and so many more. There are a limited number of each program, so the quantity that each library receives depends on then total number of libraries requesting titles, however you will receive at least 5 titles if you are among the first 50 libraries to submit an application.
Public performance rights for these titles are available through January 15th at no additional cost, so the library could host a Winter Film Festival or sponsor after school screenings or create a Junior Film Critics Club. If a libray would like to host a Film Festival, please call KIDS FIRST! to arrange programming.
Here is a quick overview of the program.
Is there any cost to the program? None.
How many titles will I receive? We guarantee 5 titles to the first 50 libraries applying for the program.
When will I receive the titles? Within 10 days of application.
How do I get the application. Just email or call Ann Church at KIDS FIRST! [email protected] or 505-989-8076.
Do I get to pick my titles? No, titles will be pre-selected, however, most will be from major studios.
Children’s book author and illustrator Grace Lin and her husband Robert Mercer founded Robert’s Snow: for Cancer’s Cure as he fought sarcoma, a disease which took his life on August 27, 2007. In celebration of his life, many children’s book illustrators have created special snowflakes to be auctioned to benefit sarcoma research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brookline, Massachusetts.
Here are the 2007 snowflakes. There will be three separate online auctions, each with different snowflakes. The first auction begins November 19. The third auction ends December 7.
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As a professor, it is important that I publish my research in academic journals, but as a Native parent and former schoolteacher, I know that those journals are not readily available to people who work with children on a daily basis. With the growth of the Internet, I thought an Internet blog was the way to reach practitioners. In May of 2006 I launched “American Indians in Children’s Literature.” Using it, I reach parents, teachers, librarians and others who have Internet access. Through the blog, I provide information about American Indians—whether that information is a review of a children’s book, or a new source for teachers, or, an announcement about something like the National Endowment for the Humanities “Artrain” that is currently on tour.
Artrain is precisely what its name suggests: a train filled with art. The work exhibited in this particular Artrain is contemporary art by American Indians. Titled “Native Views: Influences of Modern Culture,” it has been touring the country–on railroad tracks–since 2004. I was especially intrigued by the exhibit because it includes the work of Judith Lowry, a woman who illustrated the outstanding children’s picture book, Home to Medicine Mountain which is about Lowry’s father and uncle. They are of the Mountain Maidu and Hamawi Pit-River tribes in northern California. As boys, they were among the thousands of Native children taken to boarding schools developed in the late 1880s to “kill the Indian, save the man.” Missing home, the boys ran away from the school, getting home by riding atop a box car. These schools had a devastating effect on Native communities across the United States, but it is among the too-many topics that are not taught in our classrooms.
On my blog, I write about books like Home to Medicine Mountain and others by Native authors who write books that provide children with accurate information about American Indians. And, I link to websites maintained by Native writers and illustrators like Sherman Alexie, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and George Littlechild.
Research shows, however, that it is not enough to provide children with better information. Teachers must also actively work towards helping children develop an ability to identify racist, biased, and outdated information about, in this case, American Indians. These depictions—whether they appear in children’s books, television programs, movies, as school mascots, or in products at the grocery store—far outnumber the factual and realistic portrayals of American Indians. For decades, Native scholars have addressed these problematic images. Many have written about the racist, biased, and erroneous presentation of American Indians in Forrest Carter’s The Education of Little Tree and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie. Through my blog, teachers can find those critiques.
My blog is listed on websites of the leading teacher and librarian organizations and associations, social justice organizations, and, sites maintained by American Indian tribes and organizations. The content of the website is designed to help people develop a critical stance when evaluating American Indians in children’s books. This means recognizing negative and positive stereotypes, both of which stand in the way of seeing and accepting American Indians as people of the present day.
As I write this blog post, we are entering the month of November. By Presidential Proclamation, November is Native American Month. Ideally, teachers and librarians would be providing children with information about American Indians all year long, but it is often left for this month, partly due to Thanksgiving. It is this holiday during which a lot of “teaching” about American Indians takes place. I placed the word teaching in quotation marks for a reason. Sadly, a lot of what is taught around this time of the year is superficial and laden with error and stereotypes.
Last week, I visited our local library to read the Thanksgiving picture books they have on their shelves. As a teacher, a mother, a Native woman, it is disheartening to see one book after another that uses the words “Pilgrims and Indians.” And, it is troubling to see the illustrations of the Indians. For the most part, they are little more than the stereotype that stands in for all Indians… You’d be able to describe it: fringed buckskin, feathered headdresses, tipis, totem poles, “tom-toms”… That attire and housing is common to a specific group of Native people: the Plains Indians. Totem poles are not made by Plains Indians, and “tom-tom” is not what any Native nation or tribe calls their drum. The word “tom-tom” comes from scouting organizations.
In reality, the clothing, housing, and other cultural artifacts of Native peoples varies with their location. Too often, though, illustrations in picture books clump artifacts together with little regard for the fact that they do not belong together!
The thing is, U.S. schools, from pre-school through college, do a poor job of educating Americans about American Indians. It isn’t a deliberate effort to mis-educate, and there is no point in laying blame on anyone, or feeling guilty if you’re doing something in your classroom or library that is stereotypical. The point is to start doing things differently.
Through my blog, I try to share a lot of information that I think helps my readers understand the diversity that exists across the 500+ federally recognized Native tribes (let alone the 200+ state recognized tribes and the many groups who are completely unrecognized by the state or federal government). I am confident that more and more people are learning how to look critically and let go of problematic books, and instead, select books that present American Indians as we are—not savages and not heroes—but people with good and bad qualities.
I invite you to visit my page. Take time to read and think about the content of my site. In good faith and hard work, we can all effect change in the way today’s society views American Indians. American Indians in Children’s Literature is located at http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com. And, I welcome your feedback and comments.
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The Jewish Museum in New York City is celebrating William Steig in November as it opens the exhibition, From the New Yorker to Shrek: The Art of William Steig, on November 4, 2007. The exhibition will run through March 16, 2008.
For those of you who can attend, a free workshop exploring the works of William Steig is offered to librarians on Monday, November 5. Reservations are required and can be made by calling 212-423-3289. The Jewish Museum has created an online feature for those unable to visit.
Thanks to Maura Scanlon of The Jewish Museum for sharing this information with us. If you are hosting an event or know of an event that would be of interest to children’s librarians, please email us at [email protected]. We’ll do our best to share it with our readers.
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A few of our great libraries offer special programs that focus our attention on the best writer’s and illustrators for children providing us with the opportunity to learn so much about the books and stories we love to share with children.
For those of you in the New York area (or who can swing a trip that way), Margaret Tice from the New York Public Library has extended an invitation to hear Ashley Bryan speak at the Anne Carroll Moore Lecture. Noted author, illustrator, poet, storyteller, Coretta Scott King Award winner, Fulbright scholar and professor of art, Bryan’s lecture is entitled “Deep Like the Rivers: African American Poets, Spirituals, and African Tales.” The lecture will be held at the Donnell Library Center Bankers Trust Auditorium, 20 West 53rd Street, New York, NY, at 10:30 a.m. on November 27, 2007.
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The University of South Carolina’s First Annual Celebration of Latino Children’s Literature Conference will be held on April 26, 2008. The conference theme is “Connecting Cultures and Celebrating Cuentos.” In addition to breakout sessions related to Latino children’s literature, there will be keynote sessions with Dr. Kathy Short, Yuyi Morales , and Lucia Gonzalez. Dr. Kathy Short from the University of Arizona will discuss international children’s literature and intercultural understandings through youth literature. Lucía González will read from her forthcoming bilingual picturebook The Storyteller’s Candle/ La velita de los cuentos during the luncheon break. Author Yuyi Morales (Little Night) will close the conference with a grand finale performance followed by a book signing of conference and local authors.
One of the fundraiser’s for the Texas Library Disaster Relief Fund each year is a raffle for a piece of original art by a noted children’s book illustrator. You don’t have to live in Texas to take a chance on art. This year Diane Stanley has donated a piece of art from the book, Charles Dickens - The Man Who Had Great Expectations. The 13 in. by 12 in. original full color gouache illustration features a Christmas holiday scene. This would look great in any library or home. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the upcoming TLA conference or by mail (must be received by the Texas Library Association office by March 31). The drawing will be held at the conference in Dallas on Thursday, April 17 and you could be the lucky winner. You don’t need to be present to win (although we do love to hear the winner scream with delight) so pass this opportunity on to your friends, neighbors, and other children’s book fans. Please take a chance on art. Go to www.txla.org/html/wells/gallery.html for additional details and a raffle ticket form that can be printed out to send with your check. The Disaster Relief Fund helps Texas libraries that have been affected by disasters.
ALSC is pleased to announce that Henrietta Smith has been selected as the winner of the 2008 Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Smith is professor emerita from the University of South Florida. Over her long and storied career, she has been a teacher, mentor, and inspiration to many children’s librarians and ALSC members and she is a nationally recognized expert in the field of multicultural children’s literature. She has served on numerous ALSC committees, including Newbery and Caldecott, and has long been active on the Coretta Scott King Award Task Force. She has edited two editions of The Coretta Scott King Awards Book: From Vision to Reality, published by ALA Publications. Congratulations, Henrietta!