If you, like me, are still riding high on the excitement of the 2023 Youth Media Awards announcements, there’s a good chance you’re feeling an urge to talk about these terrific titles with fellow kidlit enthusiasts. I’m delighted to share that you can now indulge your desire to talk about this year’s Newbery and Caldecott winners and honorees in the company of fellow library workers in an ALSC-led group. That’s right, you can participate in an upcoming ALSC YMA Book Club!
ALSC is offering four discussion groups, each of which will meet twice (once in February, once in March). Each of these synchronous discussions will offer a space to talk books with the added benefit of facilitation from past award committee chairs. That means that these are not only opportunities to celebrate excellent titles for kids–these are also professional development opportunities meant to help hone your media evaluation skills. These book clubs are an excellent way to get started building, or to keep fresh, your skills as thoughtful, critical evaluators–a core competency for library workers serving children. In the company of peers, you’ll get to practice what it’s like to think about picture books the way a Caldecott Award committee member would, or to discuss what it means for a book for children to be considered “distinguished.”
In order to keep the groups to a size for meaningful engagement, interested participants will need to register for their preferred club. ALSC members receive 50% off of the book club registration fee as a benefit of their membership. Happy reading and discussing!
2023 Book Clubs
Caldecott | Moderated by: Annisha Jeffries | Sundays, February 19 and March 5, 2023 | 7:00pm-8:15pm ET | REGISTER
Caldecott | Moderated by: Julie Roach | Thursdays, February 16 and March 2, 2023 | 7:00pm-8:15pm ET | REGISTER
Newbery | Moderated by: Ellen Riordan | Thursdays, February 23 and March 16, 2023 | 6:30pm-7:45pm ET | REGISTER
Newbery | Moderated by: Cecilia McGowan | Tuesdays, February 28 and March 14, 2023 | 1:00pm-2:15pm ET | REGISTER
These ALSC YMA Book Clubs are a new endeavor for the association, developed with library worker input and lots of hard work from members, including the Diversifying Revenues Streams within ALSC Task Force. If you have an idea for another discussion you’d like to see offered, or other ideas for practitioners’ professional development, share in the comments!