The Caldecott 75th Anniversary Task Force cordially invites you to join us at the Red Carpet event before the 2013 Newbery-Caldecott-Wilder Banquet at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. Everyone is invited to the celebration–the pre-banquet Red Carpet is a non-ticketed event. Off-site guests are encouraged to celebrate from afar through special online offerings. For ALA Attendees: The Red Carpet event begins at 5:30pm outside of the Sheraton Ballroom where the banquet will be held. Bring your camera for unique photo-ops and carry a pocketbook for the Caldecocktail cash bar (wine, beer, and soda also available). Test your Caldecott knowledge and reminisce about memorable books and banquets from the past. BYOD so you can tweet with other revelers using #caldecott75 and #ncbanquet. Guests with tickets to the banquet can expect to enter the ballroom no earlier than 6:30pm. Revelers not attending the banquet are welcome to return to the ballroom…
Category: Caldecott 75th Anniversary
ALSC Preconference Scholarship Winners Announced
The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and the Friends of ALSC have awarded two scholarships to the 2013 ALSC Preconference, A Wild Ride: 75 Years of the Caldecott Medal. The winners of the scholarship are Pamela Mann, Children’s Services Coordinator, Morgan County (W.Va.) Public Library, and Angela Reynolds, Head of Youth Services, Annapolis Valley Regional Library, Bridgetown, Nova Scotia. Friends of ALSC was created to ensure excellence in the Association’s traditional programs and services and to support growth in new directions as our profession meets the exciting challenges of the 21st century. Over the last year, the Friends of ALSC have supported professional development for members by giving more than $2,500 in scholarships to ALSC programming, including the 2012 National Institute and the 2013 Preconference. Mann and Reynolds were chosen from a pool of more than 25 well-qualified applicants. Criteria for selection included commitment to children’s library services…
A 75th Anniversary Toast to the Caldecott Medal
See You on the Red Carpet! Put on your glamour for the most memorable banquet ever! Be ready to stroll the red carpet when the cash bar reception opens at 5:30. Jim Averbeck and his “Kidlit on the Red Carpet” team will do live interviews as revelers enjoy celebratory drinks, photo ops, prizes, special activities, and more as we prepare to honor this year’s Newbery, Caldecott, and Wilder award winners. A dinner ticket is not necessary to enjoy the red carpet or the speeches, but maybe this is the year to splurge. More information at the banquet FAQs page. Anniversary Attire The Caldecott 75th Anniversary Task Force encourages you to dress to impress for this year’s red carpet and banquet festivities. Pay homage to banquets of yesteryear with a vintage outfit or retro accessories. Or, offer a nod to Caldecott titles with a thematic ensemble–we expect to see many “borrowed”…
Red Ribbons and Red Carpet
The ALA annual conference is one month away and the Caldecott 75th Task Force members are seeing RED! If you’ll be in Chicago, you will be seeing red too. Look for ALSC ambassadors wearing these red ribbon rosettes to find out about all of the Caldecott 75th Anniversary celebrations taking place. You’ll see a lot of us at “A Wild Ride: 75 Years of the Caldecott Medal,” the sold-out kick-off event for the weekend. Don’t worry, if you can’t make it to the preconference, you have a chance to visit the Art Institute of Chicago over the weekend for their public exhibit called “Play, Pretend, and Dream: Caldecott Medal and Honor Books, 2010—2013.” Also taking place on Friday, June 28th is an independent bus trip to the Skokie Public Library’s exhibit of the Caldecott Medal and Honor artwork commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott Medal. Tickets to this dessert…
Ten, Nine, Eight…Caldecott Countdown
The year-long celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott medal will culminate at the ALA Annual Conference. The next few ALSC blog posts from the Caldecott 75th Task Force will highlight special activities taking place in Chicago, but first we’ll take one last look at how you can celebrate the 75th anniversary in your neck of the woods. The Youth Services staff at the Johnson County (KS) Library brainstormed ideas for interactive Caldecott related activities to share with their patrons. A display was set up in all 13 libraries, rotating the activities in and out between locations. Children can play Caldecott Bingo, match Snowflake Bentley snowflakes, take “Flotsam” photos, play Caldecott Trivia, guess and sort the Caldecott artwork, create a “Where the Wild Horses Are” mini book (explanation in the photo below), play a Caldecott memory matching game, and work on a Caldecott Anniversary puzzle. The Youth Services staff…
Sharing Caldecott Winning Books with School-Age Children
As a public children’s librarian, my ultimate test of a book’s quality is during story time. Sure, I can assess the book on my own; its artistic and literary merits, the quality of writing, and so on. But it all comes together, often in surprising ways, when I have a bunch of kids in front of me. Either it works or it doesn’t. There’s a long-standing, often controversial search for balance when it comes to Caldecott winners. Yes, the award goes to “most distinguished American picture book for children.” But our criteria differs, and even the most uniquely beautiful book might bomb during story time or one-on-one reading with a child. For me, there are some Caldecott winners that I would hesitate to share during a group story time, either because of length or my own personal preferences. But some are preschool storytime gold: Where the Wild Things Are, The…
A Gold Mine of Gold Medal Celebrations
Last month’s all-call for Caldecott 75th Anniversary celebration ideas yielded a jackpot of festive programs and events. Contributors featured here received an autographed copy of a Caldecott winner/honor title. The year-long celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Caldecott Medal is approaching the climax, and it’s not too late for you to join the party! Try one of these golden ideas on for size at your library. Caldecott Pajama Party The Kimberly-Little Chute Library in Wisconsin held an evening Caldecott Pajama Story Time in January. The 2013 winner was announced and favorite winners from previous years were read, followed by a screening of the film version of Officer Buckle and Gloria. Attendees also explored Caldecott art styles, such as the pencil/charcoal of Kitten’s First Full Moon. Children and families selected book jackets from picture books to take home and use for creating art projects. (Submitted by Ann Hardginski) On Your…
Caldecott Storytimes
In honor of the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott Medal, I decided to theme all of my preschool storytimes around Caldecott winners and honor books. I was inspired by all of the Caldecott promotion that ALSC has been doing and wanted to do something to celebrate at my library. At first I thought I would be able to put together some storytimes just for January to highlight some past winners and promote the titles that were chosen this year. I got a bit carried away once I started looking at the list of Caldecott books and decided I could do more than a month worth of storytimes and I ended up with 15 weeks of Caldecott plans. I tried to stick to a theme of sorts within the books like nighttime (The House in the Night, Blackout, and Kitten’s First Full Moon) and Silly Animals (Click Clack Moo, Interrupting Chicken,…