The Children’s Literature Lecture Award Committee is seeking suggestions for our 2024 honoree (note: this is not the same as the Children’s Literature Legacy Award). The lecture will be given in 2024 at a site to be chosen next year. The lecturer may be an author, critic, librarian, historian, or teacher of children’s literature, of any country, who shall prepare a talk considered to be a significant contribution to the field of children’s literature. Recent past winners include Bryan Collier (at left), Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, Neil Gaiman, Dr. Debbie Reese, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Jacqueline Woodson. The complete list of past lecturers is on the ALSC website. The nomination form is available online to ALSC members and the deadline for submissions is August 18. The 2024 lecturer will be announced at the 2023 ALA LibLearnX Conference in January 2023 in New Orleans. For more details about the lecture, please visit the Children’s Literature Lecture Award site. (This piece originally appeared in The Horn Book Inc. Blog on…
Category: Guest Blogger
Library Play Area on a Budget
When the COVID numbers lessened in our area and I was able to put things out in the children’s area for them to play with, I realized that we didn’t have much. We have a few wooden puzzles which are fun, but the kids told me they get bored of doing the same ones over and over. Play is one of the five Early Literacy Practices and the ALSC blog post Play With Babies in Library Spaces by the Early and Family Literacy Committee discusses why play is so important. Knowing just how important it is for kids to play, I spent some time coming up with ideas on things I could do on a budget to make my children’s area more inviting and interactive.
April Ryan Inspires
April Ryan, White House corespondent, delivered a call to action at the #alaac2022 PLA breakfast. First, she gave a shout out to Enoch Pratt Free Library where she went when her mother would not answer her questions but told her to “look it up.”
TikTok and Libraries: A Powerful Partnership…was a Powerful Presentation!
Monday was my last day at #ALAAC2022, and I started it with a really informative presentation about using TikTok in your library. When the pandemic first started, I created a TikTok account but never used it. (I am not sure I even remember my login information.) Delving into a new social media platform can sometimes be daunting, so, I was really excited to attend TikTok and Libraries: A Powerful Partnership and to learn how to use TikTok to promote books and my library. Presentations about TikTok seem to be just as popular as the social media platform itself—it was a packed house in the Convention Center!
Celebrating Indigenous Storytelling
I was eager to attend the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) session at #alaac22. While pursuing my LIS degree, I have sought knowledge about indigenous librarianship, so Celebrate Indigenous Storytelling: Books from across the Northern Border hosted by USBBY was appealing to me. Neil Christopher and Louise Flaherty with Inhabit Media conveyed their commitment to producing stories in Inuktut, English and French. Over 80% are created by indigenous authors. Maps were shown to help us learn that the community of Iqaluit is located on the island of Baffin in the Arctic Circle.
Newbery Newbery Newbery! (and Newbery)
Happy 100th birthday, Newbery! My ALSC Blog colleagues have done a wonderful job writing about Newbery events for #alaac2022, so read them (here and here and here)! I want to share a few highlights from two wonderful events.
The Newbery Caldecott Legacy Banquet at #ALAAC2022
It was so wonderful to be able to be in person again for the Newbery Caldecott Legacy Banquet at #ALAAC2022. And to celebrate 100 years of the #Newbery! (The Caldecott was celebrating its 84th anniversary with the first medal given in 1938.)
#alaac22 ALSC Awards Presentation
What a wonderful way to start my day at the conference today! This morning I attended the 2022 ALSC Awards Presentation for the the Siebert, Batchelder, and Geisel winners. What a treat to see so many librarians, authors, illustrators, publishers, friends and families in one room honoring such beautiful books. What I loved most about this celebration was hearing such humble speeches from the winning authors and the care and craft that was taken by the committees to select them. Some of my favorite moments: