Whether we like it or not, many of us are officially in the snowy season! It’s time to hibernate and be cozy as we move into the New Year. As we begin 2026, now is the time to think about setting goals to show up as our best selves. You can read more about setting goals in this blog post, New Year, New Goals. Alternatively, you could try choosing just one word to theme your year around. You can read about how to do that in this blog post, New Year…One Word. One adventure or goal you could choose to embark on in 2026 is becoming more involved in ALSC. Whether you are already a member, a YALSA member who will be joining us in 2026, or a prospective ALSC-er, there are so many reasons why this is a wonderful organization to be a part of. There is truly SNOW…
Tag: ALA Youth Media Awards
Don’t You (Forget About Me): the Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award
It’s been just under two weeks since the 2025 Youth Media Awards (YMAs) announcements and the library world (and beyond!) is still buzzing with excitement. As you review and celebrate this year’s list of winners and honorees, don’t forget about one of the newer awards, the Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media (EELDM) award. Some Background The Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media recognizes the producer of the most distinguished digital media created for an early learning audience (ages 2-8). Past winners include television series, apps, and podcasts. The committee also considers websites, enhanced ebooks, and more. This ALSC blog post from 2019 (the first year EELDM was awarded) provides more information about award. For the 2025 EELDM committee’s take on this year’s winner and honorees read ALA’s press release. 2025 Winner — “Carl the Collector” Producer Fuzzytown Productions and Spiffy Pictures is the 2025 recipient of the Excellence in…
What a BIG Day! The 2024 ALA Youth Media Awards
There is something special about attending the ALA Youth Media Awards Ceremony in person. January 22 in Baltimore, Maryland, was indeed a BIG day for those of us who love children’s literature! I have been attending the ceremony for approximately 15 years, and it never gets old for me. There are always the surprises (“Who knew that one would win?!”) and the affirmations (“I knew it! This one had gotten so much buzz!”). I love both but especially the surprises, which make me go back and give the award-winning books a second chance (or a first chance) and reread carefully to see what I missed.
Secrecy, Jubilance, and the 2022 YMA Announcements
Secrecy, excitement, and jubilation are three words that, in my opinion, best embody the spirit of the YMA Announcements. In-person or virtual, the event retains its spirit of secrecy and great anticipation. As the President of ALSC, I was privileged this year to be among the “keepers of the secret.” But the virtual character of the event made it a torture to have to keep “the secret” for nearly a week prior to the announcements.
#ALAYMA Announcements Oh My!
This morning a few of my colleagues and I tuned in to the livestream of the Youth Media Awards and oh my goodness! So many fabulous books were honored, including a few books of my heart. And I look forward to reading the ones I haven’t yet read. A few books of my heart were honored this year and it was so amazing to hear their titles called! In particular, my colleagues knew that I was really rooting for Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo. Just last week, I suggested it for my library’s LGBTQ+ book discussion. I told our leader that I was going to go ahead and put in the ILL requests before it got bombarded with shiny stickers and no one would loan it to us for awhile. Yay for me that I did that because boy howdy did it get bombarded! Another book…
The YMA announcements at #LibLearnX did not disappoint
One of my favorite days of the year is when the ALA Youth Media Awards (YMAs) are announced. For years, they have been announced at the American Library Association’s Midwinter meeting with a buzzing auditorium full of excited librarians, publishers, and other children’s literature aficionados in attendance. Due to the pandemic, the announcements went virtual in 2021. This year the YMA announcements were once again live-streamed as they were announced at ALA’s virtual conference LibLearnX – Library Learning Experience.
Mocking Masters: Future Librarians Dive into a Mock Caldecott
I teach children’s literature in a Canadian university and my students are the next generation of children’s services librarians. For the past 2 years I have held a class-wide Mock Caldecott. This serves the dual purpose of introducing them to a lot of current illustrated material and teaching them the specifics of this important book award. My hope is that they will be able to apply these same steps to other children’s book and media awards. After reading and book-talking eligible books all term, we came up with the following top 10 Mock Caldecott contenders, in alphabetical order by title, followed by the name of the illustrator.
Have YOU submitted your Mock YMA Election Results?
In just over two weeks, on Monday morning, January 28th, the Youth Media Awards will be announced at #alamw19. Excitedly, we will all hear what wins some of the most prestigious book awards in the world, including the Newbery Award, the Caldecott Award, the Printz Award, the Batchelder Award, and more. As excitement builds, librarians in schools and libraries around the country offer Mock YMA elections to help stimulate and share the reading enthusiasm and excitement. The ALSC Blog collects results from these mock elections and compiles the results on its Mock Elections page.