My experience with the ALSC seals goes back 30 years to my time as a primary grade teacher in Macon, Georgia. I had a professor at the University of Florida, Dr. Linda Leonard Lamme, who turned me on to books—picturebooks especially—and so I incorporated children’s literature into my kindergarten, first, and second grade classrooms. I remember sharing picturebooks such as King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub by Audrey and Don Wood, Mirandy and Brother Wind by Patricia C. McKissack and Jerry Pinkney, and Truck by Donald Crews with the Caldecott Award seals on them during readalouds and explaining that these books had won for outstanding artwork. At that time, I had no idea that ALSC sponsored the awards or how the Randolph Caldecott Award Selection Committees functioned. I never could have imagined that one day I would be serving as a member of the 2019 Randolph Caldecott Award Selection Committee.
Tag: Award Seals
The Importance & Wonder of Award Seals
Every book awards season, readers and librarians alike anxiously count down to the ALA Midwinter meeting where, at the Youth Media Awards, the announcement of winners and honorees will take place. For ALSC members, the Newbery Medal, Caldecott Medal, Pura Belpré Medal, Sibert Medal and the Geisel Award – to name a few – looms large. Equally as important as the books chosen for those prestigious medals and awards, are the award seals that will soon appear on those books.