Katherine Paterson, two-time winner of the National Book Award and Newbery Medal, is the 2010-2011 National Ambassador for Young People\u2019s Literature. She succeeds Jon Scieszka, appointed in 2008, who was the first person to hold the title. Katherine Paterson has chosen \u201cRead for Your Life\u201d\u009d as the theme for her platform.<\/p>\n
The National Ambassador for Young People\u2019s Literature is named by the Librarian of Congress for a two-year term, based on recommendations from a selection committee representing many segments of the book community. The selection criteria include the candidate\u2019s contribution to young people\u2019s literature and ability to relate to children. The position was created to raise national awareness of the importance of young people\u2019s literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education, and the development and betterment of the lives of young people.<\/p>\n
The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, the Children\u2019s Book Council (CBC), and Every Child a Reader, the CBC foundation, are the sponsors of the National Ambassador for Young People\u2019s Literature initiative (www.read.gov\/cfb\/<\/a>). Financial support for the National Ambassador program is provided by Penguin Young Readers Group, Scholastic Inc., HarperCollins Children\u2019s Books, Random House Children\u2019s Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Macmillan Publishers, Holiday House, Charlesbridge, National Geographic Children\u2019s Books, Candlewick Press and Marshall Cavendish Publishers.<\/p>\n Katherine Paterson\u2019s international fame rests not only on her widely acclaimed novels but also on her efforts to promote literacy in the United States and abroad. A two-time winner of the Newbery Medal (\u201cBridge to Terabithia\u201d\u009d and \u201cJacob Have I Loved\u201d\u009d) and the National Book Award (\u201cThe Great Gilly Hopkins\u201d\u009d and \u201cThe Master Puppeteer\u201d\u009d), she has received many other accolades for her body of work, including the Hans Christian Andersen Medal, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award and the Governor\u2019s Award for Excellence in the Arts, given by her home state of Vermont. Paterson was also named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress in 2000. Paterson\u2019s most recent book is \u201cThe Day of the Pelican,\u201d\u009d a story of a refugee family\u2019s flight from war-torn Kosovo to America. She and her husband, John, live in Barre, Vt. They have four children and seven grandchildren. For more information, visit www.terabithia.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Center for the Book (www.loc.gov\/cfbook<\/a>), a public-private partnership, was established by Congress in 1977 \u201cto use the resources and prestige of the Library of Congress to promote books, reading, literacy, and libraries.\u201d\u009d With its many educational programs that reach readers of all ages, through its support of the National Book Festival and through its centers in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Center for the Book has developed a nationwide network of organizational partners dedicated to promoting the wonders and benefits of reading. The Center also oversees the new Read.gov<\/a> website, with its exclusive \u201cExquisite Corpse Adventure\u201d\u009d serialized story.<\/p>\n The Children\u2019s Book Council, established in 1945, is the nonprofit trade association of publishers of trade books for children and young adults in the United States. The CBC promotes the use and enjoyment of trade books for young people, most prominently as the official sponsor of Children\u2019s Book Week. Every Child a Reader, the CBC foundation, is a separate legal entity created by the Board of Directors of the CBC. For more information about the CBC, please visit www.cbcbooks.org<\/a> and for Every Child a Reader, please visit www.ecarfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Katherine Paterson, two-time winner of the National Book Award and Newbery Medal, is the 2010-2011 National Ambassador for Young People\u2019s Literature. She succeeds Jon Scieszka, appointed in 2008, who was the first person to hold the title. Katherine Paterson has chosen \u201cRead for Your Life\u201d\u009d as the theme for her platform. The National Ambassador for Young People\u2019s Literature is named by the Librarian of Congress for a two-year term, based on recommendations from a selection committee representing many segments of the book community. The selection criteria include the candidate\u2019s contribution to young people\u2019s literature and ability to relate to children. The position was created to raise national awareness of the importance of young people\u2019s literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education, and the development and betterment of the lives of young people. The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, the Children\u2019s Book Council (CBC), and Every…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[85,22,34,23,59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-spotlight","category-childrens-literature","category-awards","category-news-of-interest","category-publishing-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}