{"id":36360,"date":"2026-06-30T07:00:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T11:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=36360"},"modified":"2026-06-29T22:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T02:29:14","slug":"a-sunrise-breakfast-at-alac26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2026\/06\/a-sunrise-breakfast-at-alac26\/","title":{"rendered":"A Sunrise Breakfast at #alaac26"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the sun came up over Chicago, I headed to the Marriott for the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Round Table<\/a>\u2019s (CSKBART) 57th annual Breakfast and Awards event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Thanks to my ALSC mentor<\/a>, Danielle Jones, I was able to attend this event for the second year in a row. With one Breakfast under my belt, I knew the lay of the land for this year. The breakfast kicked off with a chorus of Lift Every Voice and Sing<\/em>, led by Lendell Jones II, in CSK tradition. We were then met with remarks from ALA President Sam Helmick, ALA Executive Director and first-time ALA attendee Dan Montgomery, and Black Caucus President Wanda K. Brown before breaking for our meal.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharing breakfast with my table is definitely a highlight of my day. It is so nice to be able to chat with new faces and learn more about where everyone hails from. I later found out that we were sitting with a previous CSKBART member! After chatting and munching for a while, we got into the main attraction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The awards began with the presentation of the John Steptoe New Talent Award. This year\u2019s award was presented to Arriel Vinson for her novel-in-verse Under the Neon Lights<\/em>. She graciously accepted the award, sharing that this title has been the culmination of years of research and writing. She made sure to give many thanks to family and friends, including friend and mentor Leah Henderson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Award presentations continued with the Coretta Scott King Book Award Honorees. Illustrators Lamont O\u2019Neal and Alexis Fanklin were honored for their work on Andre: Andre Leon Talley: A Fabulously Fashionable Fairy Tale<\/em> and City Summer, Country Summer<\/em>, respectively. Three authors were also honored for their work in young adult, middle grades, and children\u2019s literature. Derrick Barnes received recognition for The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze, <\/em>Marie Arnold for Split the Sky<\/em>, and Calvin Alexander Ramsey for The Library in the Woods<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Author Jewell Parker Rhodes accepting her award<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Author and illustrator award winners were then presented. Jewell Parker Rhodes, winner of the CSK Author award for Will\u2019s Race for Home<\/em>, gratefully accepted her award with lively tales of her childhood and her grandmother, who was her biggest inspiration. R. Gregory Christie, winner of the CSK Illustrator award for The Library in the Woods<\/em>, accepted his award with high praise to honoree Ramsey, who created the story that allowed his images to shine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The breakfast was wrapped up with the Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, given to Kadir Nelson. After the usual thanks and stories of his journey, Nelson wrapped up by stating, \u201cI\u2019m aware that this is an award for lifetime<\/em> achievement\u2026 I\u2019m only fifty-one, now fifty-two!,\u201d earning a few laughs from the crowd. He followed up these remarks by saying that he still has a lot to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the breakfast came to an end, and we all gave one more round of applause to the winners, committee, previous members, and ALA staff, I felt truly inspired to see such an important process completed in front of me. From celebrating stories of two hundred years ago, to summers just around the corner, this award represents a breadth of stories for readers to find themselves in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image courtesy of author<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Annaliese Melvin<\/strong> (she\/they) is a children\u2019s librarian at a neighborhood library in Washington, D.C. Originally from Pennsylvania, she moved to the DC-area in 2020 to become a special education teacher after graduating with her bachelor\u2019s from Arcadia University. In 2023, she graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a master\u2019s degree in Library and Information Science and transitioned into the library field. Annaliese currently works to bring more inclusive programming to DC Public Libraries for children of all ages. She is passionate about equity, inclusion, reading, and Philadelphia sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the sun came up over Chicago, I headed to the Marriott for the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Round Table\u2019s (CSKBART) 57th annual Breakfast and Awards event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":408,"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":[3150,2980,210,22,10,25,34,151],"tags":[3276,1494,1493,3039,800],"class_list":["post-36360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annual-2026","category-blogger-annaliese-melvin","category-books-2","category-childrens-literature","category-committees","category-evaluation-of-media","category-awards","category-live-blogging","tag-alaac26","tag-coretta-scott-king","tag-csk","tag-cskbart","tag-live-blogging"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36360","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\/408"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}