NEWS YOU CAN USE!
For a list of the 2011 Newbery, Caldecott, and other book award winners, see the American Library Association posting.
The annual "Read Across America" celebration to motivate wide reading is once again set for March 2, in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday. See NEA for activity ideas, materials, and background information.
Begin thinking about festivities for National Children's Book Week, May 7-13, 2012! Continue to check the Children's Book Council for updated events information.
The Poetry Foundation has named J. Patrick Lewis as Children's Poet Laureate. The award "aims to raise awareness that children have a natural receptivity to poetry and are its most appreciative audience, especially when poems are written specifically for them." (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/children/poet-laureate) Lewis is the author of more than 50 books of poetry for children, including Skywriting: Poems to Fly (Creative Editions, 2010); Spot the Plot: A Riddle Book of Book Riddles (Chronicle, 2009); Countdown to Summer: A Poem for Every Day of the School Year (Little, Brown, 2009); The Underwear Salesman (Atheneum, 2009); The World's Greatest: Poems (Chronicle, 2008); Vherses: A Celebration of Outstanding Women (Creative Editions, 2005); Please Bury Me in the Library (Harcourt, 2005); Heroes and She-roes: Poems of Amazing and Everyday Heroes (Dial, 2005); Scientrickery: Riddles in Science (Harcourt, 2004); Freedom Like Sunlight: Praisesongs for Black Americans (Creative Editions, 2003); Swan Song: Poems of Extinction (Creative Editions, 2003); Arithme-Tickle: An Even Number of Odd Riddle-Rhymes (Harcourt, 2002); A World of Wonders: Geographic Travels in Verse (Dial, 2002); A Burst of Firsts: Doers, Shakers, and Record Breakers (Dial, 2001); The Bookworm's Feast: A Potluck of Poems (Dial, 1999), and Doodle Dandies: Poems That Take Shape (Atheneum, 1998). You can visit Lewis at http://www.jpatricklewis.com/
The position of Children's Poet Laureate has a tenure of two years. Lewis succeeds Mary Hoberman. Jack Prelutsky served as the first Children's Poet Laureate, named in 2006.
Walter Dean Myers was named National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. He is the author of two Newbery Honor Books: Scorpions (1989) and Somewhere in the Darkness (1993), author of Monster (2000 Michael L. Printz Award), recipient of five Coretta Scott King Awards, winner of the Inaugural Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement (2010), a three-time finalist for the National Book Award, and recipient of the Margaret Edwards Award in 1994 for his contributions to young adult literature. The two-year Ambassador position was created in 2008 to raise national awareness of the importance of lifelong literacy. Myers has chosen "Reading Is not Optional" as his theme. For his thoughts on books and reading, see the NPR interview conducted after his appointment. Previous Ambassadors are Jon Scieszka and Katherine Paterson.
Remembering...
William Sleator, author of fantasy and science fiction for young adults, died August 2, 2011, at age 66. His first book, a picture book, The Angry Moon, illustrated by Blair Lent, was named a Caldecott Honor Book in 1971.
Steven Kroll, author of nearly 100 picture books, chapter books, and young adult novels, died March 26, 2011, at age 69.
Brian Jacques, author of the popular Redwall series, died February 5, 2011, at age 71.
John Schoenherr, illustrator of over 40 books for children and recipient of the 1988 Caldecott Medal for Owl Moon by Jane Yolen,
died April 8, 2010, at age 74. The illustrations in Owl Moon were inspired by scenes from his farm in rural New Jersey.
Sid Fleischman, the author of more than 60 fiction and nonfiction books for children and recipient of the Newbery Medal in 1986 for
The Whipping Boy, died March 17, 2010, at age 90.