Journal articles on the topic 'Newberry Medal'

In 2016, the top prize for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children went to a picturebook: Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña. Previously, only one other picturebook had won the Newbery Medal.As a member of the 2016 Newbery Award Committee, I had a voice in selecting a picturebook for the coveted Newbery Medal. But after the announcement, I started to wonder just how many picturebooks had received either the medal or the honor title in the past.

If you were like me, you likely hooted with excitement when you heard that Kathi Appelt’s The Underneath had received a Newbery Honor in 2009. My enthusiasm was tempered only by the fact that it didn’t win the Newbery Medal itself.It’s hard to believe it’s been a decade since the notable book was published—garnering much praise (including being a 2008 National Book Award finalist) but also trigger warnings about its graphic depictions of animal abuse.

This study analyzes how 12 recent (2000-2011) Newbery Medal-winning books represent gender. The study counts how many of the books’ characters represent progressive or traditional gender roles, how many male and female characters represent each character category (protagonist, antagonist, major, and minor), how many strong female characters are accepted or rejected by their peers, how many characters hold stereotypical gender beliefs about themselves or their peers, and how many works contain balanced feminist perspectives. The study finds equitable female representation, but the study also finds a bias toward traditional male stereotypes. The results indicate a general acceptance of strong female characters and a balanced representation of females, regardless of a historical fiction classification. These results suggest that characters in Newbery Medal-winning books represent gender more equally and less stereotypically compared to characters in works of earlier decades.

Embellishment is a stylistic feature of translated children’s literature. In recent years, children’s reading choices and experiences have been truly thought highly of and, today, the idea that lexical enrichment is good for children ––either for their writing or reading experience–– is prevailing among children’s literature translators and book editors. With this in mind, a small corpus composed of translations of the Newbery Medal Awards was built to figure out whether the phenomenon of embellishment exists in English-Chinese translations of children’s literature and, if so, what are the motivations for it. The corpus includes six books selected on four criteria. The study suggests that embellishment is a typical feature of selected translations of the Newbery Awards and that it can be related to both book editing and the translator’s own choices.

Jerry Craft's 2019 Coretta Scott King and Newbery Medal-winning novel New Kid is a thought-provoking, aesthetically pleasing study in comparison-and-contrast between protagonist Jordan Bank's home life in his neighborhood (Washington Heights, near the George Washington Bridge in New York City) and his school life where he is a new 7th grader (Riverdale Academy, an elite and exclusive prep school) that benefits from the medium: graphic literature.

The eight books on the 2005 Honor List were chosen by the authors of this article from those that had won prizes, including the Printz Award or the Newbery Medal, and that were most frequently listed as “best books” by committee members of the Young Adult Library Services Association and book review editors of such publications as the New York Times, School Library Journal, Book List, and Horn Book.

Robert Putnam observed that social class differences, now more than ever, determine the life outcomes of American children. Putnam reported evidence that the American Dream is in crisis for children born into lower-class families—these children have far fewer opportunities for success. This might suggest a loss of a survival narrative for these children.

With the popularity of fantasy literature in recent years, more and more writers of adolescent books shifted their attention to depicting the macabre and the bizarre. While authors of fantasy literature endeavor to show that something that is unreal, strange, whimsical, or magical nevertheless has an internal logic and consistency, at the same time, certain stereotypes typical of the realistic world are destabilized. In the imaginary world in which the events, settings, or characters are outside the realm of possibility, many ideas like love, truth, reality, and identity are constantly destabilized and contested. For example, in Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book (2008), which garners him the Carnegie Medal and the Newbery Medal, the problem of personal identity is apparent in Nobody Owens, an orphan whose parents are killed by a man called “Jack” and whose survival depends on the mercy of the ghosts living in the graveyard that Nobody runs to and hides in to escape Jack. This paper aims to discuss how the protagonist of The Graveyard Book grapples with his bewilderment when confronted with the myth of his identity and how the elements of fantasy are incorporated to help untangle this coming-of-age mythology.

Disability rights activists have long urged recognition of the import of cultural representations and their salience in the Othering process. Previous research on children’s picture books and novels has noted that persons with disabilities are commonly depicted in stereotypic and dehumanizing ways. This article explores the extent to which stereotypes of disability may be gendered and/or racialized by examining children’s books that won the American Library Association’s Newbery Medal between 1922-2012. It notes that the crafting of female and male characters with disabilities within these books pays homage to traditional gender roles, images and symbols and, most notably, reiterates an active-masculine/passive-feminine dichotomization. In addition, these representations suggest how racial essentialism is implicated in the production of “disability” within children’s literature, with non-white “racial” identity equated with various forms of impairment.

Abstract A newcomer to writing for children, Joseph Krumgold revealed an intuitive mastery of what led to success in children’s publishing in the 1950s, winning the American Library Association’s Newbery Medal for distinguished contributions to children’s literature for both of his first two novels: …And Now Miguel (1953) and Onion John (1959). An exploration of the novels reveals what made for distinction at that time, what assumptions about excellence for child readers the novels imply, and in doing so, what ideas they foster about who children are and how they do and should read. This essay reads the novels both in the wider context of bestselling 1950s books that offer theories about changing American values, and in terms of the specific values espoused by children’s writers, publishers and librarians. A consideration of these matters reveals a metafictional relationship between the two novels that enriches the insights they offer into assumptions about children’s reading.

Το παρόν άρθρο εξετάζει τα βραβεία που απονέμονται από τη Γυναικεία Λογοτεχνική Συντροφιά (Γ.Λ.Σ.) κατά την περίοδο 1990 – 2010. Ο θεσμός των βραβείων παιδικού βιβλίου εμφανίστηκε το 1922 στην Αμερική, όταν η American Library Association (A.L.A.) απένειμε το Newbery Medal στο παιδικό βιβλίο The Story of Mankind του Hendrik Willem van Loon. Ωστόσο, τα βραβεία παιδικού βιβλίου άρχισαν να απονέμονται για πρώτη φορά στην Ελλάδα μόλις 36 χρόνια μετά, το 1958, όταν ο μη κερδοσκοπικός φορέας της Γ.Λ.Σ. προκήρυξε τον λογοτεχνικό διαγωνισμό συγγραφής παιδικού αναγνώσματος. Μολονότι ένα πλήθος βραβείων επιμέρους φορέων ακολούθησε, τα βραβεία της Συντροφιάς παρουσιάζουν ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον, καθώς άνοιξαν ένα νέο δρόμο για τη συγγραφή ελληνικών παιδικών βιβλίων σε μία εποχή που οι μεταφράσεις είχαν κυριαρχήσει. Πραγματοποιώντας μια ανασκόπηση της ελληνικής βιβλιογραφίας γύρω από τον χώρο της παιδικής λογοτεχνίας, καθίσταται σαφής η απουσία επιστημονικών μελετών αναφορικά με τα βραβεία της Γ.Λ.Σ., εκτός από μεμονωμένες περιπτώσεις, οι οποίες ως επί το πλείστον εστιάζουν στην ιστορική σημασία και την προσφορά αυτών. Σκοπός του άρθρου είναι η μελέτη των λογοτεχνικών βραβείων της Γ.Λ.Σ. ως πολιτισμικού φαινομένου κατά την περίοδο 1990 – 2010. Ειδικότερα, επιχειρείται η παρουσίαση των στόχων και των θεμάτων των αθλοθετημένων βραβείων. Επιπροσθέτως, διερευνώνται η σύνθεση των κριτικών επιτροπών, η συχνότητα βράβευσης των ίδιων δημιουργών και το φύλο των βραβευμένων. Τέλος, εξετάζονται τα σκεπτικά των βραβεύσεων, προκειμένου να αναδειχθούν τα βασικά κριτήρια αξιολόγησης των διακεκριμένων έργων.

AbstractIn 2016, Last Stop on Market Street, an American picturebook by Matt de la Pena, won the Newberry Medal, a Caldecott Honor, and a Coretta Scott King illustrator honor. In March 2021, Dr Seuss Enterprises, after working “with a panel of experts, including educators,” decided to cease publishing And to Think I Saw in on Mulberry Street (1937) along with five other books that “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.” Both decisions seem to have been motivated by a strong commitment to a contemporary critical multicultural perspective (Yenika-Agbaw, 2022). In this paper, I will explore another perspective through which we might assess the quality and potential impact these and other texts might have on child readers. Drawing on Peter Hollindale’s (1997) contention that a children’s book acts as the vehicle for a reading event during which readers form or reform their ideas of the social construction of childhood and their place within that construction, I will examine how these books portray “childness,” defined by Hollindale as both a distinguishing property of a text and what a reader brings to the reading. As these texts offer snapshots of what it means to be a child in two different times and contexts, I argue that the constructions of childhood in children’s books have changed significantly in the twenty-first century. I will use multimodal discourse analysis and critical content analysis to query the degree to which these texts are “childly” (a term of respect for Hollindale, as opposed to childish) by focusing on notions of the imagination, diverse representation, and adult/child relations.

Children who read for pleasure, as well as for information, do so because they have first learned the simple mechanics of reading. Once the mechanics are in place, children seek out stories that are of interest to them. Reading engaging materials holds the interest of children. As readers encounter increasingly complex reading material, their comprehension and reading abilities increase. It is important that children's literature is not only entertaining, but also complex in age-appropriate ways (Juel, 1988). This study looks at the text complexity of Newbery Medal winners. The books selected for this study cover a 100-year period (1922-2022). The study should be helpful to teachers and librarians in recommending Newbery Medal books based on text complexity. Educators and librarians may use award-winning book lists as suggested reading without regard to the complexity of text. This research highlights the variation found within one list.

With the 2012 spring reading season approaching full bloom, the first major cycle of children’s literature awards is upon us. Topping the news is the conferral of the prestigious ALSC Book and Media Awards. Among the winners were Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos, which received the John Newbery Medal for best new work of children’s literature, and A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka, which took home the Randolph Caldecott Medal for best illustrated children’s book. Overseas, the UK’s CILIP has announced its shortlists for the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway medals, two major awards recognizing the finest in children’s literature and illustration. The winners will be announced on June 14th. Speaking of shortlists, the Canadian Library Association disclosed the contenders for its three childrens’ literature awards, which will be conferred at the CLA Conference on May 31st. Among the nominees are several Deakin-reviewed titles, including Joy Ang’s The Qalupalik for best illustrated children’s book, Kelly Armstrong’s The Gathering and Kenneth Oppel’s This Dark Endeavour (reviewed by T. Chatterley in this issue) for best young adult book, and Rachna Gilmore’s That Boy Red for book of the year. Finally, the International Board on Books for Youth (IBBY) has been busy preparing its 2012 lists of the best children’s and young adult books. IBBY Canada announced its Honours List of five titles at the end of 2011, and USBBY (the U.S. national section of IBBY) announced its list of 36 Outstanding International Books early this year. Among the latter list are several Canadian titles, including the Deakin-reviewed Ten Birds by Cybèle Young.

Greetings all,It has been a long winter in the Edmonton Area so we are very happy to be welcoming spring weather and warm temperatures! This issue’s news items are a bit of a mixed bag of recaps and award announcements:Recap of TD Canadian Children’s Book Week & Lana Button TD Canadian Children’s Book Week was held May 5-12 across Canada. Events across the country featured 400 readings to 28,000 children in 175 communities. At the University of Alberta we featured Lana Button on May 9th for a presentation, showcasing her newest picture book, My Teacher’s Not Here! To read more about Lana Button check out the UAlberta Library Blog: Library News. To read more about other Book Week events see: http://bookweek.ca/CCBC AGMCanadian Children’s Book Centre is holding its Annual General Meeting 2018 on June 14, 2018. This year’s guest speaker is veteran publisher Jim Lorimer. CCBC members and the general public are welcome to attend.WHEN: Thursday, June 14, 2018 at 6:30 pmWHERE: Room 200, Northern District Library40 Orchard View Blvd.Toronto, Ontario The American Library Association Announces Youth Medal Awards for 2018 The annual ALA Medal Awards for 2018 were announced in February. Notable award winners were as follows:John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature: Hello, Universe written by Erin Entrada KellyRandolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children: Wolf in the Snow illustrated and written by Matthew CordellCoretta Scott King Book Awards recognizing African American authors and illustrators of outstanding books for children and young adults: Piecing Me Together written by Renée WatsonMichael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults: We Are Okay written by Nina LaCourStonewall Book Award – Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award given annually to English-language children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender experience: Little & Lion written by Brandy Colbert and The 57 Bus written by Dashka SlaterFor a full description of all award winners see the announcement on the ALA website.Finally, as some food for thought I thought this article from the Family section of The New York Times (April 16, 2018) might be of interest to some our readers. Perri Klass, M.D. writes about how Reading Aloud to Young Children Has Benefits for Behavior and Attention.All the best for an enjoyable spring!Hanne PearceCommunications Editor

Welcome to spring for many of our readers - except those of us in northern Alberta where winter, beautiful winter, just won’t let go this year. You can be sure that we will appreciate spring all the more when it finally takes hold.On a sad note, Andrea Deakin (for whom this publication is named), informed us that Jan Ormerod recently passed away. The Guardian’s obituary of Sunday, February 3, 2013 reminds us that Jan Ormerod “brought a fresh vision to children's picturebooks with her luminous images, storytelling genius and understanding of how children behave” and that she was “admired for her ability to cut away all that was unnecessary in her stories.” (www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/03/jan-ormerod).Although too late for interested groups to participate in the voting this year, the Rocky Mountain Book Award winners will be announced on April 23, 2013. This is a readers’ choice award in its 13th year where groups of students in grades 4-7 read, then vote for, their favourite book from a shortlist of “exemplary Canadian literature” chosen by a committee of teachers, librarians, parents, and students. The award is sponsored in part by the Lethbridge (Alberta) school district and the University of Lethbridge. All the information about participating and pervious winners is at http://rmba.lethsd.ab.ca/index.htm (although the website design is a little challenging to use).As indicated in our last issue, the various 2013 awards from the Association for Library Service to Children division of the American Library Association have been announced. The 2013 Newbery Medal (contribution to American literature for children) winner was The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. The 2013 Caldecott Medal (picture book artist) winner wasThis Is Not My Hat, written and illustrated by Jon Klassen. For other medal winners as well as “honor book” recognition, see www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia.By the way, if keeping track of book awards is a favourite past-time, have a look at the Canadian Children’s Award Index posted by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre at www.bookcentre.ca/awards/canadian_awards_index. I hope you have lots of free time if you want to keep track of them all.On that note, have a wonderful spring and start setting aside piles of books for your summer reading pleasure.David Sulz, Communications EditorDavid is a Public Services Librarian at University of Alberta and liaison librarian to Economics, Religious Studies, and Social Work. He has university studies in Library Studies, History, Elementary Education, Japanese, and Economics; he formerly taught in schools and museums. His interests include physical activity, music, home improvements, and above all, things Japanese.

de la Peña, Matt. Love. Illustrated by Loren Long, G.P. Penguin Random House, 2018.
 Newbery Medal-winning author of Last Stop on Market Street Matt de la Peña and New York Times bestselling illustrator Loren Long have teamed up to paint a touching picture of where love lives in each of our lives. Perfect for the child in your life or the child in you, this book ignites a warm feeling deep down inside. Love shines through in all our senses. Through poetic verses we are reminded of what love looks like, what love sounds like, what love tastes like, what love smells like, and what love feels like, physically and emotionally. Who cannot relate to the simple innocence of laughing as you run through the sprinkler on a hot summer's day?
 One much-needed two-page spread even highlights the importance of self-love. The gorgeous illustrations are comprised of a compilation of monotype prints, acrylic paint, and pencil. They perfectly complement the words that they accompany, even telling their own hidden stories along the way. It is clear to understand how the pictures connect to the words, the two parts work together to invoke emotions in the reader. The vocabulary and structure, like how the word love is used in a variety of manners and how each page offers a glimpse into different individuals’ lives, may be challenging for younger children to read on their own but with the right facilitation any child can find connections to this beautiful picture book.
 Highly Recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Bretton Bowd

Lai, Thanhha. Listen, Slowly. New York: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2015. Print.Twelve year-old Mai wants nothing more for her summer vacation than to spend her days on the beach hanging out with her best friend, getting to know her first romantic crush. Instead, her parents expect Mai to chaperone her grandmother (Bà) on a return trip to Vietnam to uncover the secrets of her grandfather’s disappearance and death in “THE WAR” over 40 years ago. Despite being raised in a home that carried on some Vietnamese traditions, Mai’s parents could not have prepared her for the heat, mosquitoes or infrequent Internet access in her grandfather’s rural northern village. In a display of her preteen angst, Mai immediately starts counting down the days until she can return to the known comforts of life back home in California.With time, however, her language skills improve and she begins to form relationships in the community, particularly with Ut, a girl her age with a serious interest in frogs, and Minh, the local teenage translator with a Texan drawl he acquired through his international studies in the United States. In Mai’s ensuing journey she travels across Vietnam, from the rural rhythms of her ancestral village to the colonial splendour of Hanoi and the humid chaos of Ho Chi Minh City. The nation’s contrasts provide her with an unforgettable summer that far surpasses anything she could have imagined with her initial Laguna Beach plans.After receiving a 2011 National Book Award and 2012 Newbery Medal Honor for Inside Out and Back Again, Thanhha Lai’s second novel continues to explore Vietnamese-American experiences. In contrast to her first book’s focus on a refugee family’s journey, Listen, Slowly examines the frustrations of a second-generation American attempting to reconcile her Vietnamese cultural deficits. Mai’s path to settle within her bicultural identity is an experience familiar to thousands of children her age, who are raised in part with traditions from their parents’ country yet never fully feel immersed in that culture. In her protagonist, Lai has created a relatable character who eventually, and maybe reluctantly, shows capacity for adaptation and resilience in the face of adversity.Lai depicts a vibrant Vietnam with verdant landscapes and mouth-watering descriptions of the nation’s notoriously fresh cuisine. The novel’s humour generally hits the mark, including a hilarious passage of cultural colonialism in which Mai convinces young Vietnamese girls to transform their comfortable underwear to thongs. While the disruption of the story’s pace during philosophical Vietnamese translations might test the patience of young readers, this challenge will be welcomed by many. Overall, this story of adventure, family history and bicultural identity is one that should have a home in all school and public libraries.Recommended: 3 out of 4 StarsReviewer: Kyle MarshallKyle Marshall is the School-Aged Services Intern Librarian for Edmonton Public Library. He graduated with his MLIS from the University of Alberta in June 2015, and is passionate about diversity in children's and youth literature.

AWARDSSome major international children’s literature awards have just been announced as I compile the news for this issue. Several of these have Canadian connections.2016 ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children) Book & Media Award WinnersJohn Newbery Medal"Last Stop on Market Street,” written by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson and published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Books (USA) LLC Newbery Honor Books"The War that Saved My Life," written by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley and published by Dial Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Books (USA) LLC“Roller Girl,” written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson and published by Dial Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Books (USA) LLC“Echo,” written by Pam Muñoz Ryan and published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.Randolph Caldecott Medal"Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear," illustrated by Sophie Blackall, written by Lindsay Mattick and published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.Caldecott Honor Books"Trombone Shorty," illustrated by Bryan Collier, written by Troy Andrews and published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS“Waiting,” illustrated and written by Kevin Henkes, published by Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers“Voice of Freedom Fannie Lou Hamer Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement,” illustrated by Ekua Holmes, written by Carole Boston Weatherford and published by Candlewick Press“Last Stop on Market Street,” illustrated by Christian Robinson, written by Matt de le Peña and published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Books (USA) LLC Laura Ingalls Wilder AwardJerry Pinkney -- His award-winning works include “The Lion and the Mouse,” recipient of the Caldecott Award in 2010. In addition, Pinkney has received five Caldecott Honor Awards, five Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards, and four Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honors. 2017 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture AwardJacqueline Woodson will deliver the 2017 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture. Woodson is the 2014 National Book Award winner for her New York Times bestselling memoir, “Brown Girl Dreaming.” Mildred L. Batchelder Award“The Wonderful Fluffy Little Squishy,” published by Enchanted Lion Books, written and illustrated by Beatrice Alemagna, and translated from the French by Claudia Zoe BedrickBatchelder Honor Books“Adam and Thomas,” published by Seven Stories Press, written by Aharon Appelfeld, iIllustrated by Philippe Dumas and translated from the Hebrew by Jeffrey M. Green“Grandma Lives in a Perfume Village,” published by NorthSouth Books, an imprint of Nordsüd Verlag AG, written by Fang Suzhen, iIllustrated by Sonja Danowski and translated from the Chinese by Huang Xiumin“Written and Drawn by Henrietta,” published by TOON Books, an imprint of RAW Junior, LLC and written, illustrated, and translated from the Spanish by Liniers.Pura Belpre (Author) Award“Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir," written by Margarita Engle and published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing DivisionBelpre (Author) Honor Books"The Smoking Mirror," written by David Bowles and published by IFWG Publishing, Inc."Mango, Abuela, and Me," written by Meg Medina, illustrated by Angela Dominguez and published by Candlewick PressPura Belpre (Illustrator) Award"The Drum Dream Girl," illustrated by Rafael López, written by Margarita Engle and published by Houghton Mifflin HarcourtBelpre (Illustrator) Honor Books"My Tata’s Remedies = Los remedios de mi tata,” iIllustrated by Antonio Castro L., written by Roni Capin Rivera-Ashford and published by Cinco Puntos Press“Mango, Abuela, and Me,” illustrated by Angela Dominguez, written by Meg Medina and published by Candlewick Press“Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras,” illustrated and written by Duncan Tonatiuh and published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMSAndrew Carnegie Medal "That Is NOT a Good Idea," produced by Weston Woods Studios, Inc.Theodor Seuss Geisel Award"Don’t Throw It to Mo!" written by David A. Adler, illustrated by Sam Ricks and published by Penguin Young Readers, and imprint of Penguin Group (USA), LLCGeisel Honor Books "A Pig, a Fox, and a Box," written and illustrated by Jonathan Fenske and published by Penguin Young Readers, an Imprint of Penguin Group (USA) LLC"Supertruck," written and illustrated by Stephen Savage and published by A Neal Porter Book published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership"Waiting," written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes and published by Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.Odyssey Award"The War that Saved My Life," produced by Listening Library, an imprint of the Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, written by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley and narrated by Jayne EntwistleOdyssey Honor Audiobook"Echo," produced by Scholastic Audio / Paul R. Gagne, written by Pam Munoz Ryan and narrated by Mark Bramhall, David De Vries, MacLeod Andrews and Rebecca SolerRobert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal"Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras,” written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh and published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMSSibert Honor Books"Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans," written and illustrated by Don Brown and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt"The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club," by Phillip Hoose and published by Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers"Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March," written by Lynda Blackmon Lowery as told to Elspeth Leacock and Susan Buckley, illustrated by PJ Loughran and published by Dial Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) LLC"Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement," written by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Ekua Holmes and published by Candlewick PressCONFERENCES & EVENTSThis 2016 is shaping up to be a busy year for those of us involved with Canadian children’s literature. To tantalize your appetite (and encourage you to get involved) here are some highlights:January:Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable event: A Celebration of BC’s Award Children’s Authors and Illustrators with special guests Rachel Hartman and the Children’s Literature Roundtables of Canada 2015 Information Book Award winners Margriet Ruurs & Katherine Gibson, January 27, 2016, 7 – 9 pm. Creekside Community Centre, 1 Athletes Way, Vancouver. Free to members and students.April:Wordpower programs from the Young Alberta Book Society feature teams of Albertan children’s literary artists touring to schools in rural areas. Thanks to the generous sponsorship of Cenovus Energy, schools unable to book artist visits due to prohibitive travel costs are able to participate.April 4-8: Wordpower South will send 8 artist teams to communities roughly between Drumheller and Medicine Hat. Artists include Karen Bass, Lorna Shultz-Nicholson, Bethany Ellis, Marty Chan, Mary Hays, Sigmund Brouwer, Carolyn Fisher, Natasha DeenApril 25-29: Wordpower North will have a team of 8 artists traveling among communities in north-eastern Alberta such as Fort MacKay, Conklin, Wabasca, Lac La Biche, Cold Lake, and Bonnyville. The artists include Kathy Jessup, Lois Donovan, Deborah Miller, David Poulsen, Gail de Vos, Karen Spafford-Fitz, Hazel Hutchins, Georgia Graham May: COMICS AND CONTEMPORARY LITERACY: May 2, 2016; 8:30am - 4:30pm at the Rozsa Centre, University of Calgary. This is a one day conference featuring presentations and a workshop by leading authors, scholars, and illustrators from the world of comics and graphic novels. This conference is the 5th in the annual 'Linguistic Diversity and Language Policy' series sponsored by the Chair, English as an Additional Language, Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary. Tom Ricento is the current Chair-holder. The conference is free and lunch is provided. Seating is limited, so register early. The four presenters are:Jillian Tamaki, illustrator for This One Summer, and winner of the Governor General's Award for children's illustration.Richard van Camp, best-selling author of The Lesser Blessed and Three Feathers, and member of the Dogrib Nation.Dr. Nick Sousanis, post-doctoral scholar, teacher and creator of the philosophical comic Unflattening.Dr. Bart Beaty, University of Calgary professor, acclaimed comics scholar and author of Comics vs. Art TD Canadian Children’s Book Week 2016. In 2016, the Canadian Children's Book Centre celebrates 40 years of bringing great Canadian children's books to young readers across the country and the annual TD Canadian Children’s Book Week will be occurring this May across Canada. The theme this year is the celebration of these 40 years of great books written, illustrated and published in Canada as well as stories that have been told over the years. The 2016 tour of storytellers, authors and illustrators and their area of travel are as follows:Alberta: Bob Graham, storyteller; Kate Jaimet, authorBritish Columbia (Interior region) Lisa Dalrymple, author; (Lower Mainland region) Graham Ross, illustrator; (Vancouver Island region) Wesley King, author; (Northern region, Rebecca Bender, author & illustrator.Manitoba: Angela Misri, author; Allison Van Diepen, authorNew Brunswick: Mary Ann Lippiatt, storytellerNewfoundland: Maureen Fergus, authorLabrador: Sharon Jennings, authorNorthwest Territories: Geneviève Després, illustratorNova Scotia: Judith Graves, authorNunavut: Gabrielle Grimard, illustratorOntario: Karen Autio, author; Marty Chan, author; Danika Dinsmore, author; Kallie George, author; Doretta Groenendyk, author & illustrator; Alison Hughes, author; Margriet Ruurs, author.Prince Edward Island: Wallace Edwards, author & illustratorQuebec (English-language tour): LM Falcone, author; Simon Rose, author; Kean Soo, author & illustrator; Robin Stevenson, author; and Tiffany Stone, author/poet.Saskatchewan: (Saskatoon and northern area) Donna Dudinsky, storyteller; (Moose Jaw/Regina and southern area) Sarah Ellis, authorYukon: Vicki Grant, author-----Gail de Vos is an adjunct professor who teaches courses on Canadian children's literature, young adult literature, and comic books & graphic novels at the School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) at the University of Alberta. She is the author of nine books on storytelling and folklore. Gail is also a professional storyteller who has taught the storytelling course at SLIS for over two decades.