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Few things go together better than a summer-shade tree and an award-winning read. That’s why The RoadRunner Press is offering 10 teen readers a free autographed copy of M. Scott Carter’s The Immortal Von B., recipient of both the Oklahoma Book Award and the 2013 IPPY gold medal for young adult fiction.
The creator of elaborate, fiery fantasies with“kick-butt” female protagonists talks with SLJ about her award-winning work.
The winners of the Audie Awards, the audiobook industry’s equivalent of the Oscars, were announced at the 18th Annual Audies Gala held at The New York Historical Society in New York City on May 30, 2013 and hosted by Daniel Handler (author of “A Series of Unfortunate Events” series written under the name Lemony Snicket). The awards, sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association (APA), recognize distinction in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment.
Students entering the fifth and sixth grades in the fall of 2013 can enter the “A Book That Shaped Me” Summer Writing Contest. To participate, kids must write a one-page essay about one book, either fiction or nonfiction, that has had an impact on their lives.
Penny Warner’s The Code Busters 2: The Haunted Lighthouse won the 2012 Agatha Award. Capstone is adding 60 more Presidential titles to the K–3 PebbleGo Biographies module in August 2013. ABDO’s will publish library editions of IDW’s “Jurassic Park” and “Star Trek” graphic novels this fall.
The Mystery Writers of America celebrated Edgar Allan Poe’s 204th birthday with the announcement of the Edgar Awards. Pictured here are the nominees for the Juvenile Fiction category, including winner Jack Ferraiolo for The Quick Fix .
Teachers College, Columbia University, has received an $11 million commitment from longtime Trustee Abby M. O’Neill to establish a scholarship fund, beginning with an outright $1 million gift. The fund will be used to establish the Abby M. O’Neill Fellowship Program for outstanding individuals with a strong commitment to teaching.
Luci Tapahonso has been appointed the Navajo Nation’s first Poet Laureate. Arte Público Press launches a A Day without Sugar initiative to combat child obesity. The winners of the South Asia Book Awards and the Marion Vannett Ridgway Award were announced.
The Project:Connect Summer Youth Programming Competition is now accepting proposals for its fifth Digital Media and Learning (DML5) event. DML supports single or multiday participatory and hands-on learning experiences, such as labs, hackathons, and pop-up events which will be held at U.S.-based organizations from July-September, 2013. Proposals must be submitted by June 10, and selected programs are eligible for awards of up to $10,000.
“Wimpy Kid” author/illustrator Jeff Kinney and “Fancy Nancy” illustrator Robin Preiss Glasser scored the top prizes last night at the sixth annual Children’s & Teen Choice Book Awards (CCBAs) gala, a charity event organized by the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader. The honorees were selected by young readers across the country, who cast ballots at bookstores, school libraries, and on bookweekonline.com for their favorite books, author, and illustrator. The gala heralds the official start of the yearly Children’s Book Week celebration. The CCBAs is the only national book awards program in which the winning titles are chosen by kids and teens.
The Innovations in Reading program recognizes institutions and individuals who strive to nurture and promote love of books and reading. Sponsored by the National Book Foundation, prize winners are awarded up to $2500 each to help fund their initiatives and serve even more readers. This year’s winners span the globe, delivering truly unique programs to readers of all ages.
The long-awaited sequel to Dave Roman’s Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity has finally been released! And because there should always be prizes, Dave has created oodles of ways to win stuff. Get your hands on the new title, and blog about it, create fan art, or write a review, and you can win a chance to interview Dave, get a gigantic digital comics collection or original artwork. There’s even a special prize just for librarians and educators—one classroom or library will win a free comics workshop (held over Skype) by Jerzy Drozd, creator of Comics Are Great!
Celebrate 10 years of Mo Willems’s Pigeon with a visit to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA, which will be hosting an exhibit on the award-winning author/illustrator. Winners for the Jane Addams, Golden Kite, and IRA awards have been announced. Attend a one-day workshop focused on integrating games into the K–12 classroom. These stories and more, in this week’s News Bites.
The Mystery Writers of America has named Code Name Verity and The Quick Fix winners of the youth 2013 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, which honor the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, and television.
In this week’s News Bites: As an incentive to get children in the library during the summer, Bedtime Math is offering two free math-focused program kits. National Geographic Kids content is being added to Cengage Learning’s National Geographic Virtual Library product line. Four S. E. Hinton novels are now available in ebook format for the first time. Capstone partners with Save the Children.
Johnsonville Sausage wants to learn about the educators that make your school, town and community a better place to be. If you or a colleague are helping to “create better places to live through actions taken both inside and outside the walls of the classroom,” are a U.S. citizen over the age of 18, and are employed in a school or organization that supports education, you’re eligible to apply for the 2013 Johnsonville Best of Us award.
Fifth grader Louie Burger figures that with a goofy name like his, he must be destined to be a king of comedy like his idol Lou Lafferman. One huge problem: he has stage fright. With the school talent show coming up, Louie’s wondering if now is his moment to kill (that’s comedian talk for “make actual people laugh”). Four lucky winners will receive a copy of The Barftastic Life of Louie Burger by Jenny Meyerhoff, and one grand prize winner will receive a Barftastic Backpack of Boredom Busters (great for summer reading programs!) filled with joke items including a whoopee cushion, a rubber chicken, Groucho glasses, and more, plus a copy of the book and a T-shirt.
Kathleen Reif, director of St. Mary’s County Library, Leonardtown, MD, is the 2013 recipient of Peggy Sullivan Award for Public Library Administrators Supporting Services to Children. The Sullivan Award, administered by the American Library Association (ALA), is presented annually to an individual in a library administrator role who has shown exceptional understanding and support of public library service to children. The award will be presented at the ALA President’s Program, Sunday, June 30, at the Annual Conference in Chicago.
Minnesota author David LaRochelle signs copies of his It’s a Tiger! which has been nominated for the first-ever Star of the North Picture Book Award.
New York’s Bank Street Center for Children’s Literature has named Michelle Knudsen’s Big Mean Mike the winner of its Irma Black Award for the best read-aloud picture book for first and second grade and Andrea Menotti’s How Many Jelly Beans? the winner of its Cook Prize for the best picture book that teaches science, technology, engineering, and math principles.
