In our one-on-one interview, British author (and HarperCollins UK children’s book editor) Lake opens up to SLJ about his reaction to the YMA win, his inspirations for such a complex undertaking, the importance of staying true to oneself, and his next projects on the horizon.

What was your reaction to the Printz win? Are you familiar with that award?
I’m ashamed to confess that, though I knew of the Caldecott and the Newbery, I had only vaguely heard of the Printz and it wasn’t enormously on my radar. And anyway, I just assumed that The Fault in Our Stars or Code Name Verity  would win it… and I’m still living in fear of John Green fans turning up on my doorstep with pitchforks. [laughs] I assumed that the fact that [In Darkness] was obscure was why they had chosen it, that The Fault in Our Stars had enough of the purse, I guess.

Did you know that many in the audience at the YMAs were shocked Fault did not win?
I’m not surprised! I could kind of tell from Twitter as well, and because I work in publishing, I just thought it was an absolute lock for that award. I haven’t read Code Name Verity  yet but it is on my pile to read, and I read The Fault in Our Stars and I loved it. He is kind of an inspiration.

I think of anyone who writes young adult fiction, [John Green] changed what it was possible to do in a young adult book. When I started out at HarperCollins, Looking for Alaska was one of the first books I read, and I read all of his books. 

What inspired you to write this story?
It was two separate strands. The first: I did a Masters in linguistics and one of the nodules was on Creole and those kind of languages and so that got me interested in Haiti and reading about people like Toussaint L’Ouverture, and reading Wade Davis and Zora Neale Hurston. That was 10 years ago but that fascination with Toussaint L’Ouverture was kind of percolating at the back of my mind.

He is this absolutely extraordinary figure. He was 53 when the revolution started; he had, up until then, looked after horses. And he taught himself to read, taught himself to write, and ended up becoming a general very quickly and then rose to lead the revolutionary army. He was a very intelligent, driven man; he defeated not only the French army but also the British and the Spanish as well, and he ended up freeing the country. For a long time I just thought that was absolutely extraordinary that a man who is 53 could just completely reinvent himself in that way. So for ages I wanted to do something about him but I wasn’t quite sure what it would be, and I didn’t want to write a biography.

The second thing was the earthquake—and the utter horror that most people felt, that this terrible humanitarian tragedy happening to a country that had already had such a bad history. And particularly, it was when two or three days later, the news started doing stories on people who had dug out of the rubble. I saw one of them being interviewed on TV and they said ‘There was a point there where I couldn’t tell whether I was thinking thoughts or speaking aloud.” And I thought that was just the most extraordinary thing for someone to say. In fact, I stole it and used it for Shorty in the book.

How did the interwoven story start to flow for you?
I just became fascinated—or obsessed—with the idea of what that might be like and, since I couldn’t arrange for my house to fall down around me, I thought the only way that I could experience it was to write it down and explore it imaginatively. So I just started writing the story of Shorty and his voice came very quickly, and then I just had this unshakeable idea that was also the story of  Toussaint L’Ouverture. I just was convinced that there was something that linked these two characters.

Toussaint died in a French dungeon, so at a certain point in time this boy and this man are metaphorically and literally in the same place—they’re both trapped underground in the darkness.

The only thing that is dividing them is the mere fact of 200 years of time. I think time can sometimes be kind of porous and thin, so it was that idea of these two people who are in the same place. And then as well, I am very interested in voodoo—real voodoo as opposed to movie zombie voodoo, this whole notion of being ridden by spirits and being possessed.

It all just fit together then because I thought suddenly, that there’s an explanation for why, at the age of 53, he abruptly [became] this great military leader. So lots of things suddenly fit into place and in quite a satisfying way, and I just had to sit down and write furiously for about 6 weeks.

This book is so complex and so dark; were you surprised that it became a YA book?
I was more surprised that anyone wanted to publish it at all! With the “Blood Ninja” books, I approached it as someone who worked in publishing, and I was thinking that there are lots of books like Twilight but there isn’t as much for boys, and everything about it was very conscious and deliberate, trying to design something that might suit the market. Whereas with In Darkness I was writing it for me, really. I think, to be honest, that my agent didn’t really think anyone would want to publish it either. But Bloomsbury were hugely enthusiastic from the outset. Here I was completely ignoring what publishers might want and suddenly they very quickly wanted it. Maybe there’s a lesson in there.

In  Darkness  in the UK was published as an adult book and a young adult book. It’s the same book but with different jackets; it’s increasingly something that is done in publishing in the UK. Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner has young adult version and now it’s coming out as an adult edition, and they do that with people like Patrick Ness. I think people are still trying to work out this genre and where the boundary lies between young adult and adult. I didn’t really know who the book was for, and neither did my agent. So it was sent to adult lists and young adult lists. Essentially, I’ve always written for younger teenagers, and this was the first young adult [title].

Can you speak about the role of hope in the story?
I very consciously wanted it to be a hopeful book. I don’t know if I one hundred percent succeeded because a lot of reviews focused on how incredibly miserable and violent the book is—and it is in many ways—but I always saw it as a hopeful book, and it doesn’t have an unhopeful ending. So that was always very much the intention, and consciously the intention. Everyone has difficult things that they’ve gone through in their lives and, for several years before I wrote the books, there were several difficult things in my life and I’d moved beyond them.

And so I supposed I wanted to, without wanting to sound too evangelical, say something to teenagers about how you can move past bad things that happen. And yeah, I very much wanted it to be a message; we ended up using it as a strapline on the UK edition of the book, this idea that—on this planet anyway because we circle the sun—there’s always light on the other side of darkness and you don’t have to wait for very long for darkness  to be replaced by light.

What projects are you are most excited about working on next as author or editor?
Ooh…There are two actually, one that I’m editing for HarperCollins that’s coming out early 2014 is a YA, beautifully written book by a young, male British writer, who I kind of think could be the British John Green. And that’s amazing. It’s a debut, and it’s astonishing.

And the other thing is my book, which hasn’t come out in the states yet, called Hostage Three (Bloomsbury, fall 2013). That’s about a girl who lives in London; her father is a banker. He’s lost his job and he buys this super yacht and decides that they’re going to sail around the world with the girl’s stepmother. Her mother has died in uncertain circumstances not that long before; she hates the step mother so it’s kind of a fairytale element and then they get about 3 months into their journey and they’re kidnapped by Somali pirates. Then to add to all the complications she thinks she’s falling in love with the youngest pirate…and it all just then goes horribly wrong, obviously, as it would. It’s much more of a straight thriller than In Darkness but I’m proud of it, so hopefully people will like it!

And so I’m kind of two books on from In Darkness, weirdly, and the thing that I’m most excited about, that I’m writing now, is tentatively called Your Little Princess; it’s actually set in America. The entire story is constructed around a massive twist; the teenage protagonist gets hit by a car, this then triggers her mum discharging her from hospital, bundling her into the car with all their belongings and saying ‘we’re going on the run.” And the mystery is why they suddenly have to run.

So I’m sticking to the genre of thrillers with an emotional first-person core to them.

Has the experience of being an author changed you as an editor?
Yes, it has actually. Mostly in the sense that it has made me much, much more sensitive in the way that I couch what I’m saying, because I am hyper aware now how even the most softly phrased suggestions can feel devastating for an author. It’s made me express things very carefully, and as much as possible in conversation rather than in writing. It’s made me very, very aware. I can’t edit myself, and so I absolutely have to have someone else who reads it who can say ‘the shape of this isn’t quite right’ or ‘there’s something missing here.’ I genuinely think that all writers need an editor.

Since the YMAs, have you seen an increased interest from the U.S.? The awards are critically important to the library and publishing worlds.
So I terrifyingly gather! I [have] spent a lot of time on the phone to people, lots of sudden renewed interest and I gather that they’re reprinting it. It does make an impact in that way. I didn’t quite realize that at first, but it does seem that suddenly I’m spending a lot of time on the phone, which is nice!

You have to be in it: The 2013 Samsung K–12 “Return on Intelligence” Gift Programs have been announced by Samsung Techwin, a manufacturer of document cameras. The Superhero Program competition encourages students to prepare a 1–3 minute digital video (camera phone quality is acceptable) in which they portray their favorite historical character. The deadline for entries is May 31. The contest is opened to students in grades K–12 and the video will be judged on presentation performance, character and content accuracy, and content quality. The winner will receive $500 and the student’s class will get a SAMCAM 760 document camera.

To enter the Scholarship Program, high school students must write an essay of no more than 300 words in response to the question: What do you think about technology advancements and how they will change the way we learn in the future? Is it for the better? The deadline for submissions is May 15. Essays will be judged on the basis of original thinking, relevance to the real world, and writing quality. All applicants must be sponsored by a teacher. Five winners will be announced on May 31 and will receive a $1,000 award.

Under its 2013 Grant Program, ten teachers will each have the opportunity to win a SAMCAM 760 document camera for use in school by writing a fun lesson plan of 100 words or less in which they use the camera. The deadline for submissions is May 1, The top 20 finalists will then have to submit a video showing their lesson in the classroom using the SAMCAM 760. Ten winners will be selected on June, and their school district will also keep the camera.

Freebies

Teaching guide: Hurry up and get your free copy of Brother Sam and All That: Historical Context and Literary Analysis of the Novels of James and Christopher Collier (Clearwater Pr., 1999) from AudioGO. The lessons compiled in this companion teaching guide provide teachers and librarians with information about how to use historical fiction in the classroom—just what the Common Core Standards require—and tips for teaching the novels by James and Christopher Collier. AudioGO publishes audiobook and ebook versions of more than 50 novels by James and Christopher Collier, including the classroom favorite, My Brother Sam Is Dead. The first 100 people to email michell.cobb@audiogo.com will receive this teaching guide at no cost.

Publishing News

Trade picture books: This spring, Capstone Young Readers, an imprint of Capstone, is launching a collection of fully illustrated picture books. “We are excited to introduce a range of picture books in both paper-over-board and trade paperback formats,” says Ashley Andersen Zantop, Group Publisher and General Manager. “We believe that quality illustrated titles provide an important stepping stone to reading and an opportunity to inspire imagination, creativity, and a love for good books.” The titles and series scheduled for publication in February 2013 are: Flood by Alvara F. Villa, “Princess Heart” series written and illustrated by Molly Martin, “The Other Side of the Story” series by Nancy Loewen (classic fairy tales), and Charlotte Gullain’s “Animal Fairy Tales” series.

And more picture books: Hank Finds an Egg (ages 3–8) written and illustrated by Rebecca Dudley will be published by Peter Pauper Press in May 2013 as their initial venture into publishing children’s trade picture books for children. The wordless picture book tells the story of a young boy who finds an egg on the forest floor, helps it return to its home in a tree, and is rewarded by his new forest friends. Three additional titles are scheduled for publication: Bruce Arant’s Sheep Won’t Go to Sleep! (Fall 2013), Digby Differs by Miriam Koch (Fall 2013), and Sarra J. Roth’s Not the Quitting Kind (Spring 2014). If you’re a picture book author, Peter Pauper Press is accepting unsolicited submissions online, or you can send your manuscript to Mara Conlon, Senior Editor, Peter Pauper Press, 202 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains, NY 10601.

Peter Pauper Press has been publishing gift books, references, travel guides, children’s activity books, and other products for adults since it was founded in 1928.

Children’s Lit Conference

Digital Lit: Librarians, teachers, and others who love books are invited to attend e-Looking Glass: Children’s Literature in the Digital Age, a full-day conference to be held at Carthage College Hedberg Library in Kenosha, WI, on April 13, that will explore “how books are being reinvented to create visual and interactive experiences that printed books cannot provide.”  Topics will include the changing landscape of texts (interactive ebooks, book apps, learning products, and online communities), how to integrate this new technology into the classroom, and the design and development of these new types of books. Among the speakers are Brandon Oldenburg, award-winning illustrator and co-founder of Moonbot Studios; Umesh Shukla, animation director and founder of Auryn, a digital publisher of apps; Denise Johnson, author of The Joy of Children’s Literature; William H. Teale, Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago; and others. Undergraduate continuing professional education credit is available. The cost to attend the conference is $65, and $40 for students. You can register online. The cost of one credit hour is $50; to view the syllabus, contact Marilyn Ward at mward@carthage.edu.

The album, inspired by their canoe trip down the Mississippi River, features original mostly folk, country, and bluegrass numbers enhanced by virtuoso performances on a variety of instruments, including accordion, auto-harp, rhumba box, fiddle, udu, drums, pots and pans, tuba, trombone, and many others. According to a recent review in School Library Journal, “this unique, outstanding musical performance should have a place in every library.”

The two childhood friends took a month-long journey on the Mississippi, but never dreamed that their voyage would take them to the Grammys. About to board a plane home to Minnesota, Mailander told SLJ, “We are thrilled that the recording academy chose our album to represent the quality music that’s being made in the children’s genre right now. All the nominees were deserving and we’re honored to be in such great company.”

Four other children’s albums were nominated for a Grammy this year by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences in the Best Children’s Album category: Bill Harley’s High Dive and Other Things That Could Have Happened (Round River); the JumpinJazz Kids’s A Swinging Jungle Tale (JumpinJazzKids), narrated by James Murray and featuring Dee Dee Bridgewater, Al Jarreau, Hubert Laws, and various artists; Little Seed: Songs for Children by Woody Guthrie (Smithsonian Folkways), re-imagined renditions of classic Guthrie favorites by Elizabeth Mitchell; and the Pop Ups’s (Brooklyn-based music duo Jason Rabinowitz and Jacob Stein) Radio Jungle (CDBaby.com).

Some of these kids have the weight of the world on their shoulders: Rochelle could be the first African-American female master in the history of chess; Alexis could be the first member of his family to go to college; and, at 11 years old, Justus is already a chess wunderkind—and that’s just a few of the remarkable players featured in the film.

School Library Journal caught up with first-time director Katie Dellamaggiore—who lives with her husband in Williamsburg, Brooklyn—for an illuminating chat about her directorial debut, chess, education, filmmaking, and making a difference.

Where did you get the idea to make Brooklyn Castle?
I found the story through an article I read in the New York Times in the spring of 2007. This article was about Shawn Martinez at Edward R. Murrow High School and the article was all about him and how they had the best chess team in the nation.

I also read The Kings of New York by Michael Weinreb. The hook for me was that I was from Brooklyn and I had no idea that we were known for public school chess teams. It didn’t seem like a likely situation. I was wrong of course. [laughs] One small chapter was about I.S. 318. So I talked to Michael and he was the one who suggested that it would be a good documentary: “You should check it out.” And so I did.

As soon as I met these kids, I knew that they would make for amazing characters in a documentary. The chess team was treated almost as athletes. It broke a lot of stereotypes. I was like, “Wow. This story is unexpected in so many ways.” I thought that if I found it unexpected and moving—and I’m from this neighborhood—others would, too.

When did you begin filming Brooklyn Castle? When did you wrap up?
We started shooting officially in April 2009. Then from there, we decided we would shoot for an entire school year, wrapping in June 2010. We spent two years editing on and off until it premiered in 2012.

Chess Champion Alexis Paredes at Home Photo Courtesy of PDA

Given how much time you were able to observe these kids, why do you think the chess players of I.S. 318 are so successful?
I think it’s a couple of things that make them so successful. A combination of really dedicated staff. [Assistant Principal] John [Galvin] and [chess teacher] Elizabeth [Spiegel] are really committed. Elizabeth gets them excited and John figures out ways to make it possible. The culture of the school in general is a really big part of it. The principal [Fred Rubino], who sadly passed away, really built a culture of activity.

I think kids at that age really respond to that. It gets them excited to go to school. And the kids themselves they work really hard. I mean, chess is not one of those skills you’re just born with. You have to put a lot of time and effort into it. These kids are motivated to do well. The parents in the film were so supportive of the kids and I think that is a big part of the equation. There really is no secret.  Elizabeth just has an unparalleled enthusiasm for chess and kids just really respond to teachers like that.

Do you have a favorite memory from filming?
There’s a lot of stuff that didn’t make the film. We traveled with the team a lot and so the kids are on field trips and there’s really funny shots with them doing silly stuff in the hallways, eating cereal from the box. And I remember being like, “Wow, I forgot that this was what it was like in junior high school.” These milestones, like we all had when we were younger.

What was your hardest or most difficult moment?
The most difficult part was editing the movie; we had so much footage. Like 400 hours of footage. It’s hard figuring out how to cut it down. It’s our first film and we thought it was ready much sooner than it actually was. We eventually found the movie, but that was the hardest part: figuring out a way to interweave it all so it’s cohesive.

Chess comes to signify something so much larger than a game in these kids’ lives. What do you think that is?
I think you can replace chess with any kind of positive enriching activity with any kid at that age. It’s an opportunity for these kids. For Patrick to over come his ADHD, for Rochelle to get a scholarship, for Alexis to go to college…it’s about opening up a kid’s world and that’s what chess did. But it doesn’t have to be chess as long as our public schools are giving kids opportunities like that where they can dream beyond their immediate world.

Do you keep in touch with the kids?
Certainly—especially in the last few months because of screenings. We’ve been seeing a lot of one another lately and will continue to. We’re in one another’s’ lives for the long run.

What kind of feedback have you received?
The immediate community here has really embraced the film. The school really embraced the film. We had some fundraisers for them; I think we’ve raised $35,000. That’s direct donations as a result of the film. Nationally, in terms of critical review, it’s crazy. On Rotten Tomatoes, it’s one of the top films in terms of critics; so that’s awesome. It’s not just a Brooklyn story. It’s just nice to know that the film is a universal story. That makes me really happy.

Reacting to the drastic budget cuts his school faces, Galvin says, “If you believe in public education, if you believe in kids, you’ve got to fight for it.” What can people who want to make sure that programs like the chess club at I.S. 318 continue do to help?
On a national level, there’s an organization like the Afterschool Alliance, they’re a partner of ours, and they’re fighting every day. On our website, we have action fights that they’ve shared with us. You can go to take action and see what the latest push is.

In your own community you can get involved as a parent in PTA and local councils.

It’s also about finding resources in other ways. If you’re an adult that has a skill, like chess, you can donate your time. You need to light the fire sometimes.

If people want to donate to the I.S. 318 chess team, you can do that through our website. Pobo has a petition that people can sign. The more we can get the word out about the film, I think the more it energizes people to see the value of programs like this. I think the movie is a great way for schools to be reminded of what their schools are really good at. It’s also nice for people to be reminded that there are really good things happening at public schools.

On February 5, Brooklyn Castle will be available on digital platforms such as iTunes and on-demand video. Communities can request screenings at their local theaters through Tugg.com. Libraries, nonprofits, and schools that are interested in showing the film can find more information on the website or by emailing info@brooklyncastle.com.

American Indian Lit Awards: The American Indian Library Association, an affiliate of the American Library Association, has announced the winners of the 2013 American Indian Youth Literature Award in three categories—picture book, middle school, and young adult. The books selected “present American Indians in the fullness of their humanity in the present and past contexts.” The top Picture Book award went to The Christmas Coat: Memories of My Sioux Childhood (Holiday House, 2011) written by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve and illustrated by Ellen Beier. The Honor awards in that category were nabbed by Saltypie: A Choctaw Journey from Darkness into Light (Cinco Puntos, 2010) written by Tim Tingle and illustrated by Karen Clarkson, Kohala Kuamo’o: Nae’ole’s Race to Save a King (2010) written by Kekauleleana’ole Kawai’ae’a and illustrated by Aaron Kawai’ae’a, Mohala Mai ‘O Hau = How Hau Became Hau’ula (2011, both Kamehameha Schools Pr.) by Robert Lono ‘Ikuwa with pictures by Matthew Kawika Ortiz, and I See Me (Theytus Books, 2009) by Margaret Manuel.

In the Middle Grade category, the award went to Free Throw (1999) and Triple Threat (1999, both Lorimer), by Jacqueline Guest, while Jordin Tootoo: The Highs and Lows in the Journey of the First Inuit to Play in the NHL (Lorimer, 2011) by Melanie Florence, and Awesiinyensag: Dibaajimowinan Ji-Gikinoo’amaageng (Wiigwaas Pr., 2010) by Anton Treuer et al. received Honors. Adam Fortunate Eagle’s Pipestone: My Life in an Indian Boarding School (Univ. of Oklahoma Pr., 2010) won in the Young Adult category, with Native Defenders of the Environment (7th Generation, 2011) by Victor Schilling (and others in the series) taking the Honor award.

Established in 2006 and given in even years, the award was created to honor the best writing and illustrations by and about American Indians. Be sure to check out the evaluation criteria and previous winners of the award.

2013 Gryphon Awards: Jason Chin’s Island: A Story of the Galapagos (Roaring Brook, 2012) has received the 2013 Gryphon Award, sponsored by the Center for Children’s Books at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The book presents the story of the evolution of an island and its plant and animal life over six million years. The $1,000 award, given annually, recognizes “an English-language work of fiction or nonfiction for which the primary audience is children in kindergarten through grade 4. The title chosen best exemplifies those qualities that successfully bridge the gap in difficulty between books for reading aloud to children and books for practical readers.” Two Honor books were also announced: Little Dog Lost: The True Story of a Dog Named Baltic (Penguin/Nancy Paulsen Bks., 2012), written and illustrated by Monica Carnesi, and Kate DeCamillo and Alison McGhee’s Bink and Gollie: Two for One (Candlewick, 2012), illustrated by Tony Fucile.

Children’s Book Committee Awards: The Bank Street College of Education announced the winners of the 2013 Children’s Book Committee Awards. Wonder by R. J. Palacio (Knopf, 2012) was received the Josette Frank Award. Palacio’s memorable story about ten-year-old Auggie, a boy with facial abnormalities, who attends public school for the first time, shows how the experience changes him as well as all of those he encounters. The Award, given annually since 1943 (originally called the Children’s Book Award) honors an outstanding fiction title “in which children or young people deal in a positive and realistic way with difficulties in their world and grow emotionally and morally.”

The Flora Stieglitz Straus Award for a nonfiction title was given to Doreen Rappaport’s Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust (Candlewick, 2012), a chronicle of 21 courageous acts of defiance. National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry: 2000 Poems with Photographs that Squeak, Soar, and Roar! by J. Patrick Lewis, “an exuberant celebration of the animal kingdom and a beautiful introduction to this genre of literature,” won the Claudia Lewis Award. Established in 1998, the award is given for the best poetry book of the year.

The Children’s Book Committee is a nonprofit affiliate of Bank Street College of Education. The Committee was founded 75 years ago to “guide librarians, educators and parents to the best books for children published each year.”

Scholarships

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA) is offering two scholarships to students pursuing a master’s or advanced degree in children’s librarianship. The ALSC Bound to Stay Bound Books Scholarship, funded by Bound-to-Stay Bound Books, is an award of $7,000 that will be given to four candidates. The ALSC Frederic G.Melcher Scholarship, funded by contributions from librarians and others in the book world as a tribute to Melcher, consists of two $6,000 awards. Applicants must demonstrate academic excellence and leadership, be enrolled at an ALA accredited library school (U.S. or Canada) that offers a full range of courses in children’s materials and library services to children, must not have earned more than 12 semester hours towards an MLS/MLIS, and must take a position in the field of library service to children for at least one year after graduation. The deadline for applying for these two scholarships is March 1. Be sure to check out requirements and complete an application. The recipients will be announced at the ALA Annual conference in June.

Rare Books

First editions: The J.Willard Marriott Library’s Rare Book Division, Special Collections at the University of Utah has received first editions of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1872) from an anonymous donor. The books are valued at $30,000. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson first made up the story of Alice’s adventures for Alice Liddell and her sisters and gave her the manuscript in 1864. His friend and novelist, Henry Kingsley, encouraged the author to publish the book. He expanded the manuscript from 18,000 words to 35,000 words and published it under the Lewis Carroll pseudonym. Four thousand copies were printed.

This year’s theme is LEAP: Leadership, Education, Achievement, Progress. Preconferences begin on April 12, and conference programs run through April 15. Exhibits are also available on April 13 and 14. Online registration is open until March 22.

Acclaimed storyteller, folklorist and author Diane Wolkstein died on January 31 following emergency heart surgery while traveling in Taiwan. She was 70.

Both Wolkstein’s storytelling and printed works delved into the culture and mythology of many countries, and she often traveled to a country and spent time there when conducting her research. She was in Taiwan last month working on her most recent project, the epic Chinese story of the Monkey King.

Wolkstein wrote more than 20 books, including The Magic Orange Tree and Other Haitian Folktales (Random House, 1978), Oom Razoon (HarperCollins, 1991), and The Red Lion (Crowell, 1977), all of which were named ALA Notable Books.

Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth (HarperCollins, 1983), which she co-authored with Samuel Noah Kramer, is considered a classic retelling of the great Sumerian epic.

However, though praised as an author, it was Wolkstein’s talent as a storyteller that won her international fame, and many credit her for reviving interest in the art of storytelling fairly early in her career. “The meaning of life is in stories,” she once said. “It is the way I understand life and it is the way I often connect to people.”

In 1967, she was named the New York City Storyteller in recognition of the storytelling events she staged in the parks around the city. In 1972, she began the first graduate storytelling program in the country at Bank Street College.  She was also instrumental in establishing a summer Saturday morning tradition where stories are told at the base of the Hans Christian Andersen statue in Central Park.  Well versed in the Danish storyteller, she authored an article for School Library Journal, “The Finest Quality Dirt,” in 2005 in honor of Andersen’s 200th birthday. During the 2012 season, she performed at the park four times.

A founding member of both America’s National Storytelling Conference and the Storytelling Center of New York City, she was recognized in 2007 when New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg named June 22 of that year “Diane Wolkstein Day” in honor of her 40 years of storytelling for the people of NYC.

Wolkstein also taught mythology at New York University for 18 years, hosted the Stories from Many Lands program on NYC public radio for 13 years, and taught the art of storytelling through her many classes, workshops, and conferences.

“She has been a storytelling idol to me and was an inspiration to become one myself as a children’s librarian,” Gretchen Casseroti, assistant director for public services at Darien Library, CT, tells SLJ. “Her gift of bringing the world’s stories to children will be missed.”

Wolkstein was born on November 11, 1942, in New Jersey. She received degrees from Smith College and Bank Street College. She is survived by her daughter, Rachel Zucker, three grandsons, and her mother Ruth, a librarian. A memorial celebrating her life will be planned for later this year.

Kagawa is the author of two previous series—the best-selling “Iron Fey” and “Blood of Eden” series, which are in development for release as a film. The “Iron Fey” series has been published in more than 20 countries, and in 2011, it was a Teens Top Ten selection. The Immortal Rules is the first title in the dystopian “Blood of Eden” series and will be followed by the release of The Eternity Cure in May 2013. Movie rights to the “Blood of Eden” series have been optioned by Joni Sighvatsson of Palomar Pictures. Harlequin Teen plans to publish the first book in Kagawa’s new series in 2015.

See more on Kagawa in her SummerTeen 2012 interview at SLJ.com.

Photo: Stockbyte

Fans of baseball, football, and basketball, you all have something in common: it’s easy for you to tell what team is on the field, which one is off of it, and when players are changing their roles from offense to defense. In baseball, of course, three outs and the team at-bat retreats into the dugout, picks up its mitts, and trots back onto the field. In football, there are many variations and tricks of the trade. For example, a “hurry-up” offense is designed to move so quickly that the defense doesn’t have time to substitute fresh players onto the field. But in general, the exchange of players in our nation’s major sports is a slow and stately process that’s based on principles that kids learn when they first begin playing a particular game. There’s one sport, though, that’s totally different from the others—and I suspect it has a lesson to teach those of us in library land.

Unlike other sports, in hockey, players “change on the fly.” That is, a coach signals a group of players to jump onto the ice even as the others are whizzing off—the exchange happens in the middle of a play, as the puck is speeding down the ice. Hockey is such an exhausting sport that players only last a few minutes playing at full tilt, so a coach is constantly deliberating over whom to put in while trying to outguess the other coach’s moves. It’s a speeded-up, live chess match on ice.

I’m put in mind of hockey because of some recent developments in digital publishing. We’ve long known that Overdrive offers libraries subscriptions, rather than full ownership of books. Now Amazon has gotten into the act, offering its Prime members (who pay an annual fee) an ebook subscription. It strikes me that collection development is similar to the easy ebb and flow of offense and defense that I first described. A librarian knows her collection, sees where she needs to add titles, and from time to time, weeds those titles that have outlived their usefulness. But subscriptions are more like hockey.

In the digital subscription world, a librarian isn’t expecting her collection to remain the same for any length of time. She subscribes according to her current needs, knowing that the materials she has made available to today’s patrons may significantly change in the near future. For instance, she wants the latest and greatest of, say, news and financial databases. But in a subscription model, the constant churning and turnover isn’t just a matter of adhering to the latest dateline. A librarian may gain, or lose, an entire chunk of her collection as her subscription funding comes and goes, or as publishers’ digital policies change, or as patrons’ favorite digital devices shift.

What if we embrace a library model that’s part baseball and part hockey? What would such an arrangement look like? Print books, and some databases, would move in and out of the library at a leisurely pace, similar to ballplayers taking and leaving the field between innings. But digital subscriptions would constantly change on the fly: with new materials in, the old out, and the librarian playing the role of a highly tactical hockey coach, constantly matching ever-changing needs to ever-evolving resources. If that’s the case, the question isn’t “What do you own?” it’s “What do you need this very second?”

I can imagine a two-sport library, but there’s one caution. As you hockey fans well know, there’s one thing that can stop the rapid change of lines: when the game itself stops. The NHL and its players spent much of 2012 embroiled in a battle over money, and as a result, the players lost more than half of the current season. The one real danger in a subscription model is that it could break down totally and publishers could turn to some completely different plan. Well, if that happens, then librarian-coaches will just have to change partners and dance—on the fly.

This year’s theme was “You’re Reading WHAT?!?!” Students age 19 or under were asked to create a short video about a time when an adult tried to censor something they were reading, or about a book-banning incident in the news that involved young people. There are 12 videos among the semifinalists, and voting is easy. The video with the most “likes” will be declared the People’s Choice winner. The deadline for casting votes is February 15 at 5 p.m. EST. The People’s Choice Award-winner will receive a Certificate of Free Expression Excellence from the NCAC.

While the public is choosing their favorite, a stellar panel of judges will be hard at work choosing the grand prize, second place, and third place winners. This year’s judges include Kirby Dick, a documentary director and Academy Award-nominee (The Invisible War), National Book Award-winner and frequently challenged author Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian (Little, Brown, 2007)), Cecily von Ziegesar (author of the oft-banned “Gossip Girls” series (Little, Brown)), Onion AV Club National Associate Editor and pop culture maven Tasha Robinson, Kristen Fitzpatrick of Women Make Movies, and 2011 YFEP Film Contest winners Jake Gogats and Caitlin Wolper. Winners will receive $1,000, $500. and $250 respectively and a trip to New York City to attend the Youth Voices Uncensored event. All winners will be announced by the end of February, so check NCAC.org for updates. Get voting now!

Books for GLBTQ Youth

A Rainbow: Forty-nine books from 31 publishers have been selected by the Rainbow Project for their 2013 Rainbow Book List, a project of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table (GLBTRT) and the Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT) of the American Library Association. To make the final selection, the committee evaluated over 150 books for youth, from birth to age 18, published between July 2011 and December 2012. The titles run the gamut from science fiction to fiction to graphic novels, among other genres. The committee notes that there is a dearth of nonfiction titles for any age being published, “including memoirs and history so vital to tying a culture together.” The complete list can be accessed at the GLBTRT website.

The following are the top ten titles: Starting from Here by Lisa Jenn Bigelow (Amazon, 2012), Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills (Flux, 2012), The Miseducation of Cameron Post by emily m. danforth (HarperCollins, 2012), Ask the Passengers by A. S. King (Little, Brown, 2012), Adaptation by Malinda Lo (Little, Brown, 2012), The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Ecco, 2012), The Letter Q: Queer Writers’ Notes to Their Younger Selves edited by Sarah Moon (Scholastic, 2012), Chulito: A Novel by Charles Rice-Gonzalez (Magnus Bks., 2011), Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saénz (S & S, 2012), and Drama by Raina Telgemeier (Scholastic, 2012).

Publishing News: New Imprints

Algonquin Young Readers is a new imprint being created by Algonquin Books for readers ages 7 to 17. The books will run the gamut from short illustrated novels for beginning readers to topical young adult novels. The first list will launch in Fall 2013 with five novels. There will be three title for middle grades—The Time Fetch by Amy Herick, Three Ring Rascals, Book 1: The Show Must Go On by Kate and M. Sarah Klise, and Anton Cecil: Cats at Sea by Lisa and Valerie Martin. If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan and Hollis Seamon’s Somebody Up There Hates You are the two young adult titles. The imprint plans to grow to the point where it will publish 15 titles each year and include some nonfiction books with their primarily fiction list, according to Elise Howard, editor and publisher of Algonquin Books for Young Readers.

Amazon Children’s Publishing is launching two new imprints—Two Lions and Skyscape—in Spring 2013. Picture books, chapter books, and middle-grade fiction will be published under the Two Lions banner, with Margery Cuyler as editorial manager, while Skyscape will focus on young adult titles under the leadership of Tim Ditlow.  According to Amazon, Two Lions—one representing the past and the other the future—“is committed to forming strong, creative relationships with authors and illustrators to bring originality of design and literary quality to readers.” Skyscape plans to bring “a wide range of stories with unique voices, compelling narratives, and intriguing perspectives to readers.” Two Lions’s inaugural titles Ininclude Gandhi: A March to the Sea by Alice B. McGinty, Poco Loco by J. R. Kraus, and Slugger by Susan Pearson. The titles for teens are Me & My Invisible Guy by Sarah Jeffrey, Reason to Breathe by Rebecca Donovan, and You Know What You Have to Do by Bonnie Shimko, among others.

Ebook Lending

A new model: Ingram Content Group has added a new content access model to its MyiLibrary e-content platform. The Access Model, designed to help libraries make their ebook lending more flexible, lets libraries “purchase a set of access credits for an ebook and lend it simultaneously to multiple patrons for a set cost and lending period.” This multi-user platform assures library patrons that they will have access to popular titles. “Patron usage of ebooks continues to climb,” noted Dan Sheehan, vice president and general manager, Ingram Content Group Library Services, “and the addition of our new multi-user concurrent Access Model gives libraries the flexibility to meet the content requirements of their patrons and manage budgets effectively.”

The MyiLibrary platform currently offers nearly 40,000 titles from leading publishers and can be accessed 24/7. Random House has just announced that it will be adding more than 36,000 frontlist and backlist titles to MyiLibrary from all Random House Inc. imprints and their publisher-distribution clients, including National Geographic, Smithsonian Books, and Wizards of the Coast, and others.

Financial literacy and entrepreneurship: Are any of your students ages 7 to 16 budding entrepreneurs? Well, it’s time to encourage them to create a new business idea for the Second Annual Secret Millionaires Club “Grow Your Own Business Challenge.” There are ten questions and two optional questions that participants must answer such as: How did you come up with your business idea? Who will your customers be? What goods or services will your business sell? How much money do you need to set up your business and how will you raise it? How will you sell and market your goods and services? What makes your new business product or service different from other businesses out there? How can your business have a positive effect on a community? The competition is opened to individuals or teams of two to four students. Make sure to check out the contest’s rules and access the entry form. Entries must be submitted by February 15, 2013.

Four individual finalists and two team finalists will present their winning ideas to Warren Buffett and a panel of judges in Omaha, NE, in May 2013. A teacher who inspired the finalists in creating their business idea can join them and win up to $1,000. A grand prize of $5,000 will be awarded to one individual and one team.

The Secret Millionaires Club is an animated series featuring the voice of financial guru Warren Buffet mentoring a group of kids who encounter and solve financial and business problems. The series currently features 20 short online webisodes and two TV specials. The Secret Millionaires Learn & Earn Learn & Earn Program teaches financial literacy and entrepreneurship. The program offers materials for educators and parents to extend the financial lessons into classrooms.  In March 2013, there will be a new 22-epsode TV series launching on the HUB cable network.   

Minigrant Program

Programs that inspire: The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, established by the late Caldecott award-winning children’s book author and illustrator, is offering 70 minigrants of $500 each to teachers and librarians in public schools and libraries who submit proposals for a program that fosters “creativity, cooperation and interaction with a diverse community.” There’s a video tutorial and a gallery of past recipients that you can check out. Once you design and plan the program, there’s a short application form to complete and submit by March 15, 2013. Recipients of the grants will be notified beginning May 15th.

The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation supports arts and literacy programs in public schools and libraries across the country. This is the 25th year that the Foundation is offering the minigrant program.

Publishing News

Randomhousekids.com: Random House Children’s Books has redesigned and re-launched their website to help kids and their parents learn about dozens of Random House favorite brands and series (Dr. Seuss, “Magic Tree House,” “Junie B. Jones,” “A to Z Mysteries,” “Dragon Keepers,” “Five Ancestors,” etc.) as well as new books. The site also features author interviews, and kids can have fun with book-related games and activities.

The redesign incorporates two new features: “Book Finder” and “For Parents.” Parents and kids can search for books based on a variety of criteria—age, genre, subject, etc.—using “Book Finder, while the “For Parents” section includes blog posts on topics ranging from how to be a good storyteller to the use of audiobooks with reluctant readers. “It’s a fantastic resource for parents and a destination for their children to have fun interacting with our authors and books in a safe environment,” noted Linda Leonard, Random House Children’s Books’ executive director of digital marketing.

Children’s book publishing: The Book: The Essential Guide to Publishing for Children, published by The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) is an updated edition of the SCBWI Publications Guide. The 300-page revamped book, an essential tool for children’s book writers and illustrators, features current articles about the children’s book publishing industry on topics such as maximizing social media, creating book trailers, independent publishing, and promotion. The “Market Survey” lists editors, art directors, and key personnel at all the publishing houses. There’s also “The International Market Survey,” “The Book Reviewers Directory,” “The Agents Directory,” and “Edited By,” a new feature that offers a history of editors’ recent acquisitions. The Book is available online and in hard copy to SCBWI members.

It’s Magic: Ruth Chew’s 29 tales of magic and fantasy, written in the 1970s for elementary graders, will be reissued by Random House Books for Young Readers beginning in the fall of 2013. According to the press release, Chew “made magic available to younger readers before any other author.” New cover art will be created, but the original artwork will be retained for the interior illustrations. Each season, two titles will be released in collectible hardcover and paperback editions as well as ebook versions. In time for Halloween 2013, No Such Thing as a Witch and What the Witch Left will be published. Each season, a collection of three stories will also be released. The first one, in fall 2013, will include The Witch’s Buttons, The Witch’s Garden, and Witch’s Cat. Looking ahead to spring 2014, The Trouble with Magic and Magic in the Park will be reissued.

Adopting the Common Core Standards

Rewriting the Advanced Placement Exams

Meeting the Needs of Students in Community Colleges

Photo credit: Andrea Fischman.

New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall has hosted thousands of legendary performers since it opened in 1891, from the New York Philharmonic to jazz greats Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday to modern notables Isaac Stern and Renée Fleming. Joining their ranks this week? John Green—the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Looking for Alaska (Dutton, 2005), An Abundance of Katherines (Dutton, 2006), and Paper Towns (Dutton, 2008)—and his brother Hank Green, who took to the stage on Tuesday to entertain over 2,800 fans. “An Evening of Awesome,” featuring numerous special guests, was also lived-streamed to sites around the country through a special partnership with Tumblr.

Photo credit: Andrea Fischman.

The much-anticipated and hyped event was part of a 17-city tour celebrating the first anniversary of Green’s most recent bestselling YA fiction book, The Fault in Our Stars (Dutton, 2012); the tour has sold over 11,300 tickets.

For the uninitiated, the Green brothers are also known for their popular YouTube video blog series Vlogbrothers, which has close to a million subscribers. Passionate fans of the series, who call themselves “nerdfighters,” are so numerous and so well organized that they have created their own online social networking group to, as they declare,  “increase awesome and decrease suck.”

“It brought to life the Nerdfighter community,” says Elazar Nudell, 30, of the site. Nudell traveled all the way from Springfield, MA, to attend the sold-out event along with Max Schnaper, 21, and Sasha Zacharia, 21.

However, most of the live audience at Carnegie Hall was comprised of teenage girls.

“John Green understands teen girls,” 17-year-old Samantha from Merrick, NY, tells School Library Journal. She feels that Green’s books helped her during a troubling time in her life. “He made me realize that how I felt was OK.”

Her schoolmate, 16-year-old Johanna, claims that the author encouraged her to be a thoughtful person. While waiting for the show to begin, Johanna read to Sam from a book by her other favorite author, Kurt Vonnegut.

The evening was part rock concert, part author and literary reading, and part talk show.

Shouts of  “We love you!” rang out through the hall as the tuxedo-clad duo took the stage. John entertained the audience with a monologue about his life and work. He told them, “My life is like a very long Emily Dickinson poem.”

Hank sang songs of his own composition on such topics as Helen Hunt, Harry Potter, and Quarks. Grammy-winning musician and former member of The Moldy Peaches, Kimya Dawson, and the folk rock band The Mountain Goats also performed during the evening.

Later, Ashley Clements and Daniel Vincent Gordh, actors in the The Lizzie Bennet Diaries Web series developed by Hank Green, appeared to do a dramatic reading from The Fault in Our Star. The night’s special guests also were on hand to perform a Readers Theater scene from Paper Towns.

The surprise guest of the evening was Neil Gaiman. The award-winning author of The Graveyard Book (HarperCollins, 2008), participated in the Q&A portion of the evening, asking John Green such questions and queries as “Where do people go when they die?” (“Narnia,” interjected Hank) and “Describe yourself in three words,” to which John finally agreed on Handsome, Awesome, and Tall—after some prompting from Hank, Neil, and the audience.  Also during the Q&A, Hank Green admitted to having a crush on his high school English teacher.

During the event, Carnegie Hall became a trending topic on Twitter; already by noon on Wednesday there were more than 35,000 additional views of the event and 18,000 comments. Additional meetups around this event are scheduled for upcoming days; a schedule can be found here.

“This Year” singalong. Photo credit: Andrea Fischman.

For additional photos of this event from School Library Journal, check out our Tumblr feed!

Granted

Día grants: The February 1 deadline to apply for twelve $5,000 mini-grants to help libraries incorporate Día into their programs is fast approaching. The mini-grants, part of the Association for Library Service to Children’s (ALSC) Everyone Reads @ your library grant, are funded by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation and are intended to help libraries start a Día Family Book Club Program. These awards will be given ‘to libraries that demonstrate a need to better address the diverse backgrounds within their communities.” In addition, ALSC will be able to use funds from these grants to create a Día Family Book Club Toolkit that libraries can easily access. Be sure to check out requirements and complete the application soon.

Día is “a nationally recognized initiative that emphasizes the importance of literacy for all children from all backgrounds. It is a daily commitment to linking children and their families to diverse books, languages and cultures.”

Author Lauren Oliver

You Have to Be in It…

YA writing contest: HarperCollins and Figment are sponsoring a young adult writing contest, and bestselling author Lauren Oliver (“Delirium” series) will be the judge. The contest’s theme is “Write a story in which love is dangerous,” and it’s open to 13 to 21 year olds. To enter, aspiring authors must visit www.figment.com (“a community where you can share your writing, connect with other people who love to read, and discover new stories and authors”) and register for free. They should post an original story of no more than 1,500 words by clicking “Publish Now.”

Entries will be judged based on quality, creativity, and relevance to the theme. All stories must be submitted by March 3, and one grand prize winner will be selected by May 1. The winner will receive airfare for two to New York and two nights in a hotel, a day at HarperCollins, have the piece published on Teen.com: a “teen and tween website and source for celebrity and entertainment news, freebies and giveaways, exclusive video interviews, red carpet style, TV recaps, movie reviews, new music, and funny viral videos,” and be offered a one-year unpaid columnist position with Teen.com.

Tech Award: If you are a media specialist in a primary or secondary school and have teamed up with a teacher to plan and execute a great collaborative project involving technology, you have until February 28 to apply for the SIGMS (Special Interest Group for Media Specialists) Tech Innovation Award. SIGMS is the special interest group for school library media specialists within ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). Make sure to check out the rules and the nomination form. Entrants must describe the collaborative technology innovation project, explain how the administration supported the project’s objectives, describe how the project could be expanded or improved in the future, and provide data collected on the impact of the project. Winners will receive complimentary registration and a traveling stipend to ISTE’s annual conference, $1,000 for the school media center, a $300 professional library, and more.

Nature writing contest: Big Universe is sponsoring a Nature Writing Contest for K–8 students in schools that subscribe to the company’s ebook reading, writing, and sharing platform. The focus of the contest is on the Common Core Literacy Writing and Literacy Language Standards. According to Big Universe, its “literacy website provides a ready-made library of cross-disciplinary informational and literary leveled texts from today’s best publishers with tools for self-publishing, sharing, assessment, and account management.” One of the aspects of the platform is an online writing and publishing tool—and that’s what students must use to enter the contest. Kids must create a book of no more than 200 words that includes some aspect of nature using the authoring tool on the company’s WRITE section. Entries are published to the teacher’s account for review and submission. All entries must be submitted by February 28 and will be accepted in three age groups: grades K–2, 3–5, and 6–8. A winner for each bracket will be announced on March 15, and their books will be published on the Big Universe website.

Sweepstakes tech package: The CDW-G and Discovery Education’s 2013 Win a Wireless Lab Sweepstakes is open to employees of accredited public, private, and parochial schools. Between now and May 3, participants can enter once every day to win some great technology for their schools: an Epson projector, a Xerox multifunction printer, or a Sony Notebook computer—or one of two grand prizes consisting of 20 notebooks or tablets, an interactive white board, three wireless access points, a notebook cart, a document camera, student response systems, and a printer from CDW-G as well as a $5,000 digital media grant from Discovery Education. The grand prize winners will be randomly drawn by May 9 from all eligible entries made during the entire term of the contest. Be sure to check out all the rules and go to the Win a Wireless Lab Sweepstakes page and click on the Enter to Win button. Educators can find out more about the sweepstakes by following Win a Wireless Lab on Pinterest, @WinWirelessLab on Twitter, or Facebook.

Haven’t registered for ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) yet? There’s still time—visit the conference home page for details and more information on the 400-plus sessions that will be offered.

Peterson brings to SLJ more than 15 years of editorial and news experience, including business reporting stints at international wire services Bloomberg and Knight-Ridder Financial. In the realm of print journalism, she has served as managing editor of FunFare, ToyFare, and Playthings magazines and as associate editor of Instructor and Scholastic Administr@tor, Scholastic’s professional magazines for K–8 teachers and for school technology leaders, respectively.

Peterson says, “I am passionate about service journalism and in helping to shape the voice and content of a brand to best serve its unique target audience.”

Peterson, who would like to pursue a MLIS degree in the future, also has a keen interest in libraries, education, policy, and children’s literacy. “I am eager to learn about this unique, evolving beat and to expand and develop SLJ’s news coverage to further incorporate the ways in which new technologies, education reform, and funding issues impact public and school libraries,” she says.

Peterson can be reached at kpeterson[at]mediasourceinc[dot]com.SLJ is the largest reviewer of children’s and young adult books and multimedia products, and is the only full-service publication serving the youth and school library market. It reaches more than 100,000 elementary, middle/junior, and senior high school librarians and youth service librarians in public libraries.

Recovery grants:

You Have to Be in It…

Free audiobooks: To promote its new distribution partnerships, Findaway World, the maker of Playaway, Playaway View, and Catalist Digital, is giving away three $1,000 Playaway starter collections to schools. Media specialists and teachers can visit the website, complete a short survey, and enter for the chance to win one of these great audiobook collections. One school will be selected to receive a starter collection each month, from March through May.

Playaway audio content comes preloaded in circulation-ready media players. Playaway’s new distributors include Mackin Educational Resources, Perma-Bound, Children’s Plus, Baker & Taylor, Classroom Library Company, Delaney Education, Bound To Stay Bound, Central Programs, and AV Café. Each distributor will offer various titles from Playaway’s collection of 17,000 titles. Findaway World will continue its longstanding distribution relationship with Follett Library Resources and Follett Educational Services.

Programming

Arts and humanities awards: Libraries are encouraged to apply for the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program (NAHYP) Award, an initiative of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The deadline is February 4. Be sure to check out eligibility requirements before completing the application. Twelve winners will be selected to receive a $10,000 grant. In addition, 38 finalists will receive a Finalist Certificate of Excellence. The award will be presented by First Lady Michelle Obama at a ceremony at the White House.

Programs should be in place for at least five years and “offer sustained and consistent out-of-school or afterschool opportunities for young people to engage hands-on with the arts or humanities.” After-school and out-of-school arts and humanities programs sponsored by museums, libraries, performing arts organizations; educational institutions (e.g., preschools; elementary, middle, and high schools; universities; and colleges), arts centers, community service organizations, businesses, and eligible government entities can submit an application.

Industry News

Professional development: After recently acquiring the assets of Maupin House, a publisher of more than 200 professional resources on literacy topics for K–12 educators and administrators, Capstone has launched Capstone Professional. This new professional development service will include onsite and online training webinars, books, and ebooks. Among Maupin House’s bestsellers are “Caught’ya! Grammar with a Giggle” series by Jane Ball Kiester; Razzle Dazzle Writing  2001) by Melissa Forney; and the CraftPlus K–8 Writing Program, a curriculum aligned to the Common Core Standards. Capstone is a leading publisher of children’s books, digital products, and literacy programs.