Schools, Libraries, Booksellers Celebrate Children's Book Week
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By Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal, 05/10/2010
This week librarians, publishers, booksellers, and students from across the country commemorate Children’s Book Week with a range of events designed to celebrate the love of books and reading.
The May 10-16 festivities will be marked with official events taking place in 10 cities, from Atlanta, GA, to Webster Groves, MO, with dozens of schools, libraries, and bookstores taking part in local events. For example, yesterday in New York City, Katherine Paterson, the current National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, and Jon Scieszka, her predecessor, spoke about children’s literature at a special event hosted by the Children’s Book Council called Writers on Writers, which took place at an uptown Barnes & Noble.
California’s Altadena Public Library has asked children to create a poster of their favorite book, and the Potomac Community Library in Prince William, MD, is celebrating with its very own carnival.
The highlight of the week is this evening’s announcement of the Children’s Choice Book Awards winners at a New York City gala hosted by Mo Willems, the 2009 kindergarten to second grade book of the year winner for The Pigeon Wants a Puppy! (Hyperion, 2008). The Children Choice Awards finalists were determined by close to 15,000 children and teens, and it marks the oldest national literacy event in the United States. In addition, Kyle Zimmer, the co-founder and president of nonprofit organization First Book, will receive the Impact Award for her contributions to children and books. First Book provides new books to children in need to promote literacy.
Jon J Muth, last year’s Children Choice Illustrator of the Year, created this year’s Children’s Book Week poster, featuring pandas Stillwater and Koo and siblings Karl, Addy, and Michael from Muth’s book Zen Ties (Scholastic, 2008). Poster are available free of charge by sending a 9” x 12” self-addressed envelope with $0.65 postage attached to the Children's Book Council, Poster Order, 12 West 37th Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10018.
Frederic G. Melcher, the editor of Publishers Weekly, and Anne Carroll Moore, the superintendent of Children's Works at the New York Public Library, along with Franklin K. Matthiews, the librarian of the Boy Scouts of America, created Children’s Book Week in 1919. Melcher said at the time “A great nation is a reading nation.” The Children’s Book Council has administered the celebration since 1944.
