For the third year, schools, libraries, booksellers, and book lovers are coming together to celebrate Picture Book Month in November. It’s an international literacy initiative that showcases print picture books, founded by author/storyteller Dianne de Las Casas, along with author and illustrators cofounders Katie Davis, Elizabeth Dulemba, Tara Lazar, and Wendy Martin. Every day in November, there will be a new post from a champion of picture books on the Picture Book Month website explaining why he or she thinks picture books are important.

Librarians and teachers can help celebrate the initiative by becoming a Picture Book Month Ambassador and adding an Ambassador badge on their websites. Posters are available for download in a media kit. Participants can register and pledge to celebrate their love of picture books throughout the month and be added to the Picture Book Month mailing list. A theme calendar for Picture Book Month can be downloaded to help you plan a celebration of picture books throughout the month. Ideas for ways to commemorate the event (such as author/illustrator visits via Skype) are provided on the website, and the supporters can help spread the word via social media with #picturebookmonth.

NYC Neighborhood Library Awards

Five winners of the first-ever NYC Neighborhood Library Awards were announced by the Charles H. Revson Foundation on September 17. The awards “celebrate the crucial role of local libraries in serving New York City’s diverse communities” and are the first to honor individual branch libraries. More than 4,000 New Yorkers nominated libraries from May 20 to July 1. A panel of judges reviewed the 10 finalists. The, and. The judges included author R.L. Stine; author Kurt Andersen; Carla Hayden, CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore; Fatima Shama, NYC Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs; and Don Weisberg, President of the Penguin Young Readers Group.

The five winning branches that have received $10,000 each are: Corona Library (Queens); Macon Library(Bedford-Stuyvesant/Stuyvesant Heights, Brooklyn); New Dorp Library (New Dorp/Midland Beach, Staten Island); Seward Park Library(Lower East Side, Manhattan); and Sheepshead Bay Library (Brooklyn).

The five finalists that have been awarded $5,000 each are: Aguilar Library (East Harlem South, Manhattan); Kings Bay Library (Sheepshead Bay/Gerritsen Beach/Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn); Parkchester Library (Bronx); Queens Village Library; and Tremont Library (Claremont/Bathgate, Bronx).

“These nominations reveal the passion that New Yorkers have for their neighborhood libraries,” said Julie Sandorf, President of the Charles H. Revson Foundation. “Our libraries promote and reflect the promise of our city—evening the playing field for millions of New Yorkers who seek self-improvement.”

Children’s Lit Fellows Program

The Stony Brook Southampton’s (NY) Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing and Literature is a one-year certificate program for children’s book writers that launched last year. The Children’s Literature Fellows program is now accepting applications for 2014. The selective program chooses only 12 applications each year. The year-long course, which can be completed mostly through distance learning, was developed by author Emma Walton Hamilton and MFA in Creative Writing Director Julie Sheehan. During the course, each Fellow completes either one publishable young adult or middle grade manuscript or, for picture books writers, a series concept with one completed manuscript or three separate manuscripts. Students get to attend the Editing and Publishing Conference where they have the opportunity to meet with editors, agents, and other members of the publishing industry.

“The Children’s Literature Fellowship is the best thing I’ve ever done for myself,” noted middle grade novelist Janas Byrd. “It is a one-on-one mentorship with award-winning authors who are also brilliant teachers.”

The application deadline is December 1, 2014. For more information, visit the Stony Brook website and click on Children’s Lit Fellows.

LEGO Essay Contest

“It’s Your Adventure, Where Will You Go” is a storytelling essay contest, open to children in the second through fifth grade, sponsored by Lego Education in celebration of National Literacy Month in September. Students entering must use Lego Education StoryStarter, a hands-on learning tool that “enhances students’ reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.”

The challenge is for students to use the Lego Education StoryStarter product to write a 100–200 word creative story using the following prompt:

“It’s the new school year but your principal is nowhere to be found! It’s your school mascot’s mission to find out what happened and bring them back safely to the school. While your mascot is on their adventure, they make new friends along the way. Who will your mascot meet, what cities will their adventure take them to? You get to decide how this story ends!”

Students can build their stories using StoryStarter LEGO bricks, take photos, upload into the StoryStarter Visualizer software, and then write their story for submission. The only limitation is that it must involve the use of LEGO Education materials and showcase student’s writing within the 100–200 word limit.

Entries must be submitted via email by October 21, 2012. The grand prize winner will receive a LEGO model built in honor of their school mascot. The two runners-up will each receive a $1,000 LEGO Education gift card. Be sure to check out the details of the initiative and the rules of the contest.

Book display at Brook Forest Elementary School.

Librarians, authors and illustrators are gearing up for Picture Book Month in November, which will build on the success of last year’s inaugural event. The brainchild of author and storyteller Dianne de Las Casas, Picture Book Month encourages the recognition of picture books through blogs, tweets and other activities.

What’s on the schedule? For starters, de Las Casas has arranged for authors and illustrators to post daily on the Picture Book Month site. Caldecott Medalists Chris Raschka and Paul O. Zelinsky, along with authors Doreen Cronin and Jon Scieszka, are among the 30 “Picture Book Month Champions” weighing in. A Picture Book Month calendar recommends daily themes that educators can focus on—from food to monsters to pigs—and suggests that every Monday be devoted to nonfiction picture books.

Organizations including the Children’s Book Council and the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) have signed on for the event. “AASL is pleased to partner with Picture Book Month and to help highlight the value of connecting people of all ages, but especially the young, with this unique and remarkable format,” said AASL president Susan Ballard.

Mock Caldecott display at Minges Brook Elementary School.

How are school librarians getting involved? Mary Ann Scheuer, librarian at Emerson School in the  Berkeley (CA) Unified School District, will emphasize titles for older readers, like Jacqueline Woodson’s picture books, for her fourth and fifth graders. “My students are completely drawn into her stories, appreciating the language, character development and emotions,” Scheuer told School Library Journal. In addition, she says, picture books can challenge older students to focus on skills like inference that are critical to the Common Core Standards. “When we read Woodson’s Visiting Day (Scholastic, 2002) illustrated by James Ransome, they inferred that Maya’s father was in prison, a fact the text does not explicitly state,” she observes.

Displays, an author visit, and student-run mock Caldecotts are all part of the plan for John Schumacher, librarian at Brook Forest Elementary School in Oak Brook, IL. Schumacher will post the calendar around his school and have classes set picture book reading goals that they will track using Biblionasium, a social networking site for kids that promotes independent reading.

He’ll also host Tad Hills, bestselling author/illustrator of Rocket Writes a Story (Schwartz & Wade, 2012) and will collaborate on the mock Caldecott with Colby Sharp, a fourth grade teacher at Minges Brook Elementary School in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Laurel Snyder, author of such picture books as Baxter, the Pig Who Wanted to Be Kosher (Tricycle, 2010), will visiting the Main Street Academy in College Park, GA, and will Skype with students from the Community School of Davidson in North Carolina.

Looking for more ways to get involved? Find some inspirations on the event website.