Librarians can pair audio with print to build literacy skills. The launch of the Playaway Bookpack program has been announced by Findaway World. Each Bookpack features a preloaded audiobook and its print version, and is packaged in a plastic hanging bag. There are currently more than 200 titles available for preschool through young adult readers. “Playaways have been used as powerful read-along companions for years. Launching Playaway Bookpacks is our way of making it easier than ever for users to access these pairings and especially easy for libraries and classrooms to deliver this service,” said Nancy Stickney, Vice President Playaway Products Group.

Books for preschool to third grade students include titles from Peggy Parish’s Amelia Bedelia collection, Gene Zion’s Harry the Dirty Dog and Other Stories, William Steig’s Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and Other Stories, and Jean Fritz’s What’s the Big Idea, Ben Franklin? And Other Stories of Famous Americans. For grades three to six, works range from Gennifer Choldenko’s Al Capone Does My Shirts and Carl Hiaasen’s Hoot to Russell Freedman’s Lincoln: A Photobiography and Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. Among the middle school selections are Irene Hunt’s Across Five Aprils, Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars, and Christopher Paul Curtis’s The Watsons Go to Birmingham. Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens, Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter are among the titles for young adults. Be sure to check out the complete list.

Medal for Libraries and Museums

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is now accepting nominations for the 2014 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. The National Medal honors museums and libraries that make extraordinary civic, educational, economic, environmental, and social contributions to their communities. Public or private nonprofit museums, including art, history, science and technology, children’s, and natural history museums; and all types of nonprofit libraries, including public, school, academic, research, and archival, are eligible to apply. Complete applications must be mailed to The National Medal for Museum and Library Service, Office of the Director, Institute of Museum and Library Services, 1800 M St. NW, 9th floor, Washington, DC 20036-5802 and postmarked by October 15, 2013 (no faxes or emails). Check out eligibility requirements for libraries and museums, and then complete a nomination form.

National Book Awards Virtual Exhibit

The National Book Foundation’s Up All Night online exhibition showcases the National Book Award Winners and Finalists in Young People’s Literature from 1969 to 2012. The exhibition features 228 titles, including picture books, novels, graphic novels, novels-in-verse, poetry, and nonfiction books. Forty-five readers, writers, and National Book Award authors who were inspired by the titles have contributed videos, interviews, collages, essays, poems, and other artwork. For example William Alexander, the 2012 National Book Award Winner in Young People’s Literature for Goblin Secrets (S &S, 2012), contributed essays and recordings of himself reading passages from Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Stone (1973 winner).

Educator Workshop at Serious Play Conference

Interested in designing serious games? Administrators and teachers interested in integrating educational games into the K-12 curriculum are invited to attend a one-day workshop on August 19, 2013 at DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, Washington during the Serious Play Conference. Teachers and administrators who have incorporated game-based learning as well as senior serious games developers will share their insights and discuss what kind of products are best for different ages, where in the curriculum they work well, and how to measure learning objectives. The one-day workshop is $200 and registration is open now.

Serious games are simulations of real-world events or processes designed for the purpose of solving a problem. The Serious Play Conference is an annual event held to examine the current challenges and future developments in the field.