Awards

Watch a short film by a semifinalist in the National Coalition Against Censorship's 2012 Youth Free Expression Project Film Contest.

School Library Journal’s fifth annual Battle of the Kids’ Books tournament, affectionately known as “BOB,” is about to begin! Modeled after college basketball’s March Madness, the tournament pits 16 of 2012’s best books for young people—everything from fantasy to nonfiction to wicked good romance—against one another in a winner-take-all online elimination contest kicking off on Monday, March 12.

With the Youth Media Awards just a few days away, School Library Journal editors and contributors took a stab at naming some possible contenders.

The American Library Association’s News Know-How initiative has selected the teen services department of the San Antonio Public Library to receive more than $50,000 to train and support kids in grades 10–12 in learning how to distinguish fact from opinion, check news and information sources, and distinguish between propaganda and news, the library announced this week.

Librarians who serve children in predominantly Latino communities were shocked this past December to read a New York Times article claiming that there is a dearth of Latino characters in books written for young readers—a notion that is at odds with their own experiences. In fact, they tell School Library Journal, there is actually a wealth of resources currently available to these kids, and librarians have the power (and the responsibility) to make those meaningful connections.

This past December, YALSA announced the shortlist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award. Edited to add: The Award went to Seraphina by Rachel Hartman! You can get more information on the Morris Award at the YALSA website. I’ve had the chance to read and review all the books, and let me say, it’s going to [...]

How better to get acquainted with the Caldecott Medal than through two artists who have won it? Last year, in the first Caldecott Conversation, Erin E. Stead and Jerry Pinkney talked shop. Today, the conversation continues as Stead and Chris Raschka (the 2012 Caldecott winner for A Ball for Daisy) interview each other. Erin E. [...]

The Association of Jewish Libraries has given its 2013 Sydney Taylor Book Awards to Hannah’s Way, by Linda Glaser; His Name Was Raoul Wallenberg, by Louise Borden; and Intentions, by Deborah Heiligman.

With the announcement of the Caldecott winners less than a week away, Junior Library Guild examines some of 2012's front-runner picture books.