Industry News

Check out the latest News Bites for information on the National Coalition Against Censorship's FIlm Contest, books for GLBTQ Youth, and the latest ebook news.

Katherine Applegate's The One and Only Ivan and Jon Klassen's This Is Not My Hat may have won the Newbery and Caldecott on Monday, January 28, but they were already stellar titles for School Library Journal's Book Review editors. Both books made SLJ's Best Books of 2012 list, as well as many of the other ALA's Youth Media Award-winners. Check out SLJ's reviews for the top prizes.

The audience erupted in cheers Monday after Katherine Applegate was named the winner of the Newbery Medal for The One and Only Ivan (HarperCollins), and Jon Klassen was awarded the Caldecott Medal for This Is Not My Hat (Candlewick) at the American Library Association's Youth Media Awards for 2012, which were announced during its annual Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, WA.

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

Jan Ormerod, author and illustrator of many books for young children, died Wednesday in England. Ormerod began her kid-lit career more than 30 years ago after the birth of her first child; previously she taught art and design. Her first book, Sunshine, won the 1982 Mother Goose Award for British kid lit and was named the Australian Picture Book of the Year and an ALA Notable Book.

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.

Check out this week's News Bites for information on a business-related competition for students and teachers, minigrants offered to teachers and librarians by the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, and the latest publishing news.

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.