Industry News

Acclaimed author/illustrator Ashley Bryan celebrated his 90th birthday at the Simon & Schuster Children's fall preview on July 25. The winner of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, and the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton and Coretta Scott King Awards was joined by librarians, publishing professionals, and fellow children's books artists.

The Big Brain Club is now offering its how-to manual for student publishing programs to any schools interested in participating. The manual provides a blueprint for the program, making it easy to get organized and up and running quickly, especially key with the new school year just weeks away.

MTV recently surveyed its core audience, the Millennials, in order to better understand the younger subset of that group, ages 13-17, as they age into the older group, ages 18-24. And while the results may not be surprising, MTV's deft interpretation of the responses divides the Millennials into two distinct archetypes as represented by the two biggest names in fiction over the past 15 years—Harry Potter and Katniss Everdeen.

Leonard Marcus might just be the busiest man in the world of kid lit. In June, the children’s literature historian and scholar launched a critically acclaimed exhibition at the New York Public Library (which he curated) and had a book published that celebrates the life and work of Maurice Sendak (which he edited). Marcus shared with SLJ some of the details of his recent projects, insider knowledge of children’s literature history and icons, and his belief that picture books might be the solution to saving all physical books.

The Kids in Need Foundation is calling for applications for its classroom grants program. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund released Raising a Reader! How Comics & Graphic Novels Can Help Your Kids Love to Read, a free resource that promotes comics' positive impact on readers' literacy skills. Apply for the Estela and Raúl Mora Award, which recognizes exemplary programming that celebrates El día de los niños/El día de los libros. Edie Parsons has won the first Karen and Philip Cushman Late Bloomer Award that celebrates authors over the age of 50 who have not been traditionally published in the children’s literature field.

The Lockwood Lions crosstown rivals, the Grovehill Giants, seem to have it all. Or do they? When the cheer squad and the football players get together, it always gets intense. But there are two sides to every story—whose side are you on? Five lucky winners will get a collection of leveled readers, including the new Truly Fine/Forever Hot from Saddleback.

Linda Lord, Maine’s state librarian, represented the nation’s 16,400 public libraries Wednesday in her call to Congress to provide a “proactive vision for meeting the educational and learning needs of our communities for the next 15 years and beyond.” Her testimony—at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation—also detailed the success of the E-rate program in helping serve more than 30 million people every week.

Lizzie Skurnick Books, a new imprint from Ig Publishing, brings back beloved YA titles; Laurie Halse Anderson wins the Empire State Award; nominate your favorite librarian for the "I Love My Librarian" award; and more.

The National Education Association this week voted to support the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) in its lobbying efforts with regard to the "Strengthening America’s Schools Act," the first piece of legislation to recognize the role school library programs play in student learning since 1965, according to the American Library Association.