Industry News

Simon & Schuster has announced the creation of a pilot program that would make available as digital editions a specially selected collection of its most popular and award-winning PreK–12 books for school classrooms nationwide. Each ebook purchased may be used in the classroom for one year from the purchase date, and may only be used by one student at a time.

Torrential downpours did not dampen the crowd’s enthusiasm for the over one hundred authors and illustrators who participated in the Library of Congress’s 13th annual National Book Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., this weekend. Hundreds of attendees jammed the festival tents to see and hear such favorite authors as Richard Peck, Katherine Paterson, Phyllis Naylor Reynolds, Oliver Jeffers, Veronica Roth, and Jon Klassen.

NY middle school librarian Deven Black has been named the 2013 Bammy Award recipient in the inaugural school librarian category, presented by the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences International. Sylvia Knight Norton, incoming executive director of AASL, presented the award on Saturday, September 21, 2013. Jennifer Lagarde, Shannon Miller, Joyce Valenza, and Matthew Winner joined Black as nominees for the award.

Friends and family gathered in New York City on Saturday, September 21, to pay tribute to storyteller, folklorist, and picture book author Diane Wolkstein, who died on January 31, 2013. During the memorial, Wolkstein was honored for her contributions to the world of storytelling through her performances and numerous books, audiobooks, and DVDs of tales she collected from around the world.

The Randolph County (NC) Board of Education is reconsidering its recent ban of Ralph Ellison’s classic novel Invisible Man in its school libraries, the local Courier-Tribune reports. The board voted 5-2 last week to remove the book from shelves, but it has agreed to hold a special meeting on Wednesday to reconsider the book's status.

Scholastic has announced that it is donating one million books to Reach Out and Read, the nonprofit organization that helps implement early-childhood literacy awareness during a child’s regular medical office visits. The donation comes just a day after Reach Out and Read was recognized by the Library of Congress as the recipient of the new David M. Rubenstein Prize for advancing literacy.

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation has announced it will give an additional $5 million in funding for up to 12 more public school library renovations as part of the Baltimore Elementary and Middle School Library Project, for a total of $10 million for as many as 24 new public school libraries.

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has chosen the winners of the 2013 Library of Congress Literacy Awards, a new program originated and sponsored by philanthropist David M. Rubenstein. The recipients are the Reach Out and Read early literacy program in Boston; MA, 826 National, San Francisco, a K–12 tutoring and literacy program; and the international program PlanetRead, based in Mumbai, India.

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators has announced its creation of the Spark Award, an annual literary award that will recognize excellence in a children’s book published through a non-traditional publishing route. The award is open to current writer and/or illustrator SCBWI members who have published a board book, picture book, chapter book, middle grade, or young adult novel either independently or via an established self-publishing enterprise.