News & Features

She’s not a teacher or a librarian but, during the more than 25 years that Sesame Street’s Sonia Manzano has spent talking about kindness with Big Bird, letting the Count number her toes, and singing about trash to Oscar the Grouch, she has observed quite a bit about how kids learn. The actress, education advocate, and children’s book author was presented with the Américas Award in Washington, D.C., on September 23, given annually by the Consortium for Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP).

Two Boys Kissing, David Levithan Alfred A. Knopf. August 2013 Reviewed from ARC Sometimes a book packs such an emotional whammy that every other aspect becomes irrelevant to 99.9% of the readers. Two Boys Kissing is seriously packing. Before I go any further, a disclaimer: I just read this for the first time last week. [...]

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) today announced grants for 42 library projects totaling $14,670,66. Recipients in 27 states and the District of Columbia received funding, including the American Library Association, which will research the efficacy of early literacy programs; Westport (CT) Library, which hopes to create a new model for maker spaces; and the Chicago Board of Education, which plans to improve school librarians' use of mobile technologies.

YALSA and Dollar General Literacy Foundation are offering two $1,000 grants for Summer Reading programs: one for employing a teen intern and another for purchasing resources. The Library of Congress has launched a new Twitter feed for K–12 educators which can be found @TeachingLC. ALSC members are encouraged to send suggestions for the 2013 Theodor Geisel Award to the committee chair, Penny Peck. Capstone Interactive ebooks are now compatible with the Amazon Kindle Fire HD.

ALA's Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has announced the 10 recipients of its 2013 Teen Read Week Grants. Funded by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, the grants of $1,000 each will be used by the libraries to fund their Teen Read Week programs.

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.

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.

So I see the Man Booker Prize is opening itself up to Americans. I wonder why; my cynical side believes it has less to do with enhancing “its prestige and reputation through expansion” and more to do with trying to grab a piece of American publishing money (such as it is) through what has euphemistically [...]

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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.