With more than a week to go before the 2018 Youth Media Awards, the American Library Association (ALA) has people excitedly looking forward to 2019 with an announcement that it will add to the ceremony next year. The ALA and its professional affiliates will highlight the best of the best in multicultural literature for youth by adding additional announcements to its 2019 ALA Youth Media Awards, the organization announced on Tuesday. "In an effort to bring awareness about and encourage the creation of more books that depict diverse cultures, or by authors of color," the ALA will highlight the winning titles selected by the American Indian Library Association (AILA), Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), and the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL), at the 2019 ALA Youth Media Awards, the ALA said. “Often children in the United States are not exposed to print or digital materials that reflect themselves or their culture,” ALA President Jim Neal said in the statement. “A child’s lack of exposure to other cultures paves the way to bigotry and cultural invisibility. The addition of professional affiliate awards can only assist with our efforts to encourage understanding and abolish cultural invisibility.” The YMAs ceremony is a much-anticipated event each year when the winners of the prestigious Caldecott, Newbery, and Printz Awards, and Coretta Scott King Book, among others, are announced. This year's ceremony is Monday, February 12.