President's Message for the Fall 2024 Issue of the Journal of Children's Literature

By Xenia Hadjioannou

As I am writing this letter, it is early fall in Pennsylvania. Though short sleeves are still in order, the leaves are beginning to turn, signaling changes that are just around the corner. By the time the editorial process of this fall issue of the Journal of Children’s Literature is completed, copyediting and design are finalized, and the finished journal is published on the CLA website, weeks will have gone by, and we will be a breath away from the 2024 NCTE Convention in Boston, Massachusetts.

The 2024 annual NCTE Convention will mark a significant anniversary for CLA, as fifty years prior, during the 1974 NCTE Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana, “a plan was made to form a Children’s Literature Assembly” (Gleason, 1975, p. 4) and a formal proposal was submitted to NCTE for its establishment. The proposal was accepted in 1975, and the assembly began its work as a formalized group. However, as journal issues take significant time and require a lot of hard, dedicated work by many people to develop and bring to the public, so did establishing the Children’s Literature Assembly. As Amy McClure (2015), our CLA historian, notes in an article commemorating and reflecting upon CLA’s forty years, the formation of the assembly was decades in the making. She adds,

It is a story that transcends geography, professional role, age, ethnicity, and gender (Kromann-Kelly, 1986). It is also a story of passionate commitment, hard work, stimulating ideas, and determination— all for the purpose of ensuring that both teachers and librarians have the knowledge and dedication to share high-quality, intellectually engaging, culturally responsive, and pleasurable books with children. (p. 69)

In recognition and appreciation of the dedicated commitment of the many people who have contributed to CLA both prior and since its establishment, in NCTE 2024, we will kick off a year of celebrations of CLA’s fifty years and of reflective engagements with our assembly’s past and future. Visit the CLA Booth in the Exhibit Hall (Booth #235), which is hosted by the Ways and Means Committee, to catch a glimpse of the amazing artwork included in this year’s Art Auction and to browse the commemorative fundraising items we have created for CLA’s fiftieth. Also, save spots on your conference schedules for the CLA-sponsored events: the Notables Session during which members of the Notables Committee and book creators will talk about books on the 2024 Notables list; the CLA Expert Class, which will explore biographies and their rich potential in the classroom; and the CLA Breakfast, which will feature Lesa Cline-Ransome and James Ransome as keynote speakers.

In February, join us for the inaugural installment of the Children’s Literature Assembly Online Research Conference CLA is cosponsoring with the Mary Frances Early College of Education at the University of Georgia. The conference, which aims to be a forum for researchers of children’s literature to share their work and exchange ideas, is supported by the CLA Endowment Fund. Save the date for Friday, February 21, 2025, and visit the CLA website for conference information and updates.

In concluding my fourth and last President’s Letter for the Journal of Children’s Literature, I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude to all who have been part of CLA’s journey along, and before, its fifty years of existence. CLA has remained a thriving organization because of the passion and dedication of everyone who has been a member, everyone who has contributed to our programming in any way, everyone who has read and learned from JCL, and everyone who has attended our events and returned to their classrooms, libraries, and homes and made sure that great books made it into the
hands of children.

In gratitude,

Xenia Hadjioannou
CLA President

References
Gleason, G. (1975, March). Reprise. CLA Newsletter, 1(1), 1–4.

McClure, A. (2015). The Children’s Literature Assembly: 40 years of passionate commitment to children and their books. Journal of Children’s Literature, 41(2), 69–76.

Xenia Hadjioannou is associate professor of language and literacy education at the Berks campus of Penn State University. She is president of the Children’s Literature Assembly of NCTE and NCTE representative to the USBBY Board.

CLA @NCTE 2024