2011 Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts
Sunday, November 20, 1:00-2:45 PM

For twenty-seven of NCTE's one hundred years of leadership in the teaching of English, the Language Arts, and literature, the Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts committee of NCTE's Children's Literature Assembly has annually selected thirty books (fiction, non-fiction, and poetry) written for children in grades K-8 that best exemplify these criteria established for the Notables Award:

1. deal explicitly with language, such as plays on words, word origins, or the history of language;
2. demonstrate uniqueness in the use of language or style;
3. invite child response or participation.

In addition, books are to:

4. have an appealing format;
5. be of enduring quality;
6. meet generally accepted criteria of quality for the genre in which they are written.

The Notables are selected each year by a seven-member national committee of children's literature specialists who belong to NCTE's Children's Literature Assembly. Over the course of twenty-seven years, the committee has honored more than eight hundred children's books as Notable in ways that make them perfect for use in elementary and middle school English/Language Arts classrooms. These Notable books act as ambassadors for NCTE's mission to "read the past and write the future" in classrooms across the country – promoting the delights of reading, writing, and learning through quality children's literature.

In this session, the NCBLA committee will describe these criteria and the thirty books on the 2011 Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts Award list. The description of the books will be followed by a series of small group roundtable discussions with authors and illustrators whose books were chosen for the 2011 NCBLA Award. Session participants are seated at tables. Following a 7-10 minute discussion, each author/illustrator rotates to another table, thus providing discussion time with all session participants. Each year, the number of authors/illustrators sponsored by publishers is impressive. And, based on participant feedback in the past, the quality of time these authors/illustrators spend with the participants is a valued part of this session. A drawing is held for the 2011 Notable books, so at least thirty participants leave the session with one of the books described and/or discussed.

Confirmed authors for the "speed dating with authors" portion of this session:
Tom Angleberger
Karen Fox
Candace Fleming
Barbara Kerley
Sharon Draper
Karen Cushman
Rita Williams Garcia