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Celebrating the 2024 Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts

10/28/2024

 

Patrick Andrus on behalf of the Notables Committee

Notables Session at NCTE 2024: Saturday, November 23rd, in room 157C of the convention center
The lazy days of summer are behind us, and the excitement of a new school year in September has come and gone. Teachers, students, and readers have settled in with their favorite new books over the course of October. As November approaches, so does the anticipation of the annual NCTE Convention, and this year, attendees will head to the literary city of Boston.

The NCBLA (Notable Children’s Books in Language Arts) Committee is eagerly preparing for our presentation during the convention. The seven-member committee, along with several award-winning authors, will present the top thirty titles chosen for the 2024 Notables list in the genres of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

On the afternoon of Saturday, November 23rd, in room 157C of the convention center, committee members and authors will share the best of the best, hoping that teachers, educators, authors, and readers of all kinds will leave the presentation with a list of thirty titles they can use and share in their classrooms on the Monday after the convention.

Here are the authors who will be presenting alongside the committee:
  • James Bird, author of No Place Like Home
  • Shelly Brown, author of The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry
  • Elaine Dimopoulos, author of The Remarkable Rescue at Milkweed Meadow
  • Dana Kramaroff, author of The Do More Club
  • Jessica Lanan, author of Jumper (A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider)
  • Kari Lavelle, author of Butt or Face? (Can You Tell Which End You’re Looking At?)
  • Jarrett Lerner, author of A Work in Progress
  • Katherine Pryor, author of Home is Calling:  The Journey of the Monarch Butterfly
  • Traci Sorell, author of Mascot
  • Charles Waters, author of Mascot
James Bird, author of No Place Like Home
Shelly Brown, author of The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry
Elaine Dimopoulos, author of The Remarkable Rescue at Milkweed Meadow
Dana Kramaroff, author of The Do More Club
Jessica Lanan, author of Jumper (A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider)
Kari Lavelle, author of Butt or Face? (Can You Tell Which End You’re Looking At?)
Jarrett Lerner, author of A Work in Progress
Katherine Pryor, author of Home is Calling: The Journey of the Monarch Butterfly
Charles Waters, author of Mascot
During the seventy-five-minute presentation, titles from the NCBLA 2024 list will be shared. Each book will be presented by a committee member and/or the author. Short summaries will be provided, along with ideas on how the books can be used with young readers. The presenting authors will share their relationship with the selected title, as well as insights into their writing craft and how the stories were constructed. There will also be time for audience questions for the panel of authors.

A highlight of the presentation will be the raffle at the end of the session. All attendees will have a chance to win one of the thirty titles being presented. The excitement of the winners is always palpable and makes for an excellent way to close the session.

About the Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts Award

The seven-member national committee's charge is to select 30 books that best exemplify the criteria established for the Notables Award. Books considered for this annual list are works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry written for children in grades K-8. The selected books must:
  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.
  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.

A Special Preview Treat:

Here are some special book highlights from two authors that are unable to share their award winning books at the conference.

DK Ryland shares her book
Giraffe is Too Tall for This Book

Amanda Hill shares her book
Once Upon a Family

If you're interested in applying for the next award season, please contact Patrick Andrus, the current Chair, at [email protected]. New committee members will be selected in March 2025.


The committee members and authors are excited to share these incredible, strong, and important stories with young readers. See you in Boston!

Patrick Andrus is a fourth-grade teacher in the district of Eden Prairie, Minnesota.  He is currently in his thirty-fourth year of teaching.  He is the current chair of the Notables Children Books in Language Arts committee (NCBLA).  Patrick also served three years on the Charlotte Huck Book Award Committee. 
2024 Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts Selection Committee Members

Fran Wilson, Chair, Madeira Elementary School, Ohio
Patrick Andrus, Eden Prairie School District, Minnesota
Dorian Harrison, Ohio State University at Newark
Ally Hauptman, Lipscomb University, Tennessee
Joyce Herbeck, Montana State University
Laura Hudock, Framingham State University, Massachusetts
Lynette Smith, Walden University, Pennsylvania

Other CLA Events @NCTE2024

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Exploring Heart & Hope with Biographies: The 2024 CLA Expert Class

10/21/2024

 

By Mary Ann Cappiello, Sara K. Sterner, and Kathy Short

Saturday, November 23, 2024 from 5:45 PM - 7:00 PM EST  Room 102 A, Boston Convention & Exhibition Center
Official Session Link: Children’s Literature Assembly Expert Class: Exploring Heart & Hope with Biographies
The Biography Clearinghouse
The Children’s Literature Assembly (CLA) has sponsored a Master Class at the annual NCTE Convention since 1994. This guaranteed session provides K-12 teachers and teacher educators with the opportunity to gain insight about the use of children’s literature through interactions with leading scholars, authors, and illustrators in the field. In 2023 at our 30th Annual session, we debuted our new name: the Expert Class.
 
In collaboration with The Biography Clearinghouse, an affiliated project of The Children’s Literature Assembly, the 31st annual Expert Class, “Exploring Heart & Hope with Biographies,” showcases the many ways in which picturebook biographies can be used across the curriculum for a range of purposes. This is an exciting opportunity to expand engagement with biographies as well as increase participants' biography related repertoire in their classrooms.  
 
The concept of “a biography clearinghouse” began at the 2018 NCTE convention in Houston, when author Barb Rosenstock asked what could be done to go beyond genre study and elevate the role of biography in classrooms across the curriculum. Ideas began to percolate amongst Barb, former members of NCTE’s Orbis Pictus Committee, and fellow author Tonya Bolden, and while sheltering at home at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the team created “The Biography Clearinghouse.” Readers of the CLA blog may already be familiar with the work that appeared here 2020-2023.

The Biography Clearinghouse believes that:

  • High-quality, well-written biographies are multidimensional and multi-layered. As students explore the ways in which the book operates, and the decisions the author and illustrator made, they also use the biographies as vehicles for learning about the world.
  • Because of the increasing diversity of subjects, biographies are one of our best tools for diversifying the curriculum K-8.
  • Biographies can infuse the language arts, science, social studies, math, and integrated arts curriculum with models of agency and perseverance.
 
To help facilitate this work in K-8 classrooms, the Clearinghouse created a three-part framework: Investigate, Explore, and Create.
Inverstigate, Explore, Create Framework
This year’s class provides a unique opportunity for rich discussions about and experiences with picturebook biographies. After an initial introduction to the Investigate-Explore-Create framework, participants will rotate between four roundtables to experience activities and conversations rooted in each component. At one table, Barb Rosenstock and Scott Riley will focus on “Investigate,” and engage in conversation about the process of researching and writing biographies. Participants will “Explore” content and disciplinary thinking with Amina Chaudhri at one table and socio-emotional learning with Jenn Graff at another. At the fourth roundtable, Erika Thulin Dawes will engage attendees in the final part of the framework, “Create.”
 
We’ll conclude the session by sharing a Library Thing database of over 350 picturebook biographies (with tags)! This process will allow attendees to engage in dialogue about the power of biography and consider new ways to conceptualize how to bring the genre into their classes with more heart and hope. Everyone will leave the 2024 Expert Class filled with the wonder of biographies and ideas for new opportunities to bring biographies into the lives of children and tweens.
 
We are excited to share this biography party with you!  While building connections and learning together, we’ll share some vegan and gluten-free snacks (it’s late afternoon, and everyone might be a bit peckish). The Expert Class will close with the awarding of biography-based door prizes to bring home along with your new ideas and expertise.

Mary Ann Cappiello, Sara K. Sterner, and Kathy Short serve as the 2024 CLA Expert Class Committee.
 
  • Mary Ann is a Professor of Language & Literacy at Lesley University
  • Sara is an Associate Professor of Elementary Education at Cal-Poly Humboldt University and a CLA Board Member
  • Kathy is a Professor of Teaching, Learning & Sociocultural Studies at The University of Arizona and a CLA Board Member

Other CLA offerings during NCTE 2024

Notables
CLA Breakfast
Art Auction

2024 CLA Breakfast Preview: Meet the Ransomes

10/15/2024

 

by Jeanne Gilliam Fain & Susan Polos (2024 CLA Breakfast Co-Chairs)

Every year, the Children's Literature Assembly hosts the CLA Breakfast during the annual NCTE Conference. This year, we are delighted to feature as keynote speakers award-winning author Lesa-Cline Ransome and award-winning illustrator James Ransome.

Lesa Cline-Ransome and James Ransome are significant and prolific figures in the world of children’s literature. Lesa has written over 25 picture books, five middle grade or YA novels, biographies, a collective biography, and she has contributed to several anthologies. James Ransome has illustrated over 70
picture books, often, but not always, partnering with Lesa. James Ransome was named the winner of the 2023 Children’s Literature Legacy Award; he has previously won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award and the Illustrator Honors Award. Lesa has won Coretta Scott King Author Honor Awards, the Scott O’Dell Award, and other honors.

James and Lesa’s most recent collaborations include Fighting with Love: the Legacy of John Lewis (2024) and They Call Me Teach: Lessons in Freedom (2024). Fighting with Love is a nonfiction picture book chronicling the life of civil rights hero John Lewis, from his childhood through his work in government and in resistance. They Call Me Teach: Lessons in Freedom captures an important historical truth: the risks taken by enslaved people to teach each other to read and write. Lesa Cline-Ransome’s most recent chapter book is One Big Open Sky (2024), a verse novel told in three intergenerational perspectives telling of the Black homesteader movement, another aspect of history seldom shared in textbooks.
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Lesa Cline-Ransome
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James Ransome
Fighting with Love Cover
Lesa and James value the stories that we need to know from history. They often ask each other the questions, “Have you heard this?” or “Did you know this?” and these questions often lead them to write about stories and “the humanity of people whose stories have never been told.” You won’t want to miss Lesa and James as they provide us with incredible insights into their work during the 2024 CLA Breakfast on Sunday, November 24th, starting at 7 am ET  (Room 210A, Convention Center, Level 2).
Here’s an excerpt from our interview with them:

Lesa: Our newest, the book that came out this month, is John Lewis: Fighting With Love. I said to James after he finished the illustrations, and I never say this because I have to live with James, so what I don’t want is for James to get a head so big he can’t come into the house, “This book is outstanding.” He’ll tell you, I very rarely say that. I say, “James, it’s beautiful. Good job,” but rarely, “outstanding.”   Every time I look at this book I find something else to love. It is a balance of writing and illustration and the way they seamlessly came together. It is the story of Congressman John Lewis, who James and I have both loved and admired. James pitched this to our editor several years ago. Was I involved? Nope.  Because sometimes James just pitches a project to an editor and the next thing that I know I am writing with him.
 
James: Well, I always discuss them with you. Well except the time with Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams. I’d been asking, begging Lesa, I think after she wrote Satchel Paige, that was the book I asked her to write…
Lesa and James are a powerful author and illustrator team. Their banter is real and genuine. Separately and together, they embrace the power of writing, illustrating, and sharing critical stories with their readers. We came away feeling excited for the CLA Breakfast where we know Lesa and James will share their extraordinary expertise along with their unique and important perspectives. They understand the responsibility of stories that add to our understanding of history.
2024 CLA Breakfast

Special Thanks To

Simon & Schuster for sponsoring Lesa and James' participation and donating books for the breakfast.
Simon & Schuster logo
Candlewick and Holiday House for donating books for the breakfast.
Candlewick press logo
Holiday House Logo
Jeanne Gilliam Fain is a professor in the College of Education at Lipscomb University and she is the Director of MLL/ELL program. Her scholarship agenda includes a focus on Literacy, Literature, and Language Study in K-12 classrooms. She served as chair of the Notable in Children’s Language Arts Award and she currently serves as current chair of the Notable Books for a Global Society. She is 2024 co-chair of the CLA Breakfast Committee.

Susan Polos is the middle school librarian at Greenwich Country Day School (Greenwich, CT). She has served on the Coretta Scott King, Newbery, and Pura Belpré book award juries. Currently, she serves Assistant Chair of the Outstanding International Books Committee for the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY), is a co-chair of the Breakfast Committee for the Children's Literature Assembly, and is a member of the Archives and History Committee of the Coretta Scott King Book Award Community. 

CLA at NCTE 2024

For further details about the breakfast and other CLA sessions and activities during NCTE 2024, visit our CLA@NCTE page.

2024 CLA Breakfast with Lesa Cline-Ransome and James Ransome

10/8/2024

 

by Jeanne Gilliam Fain & Susan Polos (2024 CLA Breakfast Co-Chairs)

We invite you to join us for our annual Children’s Literature Assembly Breakfast at the 2024 NCTE Convention, featuring the award-winning author Lesa Cline-Ransome and the award-winning illustrator James Ransome. Our breakfast is on Sunday, November 24th, starting at 7 am (ET) and takes place in Convention Center, Level 2 in Room 210A. 

The CLA breakfast is an event that you will not want to miss. We will present awards, have an art auction and book raffle, and then Lesa Cline-Ransome and James Ransome will speak and sign books afterwards! You need a ticket to attend the CLA breakfast. If you have already registered for the NCTE Conference but would like to purchase a ticket, the easiest way to do this is to call NCTE directly at (877) 369-6283. 

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Lesa Cline-Ransome and James Ransome are significant and prolific figures in the world of children’s literature. Lesa has written over 25 picture books, five middle grade or YA novels, biographies, a collective biography, and she has contributed to several anthologies. James Ransome has illustrated over 70 picture books, often, but not always, partnering with Lesa. James Ransome was named the winner of the 2023 Children’s Literature Legacy Award; he has previously won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award and the Illustrator Honors Award. Lesa has won Coretta Scott King Author Honor Awards, the Scott O’Dell Award, and other honors. 

Lesa and James value the stories that we need to know from history. They both often ask the questions, “Have you heard this?” or “Did you know this?” and these questions often lead them to write about, as Lesa states, “the humanity of people whose stories have never been told.” They will enlighten and inspire you with the powerful stories behind their work.

If you regularly attend the CLA Breakfasts at NCTE, you know what a wonderful experience they are! But if you haven’t, we welcome you to join us! It’s a positive opportunity to meet other people who are passionate about children’s literature, hear about an amazing author and an illustrator, purchase raffle tickets for wonderful books, and, if you are so inclined, bid on art from children’s illustrators! We hope to see you there!


Jeanne Gilliam Fain is a professor in the College of Education at Lipscomb University and she is the Director of MLL/ELL program. Her scholarship agenda includes a focus on Literacy, Literature, and Language Study in K-12 classrooms. She served as chair of the Notable in Children’s Language Arts Award and she currently serves as current chair of the Notable Books for a Global Society. She is 2024 co-chair of the CLA Breakfast Committee.

Susan Polos is the middle school librarian at Greenwich Country Day School (Greenwich, CT). She has served on the Coretta Scott King, Newbery, and Pura Belpré book award juries. Currently, she serves Assistant Chair of the Outstanding International Books Committee for the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY), is a co-chair of the Breakfast Committee for the Children's Literature Assembly, and is a member of the Archives and History Committee of the Coretta Scott King Book Award Community. 

CLA @ NCTE 2024

Visit our CLA@NCTE page for details.
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