By Kathy Short, Mary Ann Cappiello, and Suriati Abas on behalf of the 2025 Expert Class Committee Exploring Home in Children's LiteratureIn times of uncertainty, we seek comfort and security, especially in places where we feel surrounded by love. Home is not just a physical space but metaphorically speaks to the values and relationships central to our sense of place in the world. Framing our use of children’s literature around Home encourages readers to reflect on values from which they can find the courage to dream and imagine new possibilities. When we experience turmoil, reflecting on our values identifies the roots that ground us and give us a sense of security from which to reach out, dream, and act. The CLA Expert Class at the 2025 NCTE Convention in Denver is an opportunity for teachers and teacher educators to gain insights into the use of children’s literature through interactions with leading educators, authors, and illustrators. This session is an exciting opportunity to expand your engagements with literature and invite readers to reflect on the values to which they are loyal and from which they read, interpret, and write literature. READ THISIn their newest collaborative picturebook, Home, Matt de la Peña and Loren Long explore the places, people, and feelings that create a sense of home and provide refuge in the face of instability, The lyrical text and vibrant images are a celebration of home in its many forms, but also a reminder that, even when home is lost, we can find a harbor in love through the people who walk alongside us. The powerful way in which the images and words interweave in this picturebook creates layers of meaning and interpretation. The lyrical nature of Matt’s reflections is matched by the emotion of Loren’s textured acrylic illustrations. Themes of resilience, healing, and connection are captured in the words and images around explorations of home as love and comfort that extend beyond four walls to the earth itself. Just as in their earlier collaboration, Love, this book tugs on reader’s heartstrings.  Maham Khwaja is the author of The Home We Make, illustrated by Zainab Faidhi, in which a young Muslim girl and her family are forced to flee their home due to the violence of war. Told from a first-person perspective in free verse poems, the girl describes their long walk and their journey by sea to a refugee camp and eventually to a new land. Throughout this dangerous journey, the girl constantly wonders whether each new place is now home. This poignant portrayal of the longing for home captures the terror of displacement and the comfort of small tender moments. The harsh realities of refugee journeys are woven into loving interactions within the family and experiences of discrimination are contrasted with welcoming acts that temper the story’s bleaker moments. The digital illustrations are particularly effective in conveying details and events not mentioned in the poems and in conveying emotions through the girl’s expressive eyes. This picturebook is a moving and illuminating depiction of the journeys and emotions experienced by refugees.  TEACH THIS
Kathy Short is a Regents Professor in children’s literature at the University of Arizona. Mary Ann Cappiello is a Professor of language and literacy at Lesley University. Suriati Abas is an Assistant Professor in literacy and literature at SUNY Oneonta.  Also, be sure to check out other offerings from CLA at NCTE!  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
By Sara K. Sterner, Lisa Pinkerton, and Mary Ann CappielloCLA Expert Class 2023: Nodes of Literary Connection—How Culturally Diverse Imprints are Building Pathways for More Inclusive and Representative Children’s Literature | Saturday, November 18, 2023 from 5:45 PM - 7:00 PM EST (GCCC Room B-130-132)
In collaboration with Ellen Myrick, President and Chief Marketer, Publisher Spotlight, the 30th annual Expert Class will feature an impressive gathering of authors, illustrators, publishers, and organizations that are influencing the landscape of inclusive representation in children’s literature for readers and creators alike (Menefee & Johnson, 2021; Rosenberg, 2022). Recognizing a continued dearth of diverse books for young readers, especially those written by diverse creators, the demand for more authentic representation in children’s publishing remains an issue (Menefee & Johnson, 2021). In response, small publishers and imprints are shifting the field—creating extended publishing pathways for inclusive books that serve as authentic nodes of literary connection for young readers. This Expert Class explores a movement in the publishing industry working to expand representation in children's literature that has been woefully lacking in the field. It is our goal that participating in the session will help individuals to build nodes of connection that expand or enhance their knowledge of diverse publishers and creators and the books that they publish. Additionally, participants will have opportunities to discover new books and publishers that center representation and highlight lived experiences that have been historically underrepresented and misrepresented in literature for young people. Importantly, the session has the potential to trailblaze new pathways for participants as they work to guide young readers to experience windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors (Bishop, 1990) that flow out of these literary nodes of connection. This year’s class will provide a unique opportunity for participants to interact directly with publisher/creator teams during the session as they rotate between tables. The session is organized in conversational-style groupings organized around the following focal themes. At each table, speakers will share the focus, vision, and collaborative process that constitute their books and work. In addition to building connections and learning from the experts featured in our Expert Class this year, there will be incredible door prizes and take-aways from the session. Featured Authors
Featured Illustrators
International English Language Books: Featured Publisher
International Translated Books: Featured Publisher
North American Small Presses: Featured Publishers
Outstanding International Books/USBBY
References: Bishop, R. S. (1990, Summer). Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Perspectives: Choosing and Using Books for the Classroom, 6(3). Menefree, D. L. & Johnson, C.F. (2021). Diverse imprints and the classroom: How publishers are taking up the call to package and promote diverse literature for youth. The ALAN Review, 49(1), 85-89. Rosenberg, R. (2022, August 23). Read and learn: Culturally diverse children’s book publishers and imprints. BOOK RIOT. https://bookriot.com/diverse-childrens-book-publishers/ Sara K. Sterner, California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, CLA Board Member and Expert Class Committee Co-chair Lisa Pinkerton, The Ohio State University, CLA Board Member and Expert Class Committee Co-chair Mary Ann Cappiello, Lesley University, CLA Board Member and Expert Class Committee Co-chair |
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