CHILDREN'S LITERATURE ASSEMBLY
  • Home
  • Join/Donate
  • Members Only
  • Journal
  • Notables
  • Grants & Awards
  • Resources
  • CLA @ NCTE
  • About
  • CLA Blog

The CLA Blog

The CLA Endowment: Enriching Research in Children's Literature

9/7/2021

 

By Miriam Martinez, on behalf of the CLA Endowment Committee

As members of the Children’s Literature Association (or as visitors to this website), we all value children’s literature. Books have the power to enrich lives, foster empathy, open doors, and promote learning.  As educators, we also recognize the importance of learning more about children’s literature and ways of connecting readers to books for a range of purposes. This means there is a need for research related to children’s literature.

Because the Children’s Literature Assembly is committed to supporting research, in 2004 the leaders of CLA began making plans to establish an endowment for two purposes: 
  • To support original research contributing to the field of children’s literature, and 
  • To support the dissemination of CLA’s yearly selections of Notable Children’s Book in the Language Arts​.
Members of the CLA Endowment Committee:
  • Miriam Martinez
  • Ruth Lowery
  • Lauren Liang
  • Trish Bandre
  • Xenia Hadjioannou
  • Ally Hauptman
Then, in 2005 the Endowment was officially launched! The next several years were devoted to the hard work of building Endowment funds to a point that sufficient money existed to sustain this critical work. This hard work came to fruition in 2011 when the first research grant was awarded to Lori Ann Laster for her research on text selection for refugee youth. Since that beginning, the fund has helped to support the research of 12 scholars of children’s literature.  Here is just a sampling of some of the exciting work the Endowment has supported:
  • Dr. Grace Enriquez’s longitudinal case study focused on how teachers’ understandings of children’s literature for social justice education develop over time and space.
  • Dr. Evelyn Arizpe investigated changes in reading practices and reading responses among adolescents in Mexico over a 25-year period.
  • Dr. Adam Crawley explored elementary parents' perspectives on various gay and lesbian-inclusive picturebooks.
You can learn more about the work of these and other research award recipients on the CLA website.  

The Endowment Committee wo​uld like to invite you to participate in this important initiative either by helping us continue to grow the Endowment or by applying for the CLA Research Award. (And some of you may want to do both.)

Donations can be made to commemorate a special event, to honor a children's literature enthusiast, or just as an expression of commitment to the work of the endowment. There are two easy ways to donate to the Endowment:

Donate Directly on the CLA Website

Donate to support the mission of the CLA Endowment Fund.


The CLA Endowment Fund was established to support:


  • original research contributing to the field of children’s literature, and 
  • dissemination of CLA’s yearly selections of Notable Children’s Book in the Language Arts.

 

Your contribution will provide invaluable support for these efforts.


You can dedicate your donation in honor of another person.

Donate

Your donations support The Vivian Yenika-Agbaw Student Conference Grant, which helps defray registration costs for the NCTE conference for undergraduate and graduate students with interest in children's literature.


The grant is named after the late Vivian Yenika-Agbaw, co-editor of the Journal of Children's Literature. Vivian was devoted to students and contributed greatly to the field of children's literature.


You can dedicate your donation in honor of another person.

Donate

Send a Check with your Donation

Send a check made out to Children’s Literature Assembly (with a note that the donation is for Endowment Fund) to the following address:

Children’s Literature Assembly
Trish Bandre
95 Wildcat Circle
Salina, KS 67401

If you are a member of CLA, consider applying for the CLA Research Award.  You can find more information about the application process at this link.

Picturebooks Exploring Issues of Poverty

​Finally, as a committee focused on providing financial support, and one comprised of children’s literature scholars and educators, we want to offer you a special thank you for your work in promoting children’s literature. Please find below a beginning list of picturebooks focused on poverty and financial issues, an important topic but one that is not often explored in books for children.
  • A Bike Like Sergio’s  (2018) by Maribeth Boelts, illustrated by Noah Z. Jones
  • A Chair for My Mother (1982) written and illustrated by Vera B. Williams
  • A Different Pond (2017) by Bao Phi,  illustrated by Thi Bui
  • Ada’s Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay (2016) by Susan Hood, illustrated by Sally Wren Comport
  • Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse (2018) by Marcy Campbell, illustrated by Corinna Luyken
  • The Field  (2018) by Baptiste Paul, illustrated by Jacqueline Alcantara
  • The Floating Field: How A Group of Thai Boys Built Their Own Soccer Field (2021) by Scott Riley, illustrated by Nguyen Quang and Kim Lien
  • Last Stop on Market Street (2015) by Matt de la Pena, illustrated by Christian Robinson
  • Maddi’s Fridge (2014) by Lois Brandt, illustrated by Vin Vogel
  • The Most Beautiful Thing (2020)  by Kao Kalia Yang, illustrated by Khoa Le
  • The Patchwork Bike  (2016) by Macine Beneba Clarke, illustrated by Van Thanh Rudd
  • Sunday Shopping  (2015) by Sally Derby, illustrated by Shadra Strickland
  • Thank You Omu! (2018) written and illustrated by Oge More
  • Tia Isa Wants a Car (2016) by Meg Medina, illustrated by Claudio Munoz
  • Tricycle (2007) by Elisa Amado, illustrated by Alfonso Ruano
  • Walk with Me (2017) by Jairo Buitrago, illustrated by Rafael Yockteng (and translated by Elisa Amado)
  • Watercress  (2021) by Andrea Wang, illustrated by Jason Chin
  • Yard Sale (2017) by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Lauren Castillo
Miriam Martinez is a Professor of Literacy Education at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She is chair of CLA's endowment committee. 

    Authors:
    CLA Members

    Supporting PreK-12 and university teachers as they share children’s literature with their students in all classroom contexts.

    Disclaimer
    The opinions and ideas posted in the individual entries are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of CLA or the Blog Editors.

    Blog Editors

    Xenia Hadjioannou
    Lauren Liang
    Liz Thackeray Nelson

    contribute to the blog

    Instructions to Authors

    If you are a current CLA member and you would like to contribute a post to the CLA Blog, please read the Instructions to Authors and email co-editor Liz Thackeray Nelson with your idea.


    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020

    Categories

    All
    Activism
    Advocacy
    African American Literature
    Agency
    All Grades
    American Indian
    Antiracism
    Art
    Asian American
    Authors
    Award Books
    Awards
    Back To School
    Biography
    Black Culture
    Black Freedom Movement
    Bonnie Campbell Hill Award
    Book Bans
    Book Challenges
    Book Discussion Guides
    Censorship
    Chapter Books
    Children's Literature
    Civil Rights Movement
    CLA Auction
    Classroom Ideas
    Collaboration
    Comprehension Strategies
    Contemporary Realistic Fiction
    COVID
    Creativity
    Creativity Sponsors
    Critical Literacy
    Crossover Literature
    Cultural Relevance
    Culture
    Current Events
    Digital Literacy
    Disciplinary Literacy
    Distance Learning
    Diverse Books
    Diversity
    Early Chapter Books
    Emergent Bilinguals
    Endowment
    Family Literacy
    First Week Books
    First Week Of School
    Garden
    Global Children’s And Adolescent Literature
    Global Children’s And Adolescent Literature
    Global Literature
    Graduate
    Graduate School
    Graphic Novel
    High School
    Historical Fiction
    Identity
    Illustrators
    Indigenous
    Indigenous Stories
    Innovators
    Intercultural Understanding
    Intermediate Grades
    International Children's Literature
    Journal Of Children's Literature
    Language Arts
    Language Learners
    LCBTQ+ Books
    Librarians
    Literacy Leadership
    #MeToo Movement
    Middle Grade Literature
    Middle Grades
    Middle School
    Mindfulness
    Multiliteracies
    Museum
    Native Americans
    Nature
    NCTE
    Nonfiction Books
    Nurturing Lifelong Readers
    Outside
    #OwnVoices
    Picturebooks
    Picture Books
    Poetic Picturebooks
    Poetry
    Preschool
    Primary Grades
    Primary Sources
    Professional Resources
    Reading Engagement
    Research
    Science
    Science Fiction
    Self-selected Texts
    Social Justice
    Social Media
    Social Studies
    Sports Books
    STEAM
    STEM
    Storytelling
    Summer Camps
    Summer Programs
    Teacher
    Teaching Reading
    Teaching Resources
    Teaching Writing
    Text Sets
    The Arts
    Tradition
    Translanguaging
    Trauma
    Ukraine
    Undergraduate
    Using Technology
    Verse Novels
    Virtual Library
    Vocabulary
    War
    #WeNeedDiverseBooks
    YA Lit
    Young Adult Literature

    RSS Feed

CLA

About CLA
CLA Board & Committees
Membership
Merchandise
Endowment Fund

Grants & Awards

CLA Research Award
Bonnie Campbell Hill Award
CLA Early Career Award
CLA Student Travel Grant

Journal of Children's Literature

Write for JCL
JCL Editors

The CLA Blog

Notables

Current List
Notables Archive

Resources

CLA-sponsored NCTE Position Statements
Children's Literature Course Syllabi
Children's Literature Blogs

CLA @NCTE

Children's Literature Assembly Breakfast
Master Class
Other CLA-sponsored Sessions

Art Auction

Members-Only Content

CLA Video Library
CLA Newsletter Archive

JCL Past Issues Archive

Current JCL Issue
JCL Podcasts

© COPYRIGHT 2018.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
  • Home
  • Join/Donate
  • Members Only
  • Journal
  • Notables
  • Grants & Awards
  • Resources
  • CLA @ NCTE
  • About
  • CLA Blog