Category: Multiliteracies

Reflections from our CLA Early Career Award Recipients

4/23/2024

Submitted by Mary Napoli and Angela M. Wiseman, Co-chairs, Early Career Award Committee

In our rapidly evolving professional landscape, we continue to advance our collective body of research through the connections forged through CLA. It is this dynamic cycle of research combined with our networking opportunities that informs new directions and possibilities. With this in mind, we want to celebrate the contributions of our CLA Early Career Award Recipients from 2017 to the present. As you will read, they have continued to impact the field with their innovative and timely scholarship. In this blog post, we share their responses to open-ended questions that highlight their recent contributions to children’s literature and future projects on the horizon. They were also invited to reflect on how readers and educators will leverage their research in actionable and transformative ways. Finally, everyone was asked to share a photo of something that matters to them.

2023 CLA Early Career Award Recipient

JOSH COLEMAN

Assistant Professor of English Education
Department of Teaching and Learning
The University of Iowa

Twitter: @Josheducating
Scholarly Website: https://uiowa.academia.edu/JamesJoshuaColeman

Picture of myself apple picking with Dr. Saba Vlach, also a Children’s Literature expert.

My current project, entitled “Banned Childhoods,” chronicles how English Language Arts (ELA) teachers resist book-banning legislation in their local contexts—namely their classrooms, schools, and communities. This work has been funded graciously by the Children’s Literature Assembly (CLA) of NCTE, the National Academy of Education, the Spencer Foundation, and the University of Iowa. Based on this study, I have one forthcoming article intended to support educators teaching in restrictive legislative contexts to resist education policy that removes children’s literature from classrooms and libraries. Co-written with University of Iowa doctoral student Petra Lange, “A Two-Year Timeline to Anti-LGBTQ+ Book Bans in America’s Heartland” will be published this year in English Journal, and it provides actional strategies for recognizing impending book bans and resisting them through local activism. Responding to the immediate need, this article is grounded in practitioners’ lived experiences and strives for classrooms and libraries in which every young person can see themself represented in children’s literature.

On-going, data collection for the “Banned Childhoods” study will conclude in May of 2024, and I am currently preparing a book proposal that will expand upon the English Journal article. This book will support ELA teachers to combat draconian legislation targeting children’s literature featuring Black, Indigenous, and other children of Color as well as LGBTQ+ young people. My sincere hope is that this work will provide teachers with actionable strategies for challenging book bans and censorship in their local contexts. I am so grateful to the CLA for their support, and with it, I will champion intellectual freedom for teachers and students in every classroom and library across the United States.

2019 CLA Early Career Award Recipient

NOREEN NASEEM RODRIGUEZ

Assistant Professor of Elementary Education and Educational Justice
College of Education
Michigan State University

Instagram and X/Twitter: @NaseemRdz
Professional website: https://naseemrdz.com/

"Something that matters to me" is learning about local histories from community members and scholar friends. This photo is from November 2023, when I was able to take a tour of Harlem with Akemi Kochiyama, whose grandmother Yuri Kochiyama is a famous Asian American activist and friend of Malcolm X. In the background is the mural painted in their honor, around the corner from her former apartment.

I am thrilled to have been part of the team behind the "Research in children’s literature" in Fisher & Lapp's recently published The Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts. My work related to children's literature tends to highlight how teachers use specific texts or focuses on critical content analyses. This was a nice shift that allowed me to look more broadly at current research and it was an honor working alongside my dear mentor Angie Zapata as well as Monica Kleekamp and Thomas Crisp, who are all brilliant. Another recent publication I am really proud of is my new book Teaching Asian America in Elementary Classrooms. My favorite chapter is the one on identity and stereotypes which features a wide array of recommendations to support class discussions of Asian names, food, and stereotypes like the model minority and South Asians as terrorist threats.

For my Asian American-focused work, I want readers to know that what Viet Thanh Nguyen called "narrative plenitude" is so important - reading multiple Asian American stories is vital to disrupting notions that Asian Americans are a monolith, especially within cultures. For my elementary social studies work, a clear action step is pairing picturebooks about historical events and figures with primary sources that add nuance and complexity to the textual narrative. I call this going "beyond the book" to ensure that young learners engage with meaningful and contextualized social studies content.

I have a big announcement coming soon about a longitudinal project that examines how efforts to mandate the teaching of Asian American histories and/or Asian American studies are being implemented. I am really excited to spend time with students and teachers in classrooms again! I am also working on a second edition of my book Social Studies for a Better World and am beginning a book tour in support of Teaching Asian America in Elementary Classrooms. The next few years will be busy, but I am thrilled to be able to do this work in ways that impact more teachers and students.

2017 CLA Early Career Award Recipient

ANGIE ZAPATA

Associate Professor of Language and Literacies Education
College of Education
University of Missouri

Scholarly website: https://education.missouri.edu/person/angie-zapata

This is a photo of the incredible early childhood teacher partners I have the honor of learning from as part of the Comprehensive Literacy State Development Grant of which I serve as PI for the early literacies strand. These are PK and K teachers who choose to work in some of the most demanding areas of our state. They show up every day alongside the beautiful children and their families to do the work. With every interaction we have, I am inspired and energized by their commitments and excellence in the classroom under the most extraordinary schooling conditions and political climate. It is not easy to be a teacher right now, but these teachers make it happen!

I’m so pleased to share that I have recently published a book entitled Deepening Student Engagement with Diverse Picturebooks: Powerful Classroom Practices for Elementary Teachers as part of the Principled in Practice imprint of National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Drawing on a year-long multi-site collaborative research project with classroom teachers, I braid together theories of literature response, grammar of visual design, bi/multilingual and multimodal literacies to offer what I call a Critical Literature Response Framework as a pathway for sharing books with diverse racial, linguistic, and cultural representation. This framework is guided by the ethical work of integrating diverse children’s picturebooks in the classroom, a desire to cultivate a critical literature classroom landscape that resists stereotypical representations of racialized, linguistically diverse communities in literature, and a commitment to recentering critical and aesthetic engagement of picturebooks with diverse representation.

As a way to unpack the Critical Literature Response Framework, the book features practical literature approaches and guiding principles that can be tailored to their individual contexts with a focus on the classroom commitments, conditions, practices, and collaborations needed to deepen students’ engagements with picturebooks that offer diverse racial, linguistic, and broader cultural representation. I wrote this book to contribute well theorized examples of how to launch aesthetic and critical response in classrooms through literature explorations of diverse picturebook collections. I hope readers find the book to be a foundational part of their toolkit as they develop and rethink their literature beliefs and practices. For example, I hope readers will utilize the reflection invitations to ponder their critical social educator journey as curators of children’s literature or consider the ways visual thinking strategies can support children’s critical reading of illustrations, and so much more. The book offers multiple entry points for both the beginning and most experienced teacher to make their own.

It has been exciting to reflect and see how my research has evolved over time and how past learning has directed me to next steps in my research. As an early career children’s literature researcher over a decade ago, my research inquiries began with deep explorations of bi/multilingual children’s translingual picturebook making processes. Over time, my analytic gaze shifted towards the classroom conditions and pedagogies that produced racialized children and youth responses to diverse picturebooks and the emerging text and text making processes that resulted. I am partnering more and more with teachers as a model of professional learning and my analytic gaze homes in on the ways teachers develop their beliefs and practices when sharing children’s picturebooks that feature better representation. The arc of my research life thus far and my learning from those inquiries now lead me towards continued teacher/researcher collaborative inquiries with a close eye on the ways educators come to understand and enact a Critical Literature Framework in their classrooms. I look forward to sharing our Young Scholars Program grant funded work from Foundation of Child Development as an example of this shift through an upcoming publication with Bank Street Occasional Paper in May 2024 and more examples of our children’s picturebook learning together in the year to come. I believe as picturebooks with diverse representation slowly find their way into our classrooms and libraries, building coalitions of solidarity through teacher/researcher partnership will be essential to not only ensuring that these picturebooks are taught well and enjoyed by children, but also a necessary way to support and advocate with/for teachers during these challenging times in education.

Mary Napoli is the former co-chair of the 2023 Early Career Award Committee. She is an associate professor of education and reading at Penn State Harrisburg.

Angela Wiseman is a former CLA Board Member and co-chair of the 2023 Early Career Award Committee. She is an associate professor of literacy education at North Carolina State University.

Exploring the Life of Eleanor Roosevelt with “Eleanor Makes Her Mark”

11/2/2021

By Mary Ann Cappiello and Jenn Sanders, on behalf of The Biography Clearinghouse

“The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear.” This quote greets readers of Barbara Kerley and Edwin Fotheringham’s latest collaboration, Eleanor Makes Her Mark: How Eleanor Roosevelt Reached Out, Spoke Up, and Changed the World. Kerley drops her readers right into the busy preparations for Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first inauguration, grounding readers in Eleanor’s public identity as the forthcoming First Lady. But then Kerley brings the readers back in time to Eleanor’s unhappy childhood and early adolescent years. Kerley’s characterization of Eleanor builds across the text: shy and quiet girl, engaged intellectual, socialite seeking purpose by teaching calisthenics in settlement houses and researching working conditions in garment factories, and, ultimately First Lady of the United States. As First Lady, Eleanor’s travels continued around the United States and across the Globe as she investigated working conditions, discrimination, and the effects of the devastation of The Great Depression and World War II. Kerley concludes the biography with Eleanor’s position as delegate to the newly formed United States General Assembly, working on the committee that authored the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Throughout the book, illustrator Edwin Fotheringam works with visual metaphors to emphasize Eleanor’s unflagging energy and her ability to bring people together. In the cover illustration, Eleanor jumps off of a globe, streaming a banner of paper dolls holding hands that trails in her wake. Fotheringham peppers the book with swirling lines of motion, highlighting Eleanor’s boundless verve, vivacity, and constant travel. Fotheringham also continues the hand-holding motif throughout the book to reinforce the ways in which Eleanor Roosevelt brought people together and made them feel seen, heard, and respected. Paper dolls thread through the backgrounds, and Eleanor is often depicted holding hands or connected to the people with whom she is interacting, like one long, human, paper chain.

Eleanor Roosevelt’s life work supporting families in under-resourced communities, creating safe working conditions, and promoting world peace has never been more relevant. While we have not lived through the same long-term economic devastation of The Great Depression, the COVID-19 pandemic has created an economic crisis for millions of Americans and billions across the globe. Congress and the White House are engaged in complex conversations and negotiations about the role of government, debating what social programs, safety nets, and infrastructure investments are appropriate in the 21st century; the same kinds of conversations Eleanor Roosevelt engaged in with her husband and their White House staff. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how very interconnected our world is, a theme exemplified in the life and work of Eleanor Roosevelt.

Using the Investigate, Explore, and Create Model of The Biography Clearinghouse, we offer a range of critical teaching and learning experiences to use with Eleanor Makes Her Mark: How Eleanor Roosevelt Reached Out, Spoke Up, and Changed the World on our site. In our interview with Barbara Kerley and Edwin Fotheringham, you can learn about their research and creating processes. Highlighted here are two ideas inspired by the book.

First Ladies and Social Media

During our interview, Barb Kerley shared that she found a treasure trove of information about Eleanor Roosevelt’s daily life in archives of Eleanor’s (almost) daily column, “My Day,” which ran in papers across the country from 1935 to 1962. Laughing, Barb suggested that the column was Eleanor Roosevelt’s version of social media. After reading Eleanor Makes Her Mark, leverage Eleanor’s “My Day” column as an opportunity for your middle school students to explore how First Ladies have used the tools at their disposal to communicate directly with the public.

To learn more about the column, you can explore the resources of The George Washington University’s Digital Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project. Read her column by year or search for specific content across the years. After students have had an opportunity to read some columns, have them compare and contrast them with one another. What do they learn about Eleanor Roosevelt, and the circumstances of the world she lived in? How do the columns extend the understanding of Eleanor’s public life they received from Eleanor Makes Her Mark? How do they challenge their understanding?

Next, provide students with the opportunity to compare and contrast how the current and most recent First Ladies have used social media to speak with the public. Because some comments on social media are not appropriate for tweens to read, we recommend that you select some tweets from each First Lady and share them with your students. You can choose from First Lady Jill Biden’s (@FLOTUS) Twitter account, former First Lady Melania Trump’s (@MELANIATRUMP) Twitter account or her archived @FLOTUS Twitter account, former First Lady Michele Obama’s current (@MichelleObama) Twitter account or her archived @FLOTUS Twitter account, and former First Lady Laura Bush’s current (@laurawbush) Twitter account.

Synthesize the exploration by asking students to compare and contrast what they see as most valuable in the communications they explored. Why is it important for First Ladies--or First Gentlemen, or First Spouses--to communicate directly with the public? What kind of information is valuable for them to share, and why?

Creating Diagrams to Add Information

Writers and artists often choose to represent information visually with a diagram. Ed Fotheringham talked about his process of researching the floorplans of the White House and deciding how to show the inside of the White House. He ultimately settled on a cut-away diagram that is similar to a cross-section diagram. Diana Aston and Sylvia Long also use diagrams masterfully in their informational books An Egg is Quiet (2006) and A Seed is Sleepy (2007). Explore the power of diagrams to carry information with your students.

If you have 1-2 hours…	If you have 1-2 days…	If you have 1-2 weeks…
Using the images in Eleanor Makes Her Mark and those shown in the Interview Video [9:10], compare and contrast Ed Fotheringham’s floorplan diagrams with his modified cross-section diagrams of the White House. Discuss with students the pros and cons of each diagram and the different kinds of information conveyed in each.	After comparing the two kinds of diagrams Ed considered to represent Eleanor Roosevelt’s movement throughout the White House, read one of Aston and Long’s books noted above. Read it once to enjoy and a second time to notice and note the different diagrams used: a scaled diagram, timeline, cross section, surface diagram, graph, flowchart, etc. Pay attention to how the diagrams are labeled and/or captioned. Have students go back to an informational piece they have written and consider what kind of diagram would be useful. Then, give them time to draw the diagram and add it to their writing. If students don’t already have an informational piece in progress, you can have them do a quickwrite about something they know a lot about (an animal, instrument, sport, etc.), and then ask them to consider what additional information might be interesting to readers that they could add with a visual diagram. Again, provide time for them to search for the information and create the diagram in their draft.	Facilitate an informational writing unit, where students expand on the quickwrite started in the middle column and create a draft that uses two different kinds of diagrams (there are more than the ones listed above, such as a chart or table, a bar graph, etc.). You can also guide students in using some of the writing craft strategies that Barb uses in her biography, such as beginning with a problem (e.g., planning the inauguration ceremony, being more than a hostess) or stating the theme of the text early on (“She’d hoped to ‘leave some mark upon the world.’”) and using a repeated phrase to thread that theme throughout the text (e.g., “leave her mark”). (You might also explore some of the ideas on writer’s craft in other Biography Clearinghouse entries, such as using historically accurate dialogue in informational texts discussed in the She Persisted: Claudette Colvin entry.)

Visit The Biography Clearinghouse for several more teaching ideas for Eleanor Makes Her Mark and the other biography units we have on the website!

Mary Ann Cappiello teaches courses in children’s literature and literacy methods at Lesley University, blogs about teaching with children’s literature at The Classroom Bookshelf, a School Library Journal blog, and is a former chair of NCTE’s Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction K-8.

Jennifer Sanders is an Associate Professor of Literacy Education at Oklahoma State University, specializing in representations of diversity in children’s and young adult literature and writing pedagogy. She is co-founder and co-chair of The Whippoorwill Book Award for Rural YA Literature and long-time member of CLA.

Breaking Boundaries with Tanya Lee Stone's "Almost Astronauts"

2/23/2021

BY ERIKA THULIN DAWES & XENIA HADJIOANNOU, ON BEHALF OF THE BIOGRAPHY CLEARINGHOUSE

On January 20, 2021, we witnessed the swearing in of the first woman vice president of the United States of America. The oath of office was administered by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina member of the court. This celebratory moment stood both as a joyous milestone marking just ‘how far’ women have come and was at the same time a stark reminder of persistent gender inequities in our society. The COVID-19 Pandemic has highlighted continued disparities as women have dropped out of the workforce at far higher numbers than their male counterparts, likely due to disproportionate responsibilities of child care and housework (Bateman & Ross, 2020).

As we continue to work toward greater equality for women, here in the United States and globally, it is critical to share with young people the stories of women across history who have worked toward breaking boundaries for themselves and for other women. Tanya Lee Stone’s Almost Astronauts, 13 Women Who Dared to Dream is an important narrative in that history. Stone relates the story of women’s eventual entry to NASA’s space program by focusing on the stories of 13 women who dreamed of being astronauts and proved themselves through a private testing program in the early 1960s to be just as capable as their male counterparts.

Almost Astronauts is a history text that is highly biographical. It features life stories, but it is not a traditionally organized biography of a single individual or a collection of biographies. To shape the historical narrative, Stone employs several biographer techniques such as well researched and documented character sketches, biographical blurbs, and narrative episodes. The latter are of particular note, as Stone’s vivid descriptions place the reader in the moment with these women as they pursue their dreams. The book is replete with photographs, as well as reproductions and descriptions of primary source documents and artifacts that support and enhance the narrated events but also help establish their historical context.

With a compelling narrative, engaging life stories, and immersive description, Almost Astronauts is a versatile teaching tool for middle and high school classrooms. It fits well in units on space exploration, women’s history, boundary breaking, gender stereotyping, and narrative writing. In our entry on The Biography Clearinghouse, we use the Investigate, Explore, and Create Model to present ideas for using this book in the classroom as a read aloud, a text to use in literature circles, a mentor text, and a resource text.

Read Aloud:
We provide resources to carry out a multimedia-enhanced read aloud, during which you would share and discuss primary and secondary visual, audio, and video resources that enhance students’ understanding of context, character and theme.

Literature Circles Title:
We suggest Almost Astronauts as one title in a text set of long-form picturebooks and chapter books focusing on the theme: “Women Breaking Boundaries for Self and Others.” Groups of students reading these titles would create response projects so that the class can compare the childhoods, accomplishments, and challenges of the women featured in the books.

Mentor Text:
Stone’s engaging writing style makes Almost Astronauts an ideal mentor text for nonfiction narrative techniques, such as “explode the moment” for emphasizing key moments and turning points, (Harper, 1997) and ‘In Medias Res’ as a technique to immerse the reader in action.

Resource Text:
Taking a critical literacy stance, Almost Astronauts becomes a valuable resource in a study of persistent gender stereotypes and discriminatory practices. By providing details about popular culture and examples from media at the time, Stone offers young readers the opportunity to unpack and compare messaging about women and their expected behaviors and possibilities for achievement. These lenses can then be applied to contemporary popular culture texts and media so that students can discuss what has changed and what has not and consider action toward equity.

CHECK OUT THE BOOK ENTRY

Almost Astronauts, 13 Women Who Dared to Dream

Below we feature one of two time-gradated teaching recommendations included in the Create section of our Almost Astronauts Book Entry.

Composing Multimodal Multigenre Biographies

When researching the Mercury 13, Tanya Lee Stone used an array of multimodal primary and secondary sources, which are listed at the back of the book. The book itself includes many photographs, descriptions of images and events, and transcripts of interactions that reproduce or explicitly reference those sources. In our entry on Almost Astronauts at The Biography Clearinghouse you will find a curated list of multimodal resources to open up the world of the book for classroom communities and support an immersive, multimodal engagement with it.

In this recommendation, students have the opportunity to engage in their own biography research and experiment with biography composition through a multimodal, multigenre approach.

If you have 1-2 hours...	If you have 1-2 days...	If you have 1-2 weeks...
Working in pairs or a small group, students select a contemporary or historical figure whose life fascinates them. Using a set of school-approved sources, have students compile a collection of links and other resources that represent the life story of their subject. Invite students to create a virtual biography exhibit through a gallery board platform (e.g. Padlet) for the figure they chose. The exhibit should be purposefully curated and annotated or captioned to tell the life story of their subject and emphasize the characteristics that intrigue them.	Building on the collection of resources they have developed for the virtual biography exhibit, have students in their pairs or small groups create a Pecha Kucha style presentation. A Pecha Kucha presentation is a presentation featuring 20 images/slides appearing on the screen for 20 seconds each. Check out this video for a short tutorial.	Have students use their virtual biography exhibit as the basis for producing a biographical documentary of their chosen subject that incorporates primary source documents, artifacts, photos, video, etc. and multiple pieces in different genres and modalities (written language, visual, audio, video). Depending on the technology affordances of your setting and your students’ experience with video editing, the biographical documentary can be created using such tools as iMovie, a PowerPoint presentation narrated and exported as a video file, or a recorded Zoom session using screen share. There also are several free video editing apps students can utilize. Teaching students how to cite their resources would be a vital component of this project.

References

Bateman, N., & Ross, M. (2020, October 14). Why has COVID-19 been especially harmful for working women? Brookings Institute Essays. https://www.brookings.edu/essay/why-has-covid-19-been-especially-harmful-for-working-women/

Harper, L. (1997). The writer’s toolbox: Five tools for active revision instruction. Language Arts, 74(3), 193–200.

Erika Thulin Dawes is a Professor of Language and Literacy at Lesley University where she teaches courses in children’s literature and early childhood literacy. She blogs about teaching with children’s literature at The Classroom Bookshelf, a School Library Journal blog, and is a former chair of NCTE’s Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children.

Xenia Hadjioannou is an Associate Professor of Language and Literacy Education at the Harrisburg campus of Penn State University where she teaches and works with pre- and in-service teachers through various courses in language and literacy methodology. She is the co-director of the Capital Area Writing Project, the Vice President and Website Manager of the Children's Literature Assembly, and a co-editor of The CLA Blog.

Midwinter Book Awards Beyond Newbery and Caldecott- Part I: Children's Books

2/9/2021

BY WENDY STEPHENS

Editorial Note:
This post is the first in a 2-part series by Wendy Stephens discussing the rich landscape of book awards announced over the winter months. In this first post, Wendy focuses on ALSC awards and awards by ALA affiliates recognizing books for children or books for a wide spectrum of age groups. The second post, which will be published next week, will present awards for YA literature administered by YALSA, as well as several other notable awards.

When we talk about budgeting for materials, I always advise my school librarian candidates to be sure to save some funding for January. No matter how good their ongoing collection development has been throughout the year, there are always some surprises when the American Library Association's Youth Media Awards (YMAs) roll around, and they'll want to be able to share the latest and best in children's literature with their readers. These are the books that will keep their collections up-to-date and relevant.

From our own childhoods, we always remember the "books with the medals" -- particularly the John Newbery for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature and the Randolph Caldecott for the most distinguished American picture book for children. These books become must-buys and remain touchstones for young readers. In 2021, Newbery is celebrating its one hundredth year. Some past winners and honor books are very much a product of their time, and many of those once held in high esteem lack appeal today.

For those of us working with children and with children's literature, the new books honored at Midwinter offer opportunities to revisit curriculum, update mentor texts, and build Lesesneian "reading ladders." Each award committee has its own particular award criteria and guidelines for eligibility, and its own process and confidentiality norms.

Every year, the YMAs seems to be peppered with small surprises. Does New Kid winning the Newbery means graphic novels are finally canonical? Is Neil Gaiman an American? What about all the 2015 Caldecott honors, including the controversial That One Summer? Did the Newbery designation of The Last Stop on Market Street mean you can validate using picture books with older students? How does Cozbi A. Cabrera's much-honored art work resonate at this historical moment?

In Horn Book and School Library Journal, Newbery, Caldecott and Printz contenders are tracked throughout the year in blogs like Someday My Printz Will Come, Heavy Medal, and Calling Caldecott. Other independent sites like Guessing Geisel, founded by Amy Seto Forrester are equally devoted to award prediction. Among librarians and readers, there are lots of armchair quarterbacks, and conducting mock Newbery and Caldecotts, either among groups of professionals or with children, have become almost a cottage industry. There are numerous how-tos on that subject, from reputable sources like The Nerdy Book Club and BookPage. But there are numerous other awards announced at ALA Midwinter almost simultaneously that deserve your attention, too.

Among the Association for Library Services for Children (ALSC) awards are: the Robert F. Sibert Medal, the Mildred L. Batchelder Award, the Geisel Award, the Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award, and the Children's Literature Legacy Award.

Robert F. Sibert Medal

The Robert F. Sibert Medal for the most distinguished informational book for children, ALSC's version of the Orbis Pictus, offers great books to support a wide variety of content areas.

2021 Sibert Medal Winner

Mildred L. Batchelder Award

The Mildred L. Batchelder Award is given to the most outstanding children’s book originating in a language other than English in a country other than the United States and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States, supporting publishers who bring an international perspective to U.S. readers.

2021 Batchelder Award Winner

Geisel Award

The Geisel Award recognizes an exceptional text for beginning readers.

2021 Geisel Award Winner

Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award

The Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award recognizes noteworthy apps, DVDs and streaming media. This year, it went to a podcast.

2021 EELDM Award Winner

Children's Literature Legacy Award

The Children's Literature Legacy Award, formerly the Wilder Award, honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made a substantial and lasting contribution to children's literature through books that demonstrate integrity and respect for all children's lives and experiences.

2021 Children's Literacy Legacy Award Winner: Mildred D. Taylor

Aside from the award winners, each year annual ALSC Children's Notable Lists are produced in categories for Notable Children's Recordings, Notable Children's Digital Media, and Notable Children's Books. If you want to see the machinations behind the designation, those discussions are open to the public this year via virtual meeting links.

Outside of ALSC, many of ALA’s affiliates have their own honors for children's literature. These include the Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT) which sponsors the Coretta Scott King Book Awards; the Association of Jewish Libraries which sponsors the Sydney Taylor Book Awards; and REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking which sponsors the Pura Belpré awards. In addition to these affiliates, others such as the Asian/Pacific American Librarian Association and the American Indian Library Association also present awards.

The awards are always evolving to reflect the abundance of literature available for young people. Like the Association of Jewish Libraries and the Asian/Pacific American Librarian Association awards, the American Indian Youth Literature Awards were first added to the televised YMA event in 2018. And this year was the first year for inclusion for a new Young Adult category for the Pura Belpré.

Two awards of particular significance are the Stonewall Book Award – Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children’s and Young Adult Literature Awards are given annually to English-language works found to be of exceptional merit for children or teens relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience, and the Schneider Family Book Awards, honoring authors or illustrators for the artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences, with recipients in three categories: younger children, middle grades, and teens.

Coretta Scott King Awards

The Coretta Scott King Books Awards honor African American authors and illustrators of outstanding books for children and young adults as well as professionals who support that valuable work. Of particular note is the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent.

2021 John Steptoe New Talent Award Winner: Tracy Deonn

Sydney Taylor Book Awards

The Sydney Taylor Book Awards, named in memory the classic All-of-a-Kind Family series author. The award recognizes materials for children and teens that exemplify high literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience, designating Gold and Silver medalists and Notable Books of Jewish Content in categories including Picture Books, Middle Grade, and Young Adults.

2021 Sydney Taylor Gold Medal for the Middle Grades Category

Pura Belpré Awards

The Pura Belpré Awards honor Latinx authors and illustrators whose work portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience.

2021 Pura Belpré Young Adult Award Winner

Asian/Pacific American Librarian Association Awards

The Asian/Pacific Librarian Association's Awards for Literature designates award and honor titles in Young Adult, Children's and Picture Book categories for authors and illustrators whose books promote Asian/Pacific American culture and heritage.

2021 APALA Children's Winner

American Indian Librarian Association Awards

One award we didn't see this year: American Indian Youth Literature Awards. Awarded biennially, this award identifies and honors writing and illustrations by Native Americans and Indigenous peoples of North America.

202o AILA Picturebook Winner

Stonewall Book Award

The Stonewall Book Award - Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children's and Young Adult Literature Awards are given annually to English-language works found to be of exceptional merit for children or teens relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience.

Book Cover: We Are Little Feminists: Families

2021 Stonewall Book Award Winner

Schneider Family Book Awards

The Schneider Family Book Awards, honoring authors or illustrators for the artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences, honor recipients in three categories: younger children, middle grades, and teens.

2021 Schneider Family Younger Children Award Winner

Odyssey Award

This is an award that considers materials for a wide spectrum age groups in their decision-making. The best audiobook production for children and/or young adults are chosen for the Odyssey Award. The Odyssey alternates administration between ALSC and YALSA.

2021 Odyssey Award Audiobook

Wendy Stephens is an Assistant Professor and the Library Media Program Chair at Jacksonville State University.

(Re)Connecting & Staying Connected: Sharing Our Lives Through Family Stories & Oral Storytelling

5/21/2020

BY SELENA E. VAN HORN

Some of the most beautiful stories will not come from books but from the voices of our families and communities. Oral storytelling and oral histories are passed from generation to generation, told during times of struggle and celebration. Many of our cultural, linguistic, religious, and community identities are shared through these stories. Below are a few picturebooks where authors have shared the crafts and values of oral storytelling.

Connecting with Picturebooks

Mark Gonzales’ Yo Soy Muslim

“Dear little one,

…know you are wondrous.
A child of crescent moons,
a builder of mosques,
a descendant of brilliance,
an ancestor in training.”

This story is written as a letter from a father to a daughter celebrating their shared multiple, intersecting identities of race, language, and religion. He passes on his teaching and pride so that it will multiply for generations.

Dan Yaccarino reads All the Way to America: The Story of a Big Italian Family and a Little Shovel

“Work hard...and remember to enjoy life…

And never forget your family”

Yaccarino tells his family’s history from his great-grandfather to his own children through the passing of a family heirloom (a little shovel). He shares the value of family relationships (near and far) and treasuring the little things in life.

Jacqueline Woodson’s The Day You Begin

inspired by a poem in her book Brown Girl Dreaming

“There are many reasons to feel different. Maybe it's how you look or talk, or where you're from; maybe it's what you eat, or something just as random. It's not easy to take those first steps into a place where nobody really knows you yet, but somehow you do it.”

Woodson shares how the very things that may make us feel different are the things that make us special. While in some locations or groups we may be individual in our identities and traditions, in other spaces and groups, we may share how we look or talk, where we are from and/or what we eat. It is through our shared histories/storytelling that we learn the values of our families’/communities’ journeys and gain strength in sharing with others. When this happens and we decide to share, it is “The Day You Begin…”

Recording and Transcribing Oral Stories

After sharing the above mentor texts on oral storytelling/histories, teachers can invite young storytellers to engage in their own oral history/storytelling projects. Some examples might include:

Students interviewing family members about their shared traditions and/or histories
Students recording a podcast with their siblings about a shared memory they have
Students engaged in an individual oral storytelling of their choosing

Oral histories/stories can be recorded and transcribed for multiple listening/reading opportunities. They can be shared with their teacher/class and shared with family/community as a treasure. Students might also consider starting their own podcast and/or oral journaling. Below are a few tools that offer free recording and transcription.

Zoom for Education

Zoom is removing the 40 minute time limit on their Basic Free Account for K-12 schools affected by the COVID-19. This includes the ability to record and transcribe zoom sessions with lessons to allow students to learn how at their own pace.

Otter.ai

The Basic, free account syncs with Zoom cloud recordings and allows up to 600 minutes (recording and transcription) for free (max. 40 min. sessions) each month.

Voice Memo App by Apple

This free app for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Mac allows you to record, edit, and share recordings; however, it does not offer transcription capabilities.

Recording oral stories can be a documentation of a moment in time and/or an on-going form of reflection and connection. For teachers and parents interested in oral stories, check out the StoryCorps Podcast.

Selena E. Van Horn is a CLA/IDE Committee Member.

Image by wei zhu from Pixabay

Creating at Home: Focusing on Pictures

5/14/2020

BY ASHLEY A. ATKINSON

As we enter another week of sheltering in place and remote learning, it is clear that COVID19 will continue to impact our educational practices for the foreseeable future. As I talk to friends and colleagues still in the classroom, they share some beautiful moments of success that should be celebrated. However, I also hear stories highlighting the difficulty of continuing to maintain student engagement. During this time of stress on a global level, we, as educators, have to reach deep into our toolboxes to find new ways to engage with our students and their families.

One silver lining that has stemmed from COVID19 is the influx of resources provided by authors and illustrators to assist parents and teachers in engaging with literacy learning at home. I have seen several blog posts, including Lora M. Dewalt's Post on this blog @Instagram’s #KidLit Community, that highlight amazing opportunities to engage with authors. In today’s post, I am going to focus on the illustrators.

Visual images are an important aspect of meaning making for young children. Often in the classroom, we focus on the words authors pen and less on ways in which the illustrator is a crucial part of the story. Larry Sipe in his book, Storytime: Young Children's Literary Understanding in the Classroom, highlighted the interplay and interconnectedness between images and text, what he called synergy. The synergistic relationship of illustrations and text makes clear the greater impact when viewed together. Giving students a chance to engage and create both text and illustrations honors this relationship and expands the possibilities for how children make meaning.

A perfect example of this powerful union is Drawn Together, written by Minh Lê and illustrated by Dan Santat. This picturebook starts with panels where images begin the story. Throughout the story as the words and images collide, they both become more impactful and moving, highlighting their synergistic relationship. Watch the video to the right as Dan Santat shares his process for creating the art in this text.

Resources for Creation

As we attempt to engage our students in rich reading and writing from afar, we can encourage families to create together. Below I have shared some new resources created by some amazing picturebook illustrators to facilitate this creation process.

Mo Lunch Doodles

You may be familiar with Mo Willems as the well-known author and illustrator of the Elephant and Piggie book series, but did you know he is also the Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence at Home? In partnership with the Kennedy Center, he has created 15 episodes of Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems. In his own words, Mo Willems says, “You might be isolated, but you’re not alone. You are an art maker. Let’s make some together.” The series offers downloadable activities that focus on his creative process as well as some “how to draw” activities. In an effort to isolate together, students can tag their artwork on social media with #MoLunchDoodles. What a great way for students to see how a single image can be the seed that grows into a whole picturebook!

How to Draw Disney

Disney is offering its own how to draw series which allows students to create their own stories around some of their favorite characters.

Dav Pilkey at Home

Another great resource comes from Dav Pilkey, author and illustrator of Captain Underpants and Dog Man. He is working in conjunction with Scholastic and the Library of Congress to offer weekly video lessons that focus on a chance to read, to draw, to create, and to engage with other multimodal fun. What is great about this resource is that it offers a chance for families to have conversations around books and create art together.

Ready- Set- Draw

Kidlit.tv, a great resource on its own, has a subpage called Ready-Set-Draw that includes how to draw characters from several current children’s picturebooks. This is a great resource to pair with read-aloud videos and book talks

#KidsDailyDebbieOhi

Lastly, Debbie Ridpath Ohi offers daily creation challenges via her twitter that allows another way for students to work together while apart. Each day offers an art creation project that can be down with things around the house. Some recent challenges... broken crayon story/art, creating a dog character, and laundry art! Check out other children’s responses by searching for her tag #KidsDailyDebbieOhi.

These resources can offer entry into discussions of the images within picturebooks or a great springboard into students creating their own stories. They also create opportunities for students and families to engage with literacy in a new way. I hope you enjoy using these resources to help your students and families have a little fun as they imagine and create together.

Ashley A. Atkinson is a member of the CLA student committee. She is a doctoral candidate in Literacy and English Language Arts at North Carolina State University.

Audiobooks, Assistive Software, and Adaptations: Inclusive and Accessible Online Literacy Resources

4/14/2020

BY ALEXANDRA LAMPP BERGLUND

Transitioning to online education isn’t an easy task for educators, parents, and students by any means, and adapting and modifying online instruction for students with (dis)abilities presents unique challenges. Providing accessible literature in both print and audio versions is essential to many learners that have (dis)abilities. However, this can be quite challenging in distance learning contexts as students may not have access to a variety of resources and assistive devices available at school. Several apps exist to support this need, particularly in the realm of literacy learning. As discussed in previous posts, Epic! is an excellent resource that offers a wide array of children’s literature in a visual format alongside audio tracks with a “read-to-me” tool for many of its texts. Another app that I’ve found particularly helpful in my own preschool classroom is Tales2Go.

Tales2Go is an online audiobook service for readers of all ages, which provides instant and unlimited access to over 10,000 book titles. These audiobooks can be accessed on a desktop computer, laptop, and mobile device. While facilitating online learning, educators can use these audiobooks to engage in lessons that work to build comprehension, fluency, and phonemic awareness, explore new vocabulary and more, depending on grade level. For instance, in an early childhood setting, after selecting a text, students can listen to the audiobook at their own pace. When finished, students can be asked to recount the story, in their own words, through whatever means of communication your digital classroom uses (Google Classroom, email, FlipGrid, Seesaw, etc.). After subsequent listens and additional prompts, students can also create story maps, complete graphic organizers, or devise their own version of the story that follows the same narrative structure.

While creating lessons like these using Tales2Go can be fun and impactful for your digital classroom, using only one app or service isn’t feasible. Print texts will need to be implemented in numerous and similarly beneficial ways. When doing so, it is crucial to use or share other modifications for this type of media. Text to speech software can convert many text files and webpages directly into audio and is readily available on different devices, under Settings or within the Control Panel. This includes Apple products (MacBooks, iPads, and iPhones), technology that uses Windows software, Android devices, and Chromebooks. Additionally, dictation or speech recognition software, found within word processing programs and on mobile devices, can assist students in expressing themselves through speech, without writing by hand or with a keyboard or worrying about spelling or grammar.

Providing audio material by using apps like Tales2Go and other resources such as text to speech software or sharing how to create audio materials with students are just a few small steps in making online literacy learning accessible to students with (dis)abilities, but they are important ones. Accessibility is essential, as we continue to navigate this digital landscape together, as educators, students, and family and community members. Together, we can all make small adaptations that make big differences in our online classrooms which we continually strive to make inclusive for all learners.

Alexandra Lampp Berglund is the Chair of the CLA student committee. She is a doctoral student in Language and Literacy Education at The University of Georgia.

Photo by StockSnap

@Instagram’s #KidLit Community

4/5/2020

LORA M. DEWALT

Instagram is a great social media platform for connecting with authors, illustrators, and publishers. If you are not familiar, Instagram is a photography-based social media platform where people share posts (usually one photo with a caption) or stories (usually multi-page photos with embedded text or gifs). Instagram accounts can be set up as public or private.

Authors and illustrators of picturebooks, middle grade novels, and YA texts are active on Instagram with public accounts. They often give sneak peeks into their lives by showcasing their writing studios, inspiring quotes, or their latest doodles

Instagram Logo (Pixabay)

Instagram Inquiry Project

Children’s literature courses are material heavy and right now we are not able to guarantee our students have access to the books we would otherwise read and explore. However, through Instagram, students can have access directly to the book creators themselves.

One assignment could be an Instagram Inquiry. I envision that undergraduate or graduate students might inquire into their personal interests with a particular author or illustrator on Instagram. Possible topics might include “What can we learn about an illustrator’s process from watching their Instagram stories and posts?” or “What do I notice about the way an author crafts their captions, how does that reflect (or differ) from their writing in books?” Perhaps a student might ask “What did a particular author share prior to March 2020—what do they seem to be sharing now?”'

This inquiry assignment might be offered as a follow up to an author study, which Erika Thulin Dawes wrote about on the 3/24/2020 CLA Blog.

Instagram TV (IGTV)

Sometimes authors and illustrators host an “Instagram Live” or pre-record videos for IGTV. IGTV videos are generally 3-10 minutes and currently run ad free. This feature is available for anyone with an Instagram account. You can tell when an Instagram post connects to IGTV because it has a little white TV with a swiggle/lightning bolt on it.

Members of the children’s literature community have been hosting Q&As, doodling sessions, and even read alouds. Mac Barnett is posting a series he calls Live Cartoons in which he shares his drawings with hilarious voice overs. Mac Barnett also shares an evening read aloud in his series Mac’s Book Club Show. Other great IGTV read alouds include Marla Frazee’s reading of her wordless picturebook The Farmer and the Clown which she shared in collaboration with #SaveWithStories, which is available on Marla's Instagram.

Other authors are giving great heart to hearts with their audiences about being a creator and artist in this period of #StayAtHome. Jason Reynolds recently shared a creative game he plays with a card deck (Disruptus) to keep his mind in an imaginative space by putting two random items together. Christian Robinson recently shared a story in which he demonstrated how to create a mosaic rainbow with recycled materials as a symbol of gratitude.

One possible assignment could to be watch a particular video or a few episodes of an author/illustrator’s series and reflect on the intended audience, the genre of multimedia art, or a comparison/contrast with pre-recorded YouTube read alouds. IGTV could also be used as a host for students to respond to authors and illustrators with videos of their own.

Active Instagram Authors & Illustrators

Many authors, illustrators, and publishers are active on Instagram. You (or your students) can engage with them by asking questions in their comments section. A lot of them are very prompt at replying! Most of the time, authors and illustrators will share glimpses into their lives (well, the life they are willing to share on a public social media account).

Earlier this semester I shared Erin Entrada Kelly’s Instagram account with some undergraduate students while we read Hello Universe. In particular, I was showcasing Erin’s love of sharing the international covers for her books. A week or so later, one student told me that she had started following Erin on Instagram and ordered all the books Erin posts about so she can read them too! This was a great reminder to me that even when students are not “assigned” a task, just providing them access into the world of authors and illustrators can be powerful.

Here are a few of my favorite authors and illustrators to follow on Instagram:

@aishacs (Aisha Saeed)
@andominguezzzz (Angela Dominguez)
@authorderrickdbarnes (Derrick Barnes)
@colleenaf (Coleen AF Venable)
@cordell_matthew (Matthew Cordell)
@erikalsanchez (Erika L. Sanchez)
@erinentrada (Erin Entrada Kelly)
@jessicalovedraws (Jessica Love)

@macbarnett (Mac Barnett)
@marlafrazee (Marla Frazee)
@nicolayoon (Nicola Yoon)
@oge_mora (Oge Mora)
@rainbowrowell (Rainbow Rowell)
@Sean_qualls (Sean G. Qualls)
@theartoffun (Christian Robinson)

This list is not exhaustive. However, once you start following some authors/illustrators/publishers the Instagram algorithm will continue to recommend more and more!

Lo DeWalt is a CLA member. She is a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas at Austin. Lo co-teaches an undergraduate children’s literature course and works as a district administrator in Manor, Texas.

The CLA Blog