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Nature and Our Environment
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Feelings and Identity
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- Patrick Andrus, Eden Prairie School District, Minnesota (Chair)
- Laura Hudock, Framingham State University, Massachusetts (Chair Elect)
- Ally Hauptmann, Lipscomb University, Tennessee
- Joyce Herbeck, Montana State University, Montana
- Lynette Smith, Walden University, Pennsylvania
- Jason Lewis, Tyngsborough Elementary School, Massachusetts
- Mary Ellen Oslick, Stetson University, Florida
By Xenia Hadjioannou
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 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
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.
CLA @NCTE 2024
By Fran Wilson, Patrick Andrus and Laura Hudock on behalf of the Notables Committee
To launch this resource alongside the announcement of the 2024 NCBLA list, three current members Fran Wilson, a second-grade teacher in Madeira, Ohio and the 2024 NCBLA Chair, Patrick Andrus, a fourth-grade teacher in Eden Prairie, Minnesota and the 2025 NCBLA Chair, and Laura Hudock, an assistant professor of literacy and children’s literature at Framingham State University wish to pull back the so-called curtain to shed light on the selection process.
All titles on the annual NCBLA list are works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry penned for children in grades K-8 and published in the previous calendar year. These selected children’s books have to exemplify additional criteria, including
- have an appealing format*;
- be of enduring quality;
- meet generally accepted criteria of quality for the genre in which they are written; and
- meet one or more of the following criteria:
- deal explicitly with language, such as plays on words, word origins, or the history of language;
- demonstrate uniqueness in the use of language or style; and/or
- invite child response or participation*.
The exemplary children’s books named to each NCBLA list are high-quality texts that promote language arts and offer a range of literacy-related instructional possibilities. For example,
How Do You Spell Unfair? (Carole Boston Weatherford, 2023) recounts young MacNolia Cox’s ground-breaking achievement – winning the local Akron, Ohio spelling bee and advancing to the national competition – while challenging racist stereotypes and facing discrimination. This nonfiction picturebook invites readers to explore embedded vocabulary shared as spelling words related to her lived experience. |
Probability of Everything (Sarah Everett, 2023) is a middle grade novel that prompts immediate conversation among readers, often recounting their emotional experience while following protagonist Kemi Carter’s countdown of the meteor, Amplus-68’s collision with earth. These discussions continue long after the last page has been read. |
Patrick’s Polling Insights
I share one picture book each school day as part of my daily teaching routine. My fourth-graders become excited when they know I'm testing a picture book - they’re eager to contribute to the selection process and take this role seriously. My students offer their candid observations, inquiries, and themes related to these books. Many times after I finish one of the book selections, a student will shout out, “Now that is a five-star book!” or predict, “That one is going to be the winner this week.” At the end of the week, I collect their votes for the favorite picturebook of the week. Of note, some titles have been redacted.
Fran’s Student-Initiated Persuasive Essays
After realizing the disappointment that April 8th was a school day, many students decided to voice their opinion–not just to me, but to my school district’s superintendent. Using information in the back matter and additional research, they wrote persuasive essays on why they should be released from school to experience the eclipse with their families. Here is a an example of a second grader’s two-page persuasive essay:
[Insert Blog_Pic 4]
Drumroll please…
Patrick Andrus is a fourth-grade teacher in Eden Prairie, Minnesota and the 2025 NCBLA Chair.
Laura Hudock is an assistant professor of literacy and children’s literature at Framingham State University.
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 |
By Kathryn Will, Michelle Ladd, and Calli Leach
Felicita Sala’s illustrations are warm and inviting and capture the powerful emotions in the book. You may explore more about her work and illustrative process on her website.
This video is another resource that allows children to watch a time-lapsed growth of a walnut:
After reading the book, children might consider family heirlooms they have in their house, the people who had them before, and what was happening during the historical periods of the life of the object. This will allow them to make connections between the book and their lives as they ponder item representation and the values that they may hold.
An interview with Anne Yvonne Gilbert is another resource that can give children additional information about her writing and illustrating processes.
If you are interested in learning about how James Christopher Carroll created the book, check out the video below.
After reading the book, reread the text, pulling out the rich descriptions of winter as a class. Then, with consideration of the current season, go out for a walk, asking students to collect observations and noticings. Share these, thinking about the ways you might add descriptors and specificity to the collection. Use this rich word back to write a seasonal poem or a class book.
1. Appealing format,
2. Enduring quality,
3. Exemplary quality for their genre, and
4. Meeting one or more of the following:
a. Use of language: play on words, word origins, history of language
b. Uniqueness in use of language or style
c. Invitation of child response or engagement
We are really excited about the 2023 NCBLA list and hope you are too!
Committee members:
Kathryn Will, Chair, University of Maine Farmington
Patrick Andrus, Eden Prairie School District, Minnesota
Dorian Harrison, Ohio State University at Newark
Joyce Herbeck, Montana State University
Laura Hudock, Framingham State University, Massachusetts
Lynette Smith, Walden University, Pennsylvania
Fran Wilson, Madeira Elementary School, Ohio
Michelle Ladd is a preservice teacher at the University of Maine at Farmington. She is a nontraditional student and a mother to three young children. She hopes to one day inspire creativity and foster individuality in a PreK-3rd grade classroom.
Calli Leach is a preservice teacher at the University of Maine at Farmington. She is passionate about helping her future students develop a love for reading and writing, as well as being a 4-H volunteer for the state of Maine.
Authors:
CLA Members
Supporting PreK-12 and university teachers as they share children’s literature with their students in all classroom contexts.
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.
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contribute to the blog
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.
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