The CLA Endowment: Enriching Research in Children's Literature

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

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.