Spotlight on the ALA Book Award Celebration

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Four Book Jackets of Titles that earned 2020 Coretta Scott King AwardsDear School Librarian Leadership Readers,

It seems most appropriate that we celebrate children’s and young adult literature by watching the YouTube videos the American Library Association and the Association for Library Service to Children have posted online.

Check out the Book Award Celebration!

I started my listening feast with the 2020 Coretta Scott King Award videos. I highly recommend listening to all of the speeches of these amazing award-winning authors and illustrators. That said, you should definitely not miss the award speeches by Jerry Craft for his graphic novel The New Kid and Kadir Nelson for the illustrations in The Undefeated. Mildred D. Taylor, who earned the Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award, was unable to participate. (Her slim and powerful stories The Friendship and The Gold Cadillac engendered deep meaningful conversations among the fifth-grade students in my classroom over thirty years ago. I deeply appreciate her work.)

Although I sorely missed dining with friends at the 2020 Newbery-Caldecott-Legacy Award Banquet, I believe giving association members and everyone (!) across the globe access to these inspiring speeches is a gift we should not pass up. I will treat myself to all of the speeches throughout this week.

If you haven’t already, I hope you will make time to tune in and experience the joy and hope expressed by the creators of children’s and young adult literature and re-experience the call to share the love with the youth and educators in your care.

Image: Selected 2020 Coretta Scott King Award Winners

 

This entry was posted in Book Awards, Literature and tagged , by Judi Moreillon. Bookmark the permalink.

About Judi Moreillon

Judi Moreillon, M.L.S, Ph.D., has served as a school librarian at every instructional level. In addition, she has been a classroom teacher, literacy coach, and district-level librarian mentor. Judi has taught preservice school librarians since 1995. She taught courses in instructional partnerships and school librarian leadership, multimedia resources and services, children’s and young adult literature, and storytelling. Her research agenda focuses on the professional development of school librarians for the leadership and instructional partner roles. Judi just completed editing and contributing to Core Values in School Librarianship: Responding with Commitment and Courage (Libraries Unlimited 2021). She has published four other professional books including Maximizing School Librarian Leadership: Building Connections for Learning and Advocacy (ALA 2018). (See the book study on this blog.) Judi earned the American Library Association's 2019 Scholastic Library Publishing Award.

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