Help the NCBLA Continue Its Vital Work Helping Our Nation's Young People!

 The NCBLA Needs YOU!

Please consider making a donation this holiday season to the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance. Large or small, we value and honor every dollar, every donation.

 
We believe that literacy is essential to the development of responsible citizens in a democracy. And we believe that citizens, both young and old, must have equal access to stimulating books and information sources that invite them to dream and give them the tools to achieve their dreams. As writers and illustrators, teachers and mentors, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles—as citizens and neighbors—our ultimate question is always how can we best serve all of our nation’s children?  

Consider the educational impact made by the NCBLA in 2011:

Our progressive story game titled The Exquisite Corpse Adventure, originally published on Read.gov as the foundation of a national reading and writing initiative created by the NCBLA and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, was published by Candlewick Press in hardcover and a kid-friendly paperback. The Exquisite Corpse Adventure is also available on audio. Click here to check out the extensive educational materials created by the NCBLA designed to support The Exquisite Corpse Adventure.

The NCBLA presented a free, interactive workshop for kids at the Northwest One Neighborhood Library in Washington, D.C., which featured some of the nation’s most-popular children’s authors and illustrators, including National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Katherine Paterson; Jack Gantos; Patricia McKissack; and illustrators Chris Van Dusen and Calef Brown. Moderating the discussion with the young people in attendance was Mary Brigid Barrett, also a children's book author and illustrator and founder and president of the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance.

The NCBLA opened the 11th Annual National Book Festival events in the Children's Pavilion with a dramatic reading of The Exquisite Corpse Adventure. Participating in our dramatic reading were: National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Katherine Paterson, Mary Brigid Barrett, Calef Brown, Susan Cooper, Jack Gantos, Gregory Maguire, Fredrick McKissack, Patricia McKissack, and Chris Van Dusen.

The NCBLA joined forces with the Cambridge Public Library and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to present  The Exquisite Conversation: An Adventure in Creating Books!, which featured  a distinguished panel of eight award-winning authors and illustrators discussing the creative process. This presentation was free and open to the public and included M. T. Anderson, Natalie Babbitt, Susan Cooper, Timothy Basil Ering, Steven Kellogg, Patricia MacLachlan, James Ransome, and National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Katherine Paterson! NCBLA founder and president Mary Brigid Barrett moderated the discussion. 

As the presidential primaries and election grab national attention, the NCBLA continues to educate our nation's young people through the Our White House book and companion website. Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out is an award-winning art and literature anthology, which includes original poetry, paintings, photographs, historical fiction, nonfiction, and primary source materials about American history that use the White House as a unifying theme. The OurWhiteHouse.org website includes a vast array of articles, resources, and activities to help young people connect with American history. Sample articles to share with young people include Presidential Menageries: George Washington, Hound Dogs, and Super Mules, as well as Persuading the People: Presidential Campaigns and Getting the Votes and Getting Elected: The Popular Vote vs. the Electoral College.

The NCBLA expanded its communication efforts by creating a facebook page, helping us to reach even more families and educators by promoting the educational programs sponsored by the NCBLA and other literacy organizations; highlighting pertinent literacy, art, and education news and information; and encouraging citizens to act upon critical legislation that affects our nation's kids! Click here to check it out...and be sure to friend us!

 

In 2012, we hope to launch a new national literacy education initiative with the Library of Congress, the Children's Book Council, PBS Reading Rockets, and other educational partners. We need your help to make it happen! Your donation to the NCBLA is tax-deductible! Thank you!

 

The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit. 

 

To make a donation by credit card, click here. 

If you would like to send a check or money order, please mail your donation to: 

Mary Kemper, Treasurer
The National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance
P. O. Box 1479
Brewster, MA 02631

 

As the NCBLA settles down for a holiday "nap," our staff and board would like to wish you and your family a delight-filled holiday season and a joyous New Year!

Holiday Shopping Made Easy...Try Your Local Bookstore!

Tips for Finding the Perfect Gift Book

Finding the perfect book or two for the young people in your life can be a daunting experience. Bookstore shelves are overflowing with tall books and tiny books, books that tell tales of faraway princesses and books about animals both cute and exotic, even books that sing, talk, and sparkle!
How does one choose?

In the article “A Holiday Gift Book Buying Guide for Your Family,” librarian Natacha Luzzi offers these tips:

• Find out what the child or teen has read already. Ask them what authors they like to read.
• Discover the subjects and topics that interest them.
• Find out if they prefer fiction or nonfiction, fantasy or reality.
• Don't be afraid to ask your neighborhood children's librarian or children's books seller for suggestions and advice.
• Read your local newspaper's book section. Many newspapers and magazines feature book suggestions this time of year.
• Be consumer savvy. The books with biggest marketing budgets are not necessarily the best books for you child or teen. And conversely, a book you've never heard of may contain the story that changes your child’s or teen's life. Natacha says, "Just because a book jacket may look promising does not mean the story is going to live up to it. We all fall victim at one time or another to 'judging a book by its cover.'"
• Take into consideration the content and age recommendation. I think great care needs to be taken, especially if a young reader is at a higher reading level. Even though the child can read the material the content is not always appropriate.
• No one is ever too old for a picture book!!
• Consider all possibilities: great literature and fun, entertaining books. Says Natacha, "Think of books in terms of chocolate mousse and a Hershey kiss. There are moments for both!"
  

Read the complete article on the NCBLA website here. 

Reading Rockets Buying Guide Makes Recommendations for Kids 4 Through 9
If you prefer to walk into the bookstore with a list in hand, be sure to check out Reading Rockets’ fabulous annual Books as Gifts Buying Guide! This year’s buying guide includes a carefully selected collection of books so engaging the TV is happily turned off and the iPod and other electronic games are put away.

Reading Lists for Older Kids
If you are looking for a book to treat an older child, be sure to check out the Young Adult Library Services Association's list of the 2011 Best Books for Young Adults, which includes dozens of fiction and nonfiction titles. You may also want to peruse AdLit.org's expert list of Great Books for Teens, which includes themed lists with categories such as Baseball Books, Fantasy, Multicultural Stories, Poetry, and Romance & Relationships.

One Additional Recommendation
Consider Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out, an award-winning anthology includes original poetry, historical fiction, nonfiction, and primary source materials about American history using the White House as a unifying theme. It's a perfect book for kids of all ages, families, teachers, classrooms--anyone who loves art and history and literature!

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough introduces this creative tour de force, in which 108 renowned authors and illustrators have donated their poetry, prose, and art to help advance the cause of young people’s literacy and historical literacy. The illustrations, essays, short stories, presidential letters, personal reflections, and historical accounts in Our White House inform and entertain, offering a window on more than 200 years of American history.

Our White House is now available in a paperback edition and includes a NEW poem by Nikki Grimes and coordinating illustration by A. G. Ford about President Obama's inauguration. Look for the hardcover and paperback editions at a bookstore new you!
 

ACTIVIST ALERT!

Ask Your Representative to Vote NO
on SOPA (H.R. 3261)

TOMORROW at 10:00 a.m. (EST) the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary will meet to mark up and potentially vote in committee on H.R. 3261, the “Stop Online Piracy Act” or SOPA.

According to the American Library Association, this bill, introduced in October by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), not only threatens the future of the Internet as we know it, it jeopardizes protections currently enjoyed by individual citizens, as well as libraries. The bill has the potential to do significant damage in a number of ways – including the possibility of criminal prosecution of a library for streaming, censorship of internet activity, invasion of privacy rights, and even threatens national cyber security, among others.

Please call your U.S. Representative and ask them to vote “NO” on SOPA.

• For libraries, the bill strikes at copyright protections by creating the possibility of criminal prosecution of a library for streaming.
• SOPA’s requirements to monitor internet traffic violates free speech and privacy protections, not to mention raises the significant likelihood of a “chilling effect” on using the Internet for commerce, communication and participation in a democratic society.
• SOPA’s monitoring of the internet equates to surveillance potentially inviting new forms of government intrusion (within and outside the U.S.).
• Such monitoring or regulating of the Internet creates cyber security vulnerabilities as noted in a letter by top cyber security experts at Sandia National Laboratories (funded by the Department of Defense and Department of Energy).
• Finally, the predicted consequences of SOPA are far reaching. If passed, the potential for new jobs, innovative new ventures and economic growth would be stifled.

Click here then enter your zip code in the "CALL NOW" box for your representative's calling information.

For more information on SOPA, click here. 

The NCBLA Needs You!

The National Children's Book 

and Literacy Alliance: 
Help Us Help All of Our Kids!

We need your help in order to do our work. In this season of giving, please consider making a donation to the NCBLA. We need you to help us fight the good fight, making sure that all of our nation's kids have equal and ready access to school libraries and healthy neighborhood libraries.
We need your help in educating the adults who live and work with children and teens to the literacy needs of young people in their lives. 

 

We need your help educating the United States Congress concerning the literacy and library needs of all of our young people.

We need your help raising our nation's awareness to the fact that a democracy can only survive and thrive if its citizens, young and old, are literate and educated. 

We need your help so that we can continue to create innovative national literacy outreach projects that reach millions of children across our nation and the world: 

the multiple award winning book and website Our White House:Looking In, Looking Out and www.ourwhitehouse.org; and

our Internet reading/writing world-wide initiative with the Library of Congress, The Exquisite Corpse Adventure story game, book, and educational support webpages.

 

We need your help so that our authors and illustrators can visit more classrooms, libraries, book festivals, and museums to work with our kids, exciting kids and their families about reading!

 
Please consider making a donation this holiday season to the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance. Large or small, we value, and honor every dollar,every donation.
We believe that literacy is essential to the development of responsible citizens in a democracy. And we believe that citizens, both young and old, must have equal access to stimulating books and information sources that invite them to dream and give them the tools to achieve their dreams. As writers and illustrators, teachers and mentors, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles—as citizens and neighbors—our ultimate question is always how can we best serve all of our nation’s children?  

In 2012, we hope to launch a new national literacy education initiative with the Library of Congress, the Children's Book Council, PBS Reading Rockets and other educational partners. We need your help to make it happen! Your donation to the NCBLA is tax-deductible! Thank you!

The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit.  

To make a donation by credit card, go to:  http://www.thencbla.org/donate.html

If you would like to send a check or money order, please mail your donation to: 

Mary Kemper, Treasurer
The National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance
P. O. Box 1479
Brewster, MA 02631

Thank you! We hope you and your family have a delight-filled holiday season and a joyous New Year!

Celebrating the Holidays at the White House

White House Decorations Honor
America's Military Families

 (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

The official Christmas tree was delivered to the North Portico of the White House in a horse-drawn carriage and presented to First Lady Michelle Obama, who was accompanied by daughters Malia and Sasha, on November 25. The 18-foot-6 inch balsam fir is decorated with holiday cards created by military children and ornaments featuring medals, badges, and patches from all of the military branches. In the photo at right, President Barack Obama shows military officials the White House Christmas Tree in the Blue Room following a meeting, Dec. 1, 2011.

(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

And on December 8 President Obama, the First Lady, Vice President Biden, and Dr. Jill Biden hosted a Hanukkah celebration in the White House in which the President remarked, 

"Let’s honor the sacrifices our ancestors made so that we might be here today. Let’s think about those who are spending this holiday far away from home -– including members of our military who guard our freedom around the world. Let’s extend a hand to those who are in need, and allow the value of tikkun olam to guide our work this holiday season."

Learn More About American
Holiday Traditions and White House History

The December holidays provide a fabulous opportunity to help young people learn about their own history and heritage, as well as the history, heritage, and traditions of others. Following are some resources you can share with young people to engage their natural curiosity and introduce them to holiday traditions at the White House:

Watch a video of the delivery of this year's douglas fir Christmas tree from Lehighton, Pennsylvania to the White House on November 26.

Watch a video of the lighting of the menorah and the Hanukkah celebration at the White House.

Discover how the Christmas tree became a White House tradition and how farmers across America compete to grow the “Grand Champion” selected to adorn the White House each year in "Grand Champions of the White House" by guest writer Renee Critcher Lyons on OurWhiteHouse.org. Read on for an excerpt:

A tree has not always graced the White House at Christmastime. In fact, Franklin Pierce (1856), our 14th president, became the first to embrace the 500-year old tradition of bringing a tree into the home to celebrate the hope of Christmas morn. And, the practice did not become a yearly event until the 1880’s. Only one president since has frowned upon the use of an official White House Christmas tree, Teddy Roosevelt. Our 26th president (1901-1909), at a time before Christmas tree farms were prevalent, believed the harvesting of Christmas trees might deplete our national forests, and thus banned the practice from the White House.

 

Read about the history of the National Christmas Tree, which graces the Ellipse between the White House and the Washington Monument, in "Our National Christmas Tree" by Cheli Mennella on OurWhiteHouse.org. Here is an excerpt:

The magnificent blue spruce towers above the Ellipse, the ground between the White House and the Washington Monument. Throughout the year it is a silent reminder of yuletide pleasures and joy. Then in December the tree takes on new significance. Dressed in strands of colorful lights and trimmed with ornaments, the tree, our National Christmas Tree, becomes a beacon of beauty and brilliance.

Read Newbery-medal winning author Susan Cooper's contrasting memories of the White House--one at a time of sorrow and another at a time of Christmas splendor--in "Memory of the White House" on OurWhiteHouse.org.

 

Discover More About the White House and American History in Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out
For even more information and stories about White House holiday traditions, the presidents and first ladies, and American history, check out a copy of Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out from your local library and share the extensive fiction and nonfiction pieces and plethora of original art illustrations with the young people in your life. To learn more about White House holidays, you might choose to read how the American hostage crisis in 1979 affected the lighting of the national Christmas tree during President Carter’s term in office in “From Christmas in Plains: Memories” by Jimmy Carter.

Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out is sold in hardcover and paperback at bookstores everywhere. LEARN MORE about this anthology at OurWhiteHouse.org.

Start Your Holiday Shopping Now with Book Suggestions from Reading Rockets

The 2011 Gift Book Guide Makes Holiday Shopping Easy!

Reading Rockets' 2011 Books as Gifts Guide makes it easy to find great books kids will enjoy. Created by children's literature expert Maria Salvadore, the list is a delightful collection of 80+ terrific nonfiction and fiction titles for kids ages 0-9 and includes recommendations for kids to read on their own and books for kids to read with a caring adult. Purchase from the annotated list online or print the buying guide to take with you on your shopping trip to the bookstore.

You can also share Season’s Readings using Reading Rockets' free e-cards. Reading themed holiday e-cards were created for Reading Rockets by award-winning children's book illustrators Bruce Degen, Mary Azarian, Loreen Leedy, David Carter, Robert Sabuda, Marie-Louise Gay, Chris Raschka, and Marc Brown.

Parents, guardians, homeschoolers, and other family members might want to check out snowy storytime ideas with Reading Rockets’ Family Literacy Bag featuring The Snowy Day. Designed to encourage hands-on fun and learning centered around paired fiction and nonfiction books, The Snowy Day Family Literacy Bag offers interactive activities to encourage parents to read to their children and talk about what they are reading together in order to promote a joy of reading and literacy achievement.

In Case You Missed It!

Interview Provides Insights Regarding the Future of How Children Read

"In 5 years you will have an entirely new marketplace of digital reading material for young children, in all new forms."
-Karen Lotz, President of Candlewick Press

Karen Lotz

In "How Will We Read: Children's Books?,"
C. M. Rubin interviews Karen Lotz, President of Candlewick Press, the largest independent children's publisher in the U.S., regarding the future of children's books. You won't want to miss Karen's insights regarding past and future sales trends, the importance of bookstores and school libraries, and the evolution of print to electronic book platforms.

Click here to read the entire interview in Education News.

Photo courtesy of Candlewick Press.

Join Us TOMORROW for "The Exquisite Conversation: An Adventure in Creating Books!"

The Exquisite Conversation:

An Adventure in Creating Books!

starring

Katherine Paterson

National Ambassador for Young People's Literature

M. T. Anderson + Natalie Babbitt

Susan Cooper + Timothy Basil Ering

Steven Kellogg

Patricia MacLachlan + James Ransome

Mary Brigid Barrett, Moderator 

 

Author and illustrator
Steven Kellogg

The Cambridge Public Library, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance invite you to join us tomorrow, December 3 at MIT for an afternoon of literary events designed for everyone who loves literature for young people--and the authors and illustrators who create it! 

Author Katherine Paterson

Tomorrow's afternoon of events begins with a lively roundtable discussion featuring some of America's most gifted storytellers and illustrators: M. T. Anderson, Natalie Babbitt, Susan Cooper, Timothy Basil Ering, Steven Kellogg, Patricia MacLachlan, James Ransome, and Katherine Paterson, National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, at 1:00 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium. 

Author M. T. Anderson

This presentation is FREE and open to the public.  Everyone who loves literature for young people and would enjoy learning more about the creative process, writing, and narrative illustration (including kids 10 and older) is welcome! No registration or ticket is required. Attendees are encouraged to bring a new paperback for a child or teen to donate as a holiday gift to children and young adults in family shelters in Cambridge.

Saturday's Schedule of
Exquisite Conversation Events

Noon - 1:00 p.m.: Book Sale by Porter Square Books in lobby of Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Avenue.

1:00 - 2:20 p.m.: Exquisite Conversation: An Adventure in Creating Books! Presentation in Kresge Auditorium.

2:30 - 3:30 p.m.: Book Sale and Autographing in lobby of Kresge Auditorium.

3:30 - 5:00 p.m.: Wine and Cheese Reception with the Authors, Illustrators, and Special Guests, including Silent Auction, in Room 307 on the third floor mezzanine of the Stratton Center, a short walk from Kresge. Tickets are required. Read below for more information and to buy tickets.

Wine and Cheese Reception
with the Authors and Illustrators!

Auction Item:
Sketch by Chris Van Dusen

Beginning at 3:30 p.m. in the Stratton Center, the NCBLA invites you to our ticketed, adults-only Wine and Cheese Reception with the authors and special guests! Here you can meet each of the participating authors and illustrators and ask each of them the questions you've always wondered about!

Auction Item:
Illustration by Timothy Basil Ering

Included in the reception is the Silent Auction, featuring an exciting and diverse collection of themed book baskets; manuscript critiques from editors at Candlewick Press, Houghton Mifflin, and Curtis Brown; sketches and illustrations by David Macaulay, Timothy Basil Ering, Chris Van Dusen, and Trina Schart Hyman; and MORE!

All Silent Auction items and their complete descriptions will be on display at the Wine and Cheese Reception beginning at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 3 in Room 307 of the Stratton Center at MIT.

Tickets are still available for the Wine and Cheese Reception!

Click here to order your tickets for the Wine and Cheese Reception now. And please note that the NCBLA is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Ticket purchases are TAX DEDUCTIBLE to the extent allowed by law. 

 

For complete information about all the Exquisite Conversation events, including ticket purchases for the Wine and Cheese Reception, click here. For directions to the event venues at MIT, click here.