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In this season of giving, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the NCBLA. Large or small, we value and honor every donation.

To make a donation by credit card using our secure credit card service, click here.

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!

How Do You Find Just the RIght Gift Book?

Expert Tips for Finding Perfect Books
for Special Young People
this Holiday Season

When you buy a special book for a child at Hanukkah, Christmas, or Kwanzaa, it helps your child to create emotional connections linking family, tradition, and reading. It also sends the message that receiving books is as pleasurable an experience as receiving toys.

I asked Natacha Liuzzi, librarian and book buyer, for some age-pertinent book suggestions for gift giving this year. Natacha's youthful appearance belies the fact that she has years of experience connecting kids to books. For eight years, Natacha was the Children's Services Librarian at the Hinesburg Public Library in Hinesburg, Vermont. There she was responsible for buying all the children's, middle grade, and young adult materials, servicing children from toddlers through to high school students. Currently, Natacha is the children's book buyer for the independent Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, Vermont. For the past four years she has served on a committee that nominates picture books for the Red Clover Award, Vermont's annual student choice awards. She is also the RIF coordinator for the Hinesburg Community School, providing each student with a free book three times yearly, and she was the Hinesburg Literacy Team coordinator working with area preschool and reading teachers throughout Chittenden County.

Finding a special book for the child you love can be an overwhelming task given the selection available at your bookstore. Natacha offers the following advice:

• 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!"

Great Book Gift Suggestions

Going to the bookstore with a list of recommended books in hand can help guide your choices. Click the titles of the following lists for some authoritative advice:

• Reading Rockets' Holiday Buying Guide (Birth through Age 12)
• AdLit.org's Great Books for Teens (Listed by Theme)
• The NCBLA's In Search of Wonder Lists of Book Recommendations By Category (Birth through Young Adult) (Be sure to scroll down to "Lists of Book Recommendations by Category.)
• The Horn Book Fanfare, Best Books for 2014 (Birth through Young Adult)
•  Cooperative Children’s Book Center Book Choices 2014 (Birth through Young Adult)
• The New York Times Notable Children's Books of 2014
• Young Adult Library Services Association Best Fiction for Young Adults 2014
• American Library Association Youth Media Awards (Birth through Young Adult)

© 2005, 2014 by Mary Brigid Barrett

Holiday Traditions in Washington, DC

Share Holiday Traditions
in Our Nation's Capitol
with the Young People in Your Life

The lighting ceremony of the National Menorah on the White House Ellipse will take place Tuesday, December 16th at 4:00 p.m. Tickets are FREE, but required for entry. To learn more, click here. 

Share the story of 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 Renee Critcher Lyons on OurWhiteHouse.org.

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.

Watch the lighting ceremony of this year's tree at: http://thenationaltree.org/2014-national-christmas-tree-lighting-on-demand/

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 at: http://www.ourwhitehouse.org/memoryofwhouse.html

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.