A MUST READ!

“Survey Finds Teenagers Ignorant on Basic History and Literature Questions”

“Fewer than half of American teenagers who were asked basic history and literature questions in a phone survey knew when the Civil War was fought, and one in four said Columbus sailed to the New World some time after 1750, not in 1492.

The survey results, released on Tuesday, demonstrate that a significant proportion of teenagers live in ‘stunning ignorance’ of history and literature, said the group that commissioned it, Common Core.”

This article in The New York Times is a must read, but more thought provoking are some of the responses from readers, a small selection of which are posted below.

Read the article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/us/27history.html?em&ex=1204347600&en=6192259c03f6bb5b&ei=5087%0A

Reader responses:

I am a teacher, and our public schools work as they are designed to. They produce a compliant citizenry, ill-equipped for independent analysis and pre-disposed to consume. Schools exist for two reasons: a jobs program for adults and an indoctrination program for our youth. I have yet to hear anybody debate why, in the No Child Left Behind act, schools are required to provide the Pentagon with student contact information--and this in an education bill. Unfortunately, we have the schools that we deserve.— Carl, Alaska

Any discussion of education today always ends up in a (virtual) shouting match. Yes it needs to be better, but we don't need to keep blaming someone else. It starts with yourself. If each of us, as an individual, values education in a public way it will get better. It's not just the schools, the policy-makers, and the parents. For whatever reason this society does not value curiosity. Everyone should be be proud of their curiosity without being condescending. It won't get better until we see popular entertainment that portrays the smart person as the hero. Be smart and be a hero.— PeteB, Missoula, MT

I am a senior college student. I went to a good public school and took all the required history and civics classes. But at an early age I knew I wanted to pursue science as a career, a decision which forced me to narrow my studies and interests into an attractive ‘hook’ for colleges. From that point on, History and English fell on deaf ears because they were not part of my long term goal.
I believe the major flaw in my privileged education was being encouraged to become so specialized at such a young age. I am 21 years old with a $120,000 education, yet I could not outline the American history of my two decades let alone the discovery of the new world. I can not balance a check book or list any basic economic principles. I know nothing of war or international law. I can tell you an awful lot about physics though. And as such, I feel very much like a child.— college student, Baltimore

It's more serious than just an ignorance of historical fact.
For over thirty years the US has been driven to the core by the idea that there is no such thing as a fact, and that factuality is just a concept subject to the user's preference. When the idea of "fact" becomes a political concept, every "fact" is a matter of politics, and one can credibly argue that global warming is or isn't real based on one's party, or that the Holocaust did or didn't happen based on one's prejudice, or that taxes are or aren't a good thing based on one's patriotism, or that a military engagement is a victory of a defeat based on whether or not one loves one's country...In such a climate the very utility of facts is questionable. The onerous work it takes to acquire them and to incorporate them into critical thinking is of dubious value when one can simply declare a belief instead, regardless of factuality, and be embraced by everyone who shares it.

Facts are humbling, challenging obstacles. When one can enjoy the emotional fulfillment of being a true believer, and when so many of our role models in government, business, sports, etc., have dispensed with them, why bother with them?

Our culture now suffers from the mental illness that equates one's own personal worldview with fact, and denies the value of any reality-based consensus. That illness has permeated into the highest circles, and the law itself, which must be fact-based, is threatened. — DFC, Los Angeles

I used to teach HS English and had my 11th grade classes memorize the first 14 lines of the intro to the Canterbury Tales - in Middle English. They complained, they moaned, they groaned but over the course of the semester they always learned it and as they progressed, we started every class by saying it out loud together. If I forgot, they reminded me. At the end of the year when they had to say it alone, aloud in front of the class, one of the boys came up and said,"I thought at first this was the stupidest assignment anybody could have but when I complained to my parents I found out my father knew most of it. It started out as a joke but we taught my mother and we've been saying it together. My father wanted to be sure I learned it right." The spirit and the soul have always been reflected and explored though the universality of literature. How else can we know that when we act like beasts that these actions are not what civilized humans do? — Dinah78, California

The ancient Greeks had a very different conception of the world than the dominant United States' culture of today. They imagined themselves situated in space facing backwards, looking towards the past, while the future rolled over their shoulders from behind like a wave at the beach. Over the years (many years at that), we have turned around so that now we conceive of ourselves as facing the future and riding atop the wave of progress. In this conception of the human body and mind, there is no reason to look to the past, and even if we do, by turning our head over a shoulder, we can only get a partial view. The Greeks valued mythos as much as, if not more than, logos; we have forgotten what mythos is.

However, I do not suggest that we drastically reconfigure our conception of the world and our place in it; that would be impossible. However, by focusing on local history, family history, cultural history, perhaps we can show students what can be gained from turning around every now and then and facing the past in its full panorama. — Stephen, Marblehead, MA

In my own completely unscientific study, I have repeatedly found "stunning ignorance" among my parents' generation about the world as it exists today, to the point that they are seriously impaired in their efforts to participate and experience today's world. This goes beyond being able to set the clock on one's VCR (what's a VCR, anyway?) -- that is just bad industrial design. It is more characterized by utter paralysis in the face of the expanding connectivity of the world.

These studiers, which seem always to decry the pathetic state of our youth today, would do well to turn the camera around. Instead, for whatever reason, such ignorance is given a free pass: can't teach an old dog new tricks, after all. And that's supposed to be OK.

The education of youth is important, no doubt, but the failure of many, if not most, adults to continue their education is just as serious. After all, what good is knowing what happened in the past if you have a) no clue what is happening TODAY? and b) no clue how to even find out what is happening TODAY.

PS No, having a hotmail account and abetting the transmission of mountains of virus-laden jokes, amusing pictures, and factually-challenged patriotic/religious messages to all your friends and relatives who bear the misfortune of being in your adress book does NOT count as functional participation.— Helen, Hawaii

Crass Commercialization in Children's Books?

Should Children's Publishing Let Commercial Product Placement Into Books for Young People?

"Susan Katz, publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books, said she was not concerned about a possible backlash against corporate sponsorship in books aimed at such a young audience. 'If you look at Web sites, general media or television, corporate sponsorship or some sort of advertising is totally embedded in the world that tweens live in,' Ms. Katz said. 'It gives us another opportunity for authenticity.' "

Authenticity? Read more in The New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/books/19cathy.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin

Choosing Stupidly; Celebrating Ignorance

In an article about Susan Jacoby’s new book, The Age of American Unreason, and in an op/ed essay by Jacoby, both state that not only are many Americans choosing ignorance for themselves and their children, but that we as a culture and society take pride in that ignorance.

Ms. Jacoby writes---
"The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself." Ralph Waldo Emerson offered that observation in 1837, but his words echo with painful prescience in today's very different United States. Americans are in serious intellectual trouble -- in danger of losing our hard-won cultural capital to a virulent mixture of anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism and low expectations.

This is the last subject that any candidate would dare raise on the long and winding road to the White House. It is almost impossible to talk about the manner in which public ignorance contributes to grave national problems without being labeled an "elitist," one of the most powerful pejoratives that can be applied to anyone aspiring to high office. Instead, our politicians repeatedly assure Americans that they are just "folks," a patronizing term that you will search for in vain in important presidential speeches before 1980. (Just imagine: "We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain . . . and that government of the folks, by the folks, for the folks, shall not perish from the earth.") Such exaltations of ordinariness are among the distinguishing traits of anti-intellectualism in any era.

The classic work on this subject by Columbian University historian Richard Hofstadter, "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life," was published in early 1963, between the anti-communist crusades of the McCarthy era and the social convulsions of the late 1960s. Hofstadter saw American anti-intellectualism as a basically cyclical phenomenon that often manifested itself as the dark side of the country's democratic impulses in religion and education. But today's brand of anti-intellectualism is less a cycle than a flood. If Hofstadter (who died of leukemia in 1970 at age 54) had lived long enough to write a modern-day sequel, he would have found that our era of 24/7 infotainment has outstripped his most apocalyptic predictions about the future of American culture.

There will be many critics of Jacoby, but we must ask ourselves why in our schools and greater society is athletic prowess esteemed and highly rewarded monetarily while intellectual achievement is derided as “nerdish” and young people who exhibit intellectual curiosity are often mocked by their peers? Why are entertainers given exorbitant salaries and our young people’s caretakers, teachers, and librarians given inadequate monetary compensation? And why are their efforts and professions held in such little esteem within our society and culture? What percentage of our federal budget is given to education, schools, and libraries and does that amount reflect a national commitment to making education and literacy a top national priority?

And most troubling, why do we, as a people, exult in our ignorance?

I grew up the granddaughter of immigrants, none of whom had achieved even an eighth grade level education in their country of origin. My grandparents’ greatest desire was to have their children and grandchildren receive the education they lacked. They sacrificed for their children’s education, denying themselves life’s comforts, working back-breaking jobs in order to give their children a road to a better life. I grew up surrounded by selfless people who worked to give their children and grandchildren opportunities they did not have. I thought in America everyone grew up with families that thought and acted like that.

It was not until I became a parent educational activist, fighting for school funding in a small town in New England that I encountered many people who did not share my family's priorities, people who did not believe that an older generation must sacrifice so that the next can have better opportunities. I can distinctly remember knocking on a family’s door asking a father, “Don’t you want your kids to have a better education than you did? Don’t you want your kids to have a smaller class sizes, better books, and good teachers? His response-“I had 45 kids in my class; what’s good enough for me is good enough for them.” Unfortunately, our nation, in words, in our actions, and in our monetary choices, seems to reflect the values expressed by that father rather than the values my grandparents lived.

In this election campaign, issues related to literacy, education, libraries, humanities, sciences and the arts are rarely discussed, and if they are, are discussed in the most unimaginative and pedestrian manner recycling tired ideas and programs that reflect old inadequate thinking and problem solving. Contact the presidential candidate and party of your choice and urge them to talk about education and the future of our young people. Urge them to seriously consider education issues to the same degree they do economic and health issues. Urge them to think critically and creatively and come up with new ideas, new problem solving.-- Mary Brigid Barrett, president, the NCBLA.

For more information go to the NCBLA activist pages at: http://www.thencbla.org/BPOSpages/becomeactivist.html

To read about Susan Jacoby’s ideas, go to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021502901.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/books/14dumb.html?em&ex=1203483600&en=1d68ad601de3ed4a&ei=5087%0A

Take a moment and contact the presidential candidates, as well as your political party, and let them know that you want them to start talking about our children and their education, NOW!
Contact Presidential candidates and national political parties:

Democratic Party website and contact info:
http://www.democrats.org/
http://www.democrats.org/contact.html

Republican Party website and contact info:
http://www.rnc.org/
http://www.gop.com/Connect/ContactUs.htm

Presidential Candidates websites and contact information:
Hilary Clinton:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/help/contact/

Mike Huckabee
http://www.mikehuckabee.com/
http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=ContactUs.Home

John McCain
http://www.johnmccain.com/landing/?sid=gorganic
http://www.johnmccain.com/Contact/

Barack Obama
http://www.barackobama.com/
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/contact/

For more information go to the NCBLA activist pages at:

http://www.thencbla.org/BPOSpages/becomeactivist.html

The End of Literacy? Don't Stop Reading.

Howard Gardner Says Don't Worry

This weekend The Washington Post published an essay by Howard Gardner posing the question:

"What will happen to reading and writing in our time?

Could the doomsayers be right? Computers, they maintain, are destroying literacy. The signs -- students' declining reading scores, the drop in leisure reading to just minutes a week, the fact that half the adult population reads no books in a year -- are all pointing to the day when a literate American culture becomes a distant memory. By contract, optimists foresee the Internet ushering in a new, vibrant participatory culture of words. Will they carry the day?

Maybe neither. Let me suggest a third possibility: Literacy -- or an ensemble of literacies -- will continue to thrive, but in forms and formats we can't yet envision."

Mr. Gardner's essay is well worth reading, but how long it has been since he has spent any time in public elementary or secondary schools? A challenge for Mr. Gardner-- spend a month working with young people in Worcester, Massachusetts, or in East Cleveland, Ohio, or even any middle class/working class neighborhood public school across the country to see where our nation truly is concerning reading, writing, and education-- to see the state of actual school buildings, school libraries, and public libraries in many parts of our nation. Have a conversation with a real group of kids, ask them what they read, how much they read, when they read anything at all. And then see if he would draw the same conclusions.

Read Mr. Gardner's essay at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021502898.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

FINAL DAY TO BID! BOOK BASKET WORTH $1,000!

Scholastic Audiobook/NCBLA Book Basket Auction Benefits the NCBLA

Scholastic Audiobooks has donated 10 new audiobooks, including Gregory Maguire’s New York Times Best Seller What-the-Dickens! for an online auction to benefit The National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance (www.thencbla.org), a 501C3 not-for-profit that advocates and educates on behalf of literacy, literature, libraries and the arts. This audiobook collection includes The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick; Main Street #1 by Ann Martin; Stoneheart by Charlie Fletcher; and Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

In addition, the NCBLA Board has donated many personally autographed audiobooks and books to this collection including works by M.T. Anderson, Natalie Babbitt, Susan Cooper, Nikki Grimes, Patricia MacLachlan, Gregory Maguire, and Katherine Paterson. The retail value of this book basket exceeds $1,000. For a detailed list of books and audiobooks, go to: http://www.thencbla.org/ncblanews.html

The auction begins today, January 31, 2008, and runs until February 9. 2008. To find the online auction, on or after January 31 go to: www.ebay.com.

In the search window, top left, paste in the title of the auction:

Signed Wicked! +Unique Collection Autographed New Books

and click, Search.

If you like you can also select the category: Books.

Or go to: http://cgi.ebay.com/Signed-Wicked-Unique-Collection-Autographed-NEW-Books_W0QQitemZ110220394075QQihZ001QQcategoryZ279QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Celebrate Literature!!!

Celebrate the Poetry of Elizabeth Alexander!

If you haven’t discovered the work of Elizabeth Alexander, run to your library or bookstore and find Miss Crandall’s School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color written by Dr. Alexander, with Marilyn Nelson, illustrated by Floyd Cooper, and look for her other extraordinary books as well.

Elizabeth Alexander was born in 1962 in Harlem, New York, and grew up in Washington, D.C. She received a B.A. from Yale University, an M.A. from Boston University (where she studied with DerekWalcott) and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania.

Her collections of poetry include American Sublime ( Graywolf Press, 2005), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Antebellum Dream Book (2001); Body of Life (1996); and The Venus Hottentot (1990).

Alexander’s critical work appears in her essay collection, The Black Interior (Graywolf, 2004). She also edited The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks (Graywolf, 2005) and Love’s Instruments: Poems by Melvin Dixon (1995). Her poems, short stories, and critical writing have been widely published in such journals and periodicals as The Paris Review, American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, Callaloo, The Village Voice, The Women's Review of Books, and The Washington Post. Her work has been anthologized in over twenty collections, and in May of 1996, her verse play, Diva Studies, premiered at the Yale School of Drama.

About her work, Rita Dove has said that Alexander's "poems bristle with the irresistible quality of a world seen fresh," and Clarence Major has also noted her "instinct for turning her profound cultural vision into one that illuminates universal experience."

In 2007, Alexander was selected by Lucille Clifton, Stephen Dunn, and Jane Hirshfield to receive the Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers. She has also received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at the University of Chicago, and the George Kent Award, given by Gwendolyn Brooks.

She has taught at Haverford College, the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, and Smith College, where she was Grace Hazard Conkling Poet-in-Residence, the first director of the Poetry Center at Smith College, and a member of the founding editorial collective for the feminist journal Meridians. She has served as a faculty member for Cave Canem Poetry Workshops, and has traveled extensively within the U.S. and abroad, giving poetry readings and lecturing on African American literature and culture.

Alexander was a fellow at the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University, and currently, she is an Associate Professor in the school's African American Studies Department. ( from www.poets.org)

Listen to a fascinating interview of Elizabeth Alexander, and hear her read her own work on PBS/WGBH Basic Black at:
http://www.wgbh.org/article?item_id=3637988

And discover more about Ms. Alexander and her work at:

http://elizabethalexander.net/home.html

Write Congress on Behalf of Our Nation's Public Libraries!

New Federal Budget Proposal Increases Funding for Our Nation's Public Libraries;

Contact Your Representatives in Congress and Tell Them You Want This Funding!

In a budget where domestic discretionary spending was severely restricted and funding for 151 programs was cut or eliminated, the Library Services and Technology Act saw several key increases. Included in LSTA, the most important federal legislation affecting libraries, are the following totals: $171.5 million for state grants, an increase of $10.6 million over FY 2008; this funding increase ensures that smaller states will have the resources to serve their populations, a priority the Congress recognized in 2003; $12.715 million for the National Leadership Grants for Libraries, an increase of $556,000 over FY 2008; $26.5 million for the Recruitment of Librarians for the 21st Century, an increase of $3.16 million over FY 2008; $3.717 million for Native Americans Library Services, an increase of $143,000 over FY 2008; and $3.5 million for library policy, research, and statistics (included in the administration total), an increase of $1.54 million over FY 2008; this will help libraries identify the programs that most effectively serve users. “This budget is fantastic news for library users across the country,” said ALA President Loriene Roy. “LSTA is a vital funding source for American citizens, especially children. LSTA monies go toward helping people of all backgrounds achieve literacy, including those with disabilities. And Dr. Roy added, “Across the country, libraries use LSTA funding for a wide variety of access services, including workshops on career information, family literacy classes, homework help and mentoring programs, information on religions and other cultures, access to government information, and so much more.” Go to the Literacy/Library Advocacy page on NCBLA's website to find who your congressman and senators are, and how to contact them, at: http://www.thencbla.org/BPOSpages/activistbasics.html

Great Book Event in Boston-Open to the Public!

Writers and Readers On the Hill:
The 7th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards to be held at the Massachusetts State House on February 7, 2008

The Massachusetts Center for the Book and the State Library of Massachusetts are co-hosting the 7th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards on Thursday, February 7. The awards event will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Grand Staircase, and a reception will follow in the State Library reading room.

The awards are presented annually to books from the previous calendar year that were published by Massachusetts authors or that convey important Massachusetts themes. Twelve books, an award winner and two honors books, in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s/young adult literature become part of a year-long reading promotion initiative sponsored by the Center in collaboration with Massachusetts libraries.

This year’s award winners include some of the most important voices writing in the U.S. today. Former U.S. Poet Laureate and Cambridge resident, Louise Glück, is the award winner in poetry. She will be joined by renowned Amherst poet Martín Espada and Pulitzer prizewinning poet Franz Wright, both honors writers in poetry this year.

Nathaniel Philbrick, one of our most important contemporary historians and Nantucket resident will receive the nonfiction award this year. Claire Messud, Somerville resident and acclaimed novelist will receive the fiction award. The award in children’s/young adult literature goes to Alice Hoffman, a much applauded Cambridge writer.

Also joining the celebration will be Kim McLarin, Milton resident, novelist, and current host of WGBH’s Basic Black, and Mameve Medwed, Cambridge novelist, both of whom are honors writers in fiction this year.

The event is open to the public. Porter Square Books will handle book sales during the reception and book signing. For more information and to RSVP, contact the Massachusetts Center for the Book by email – massbook@simmons.edu – or phone – 617.521.2719.

Wimpy Kid Keeps Kids of All Ages in Stitches

Share with the young people in your life-

Greg Heffley, Author of Popular
Diary of a Whimpy Kid interviewed
on NPR's All Things Considered

Greg Heffley's pre-teen diary, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, is a big favorite —many kids find Heffley's books highly entertaining and love his humor. Teachers and parents can go to the NPR website and listen to the interview with their kids in class and at home!

Go to:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18591415

SCHOLASTIC/NCBLA EBAY AUDIOBOOK AND SIGNED BOOK AUCTION STARTS TONIGHT!

Scholastic Audiobook/NCBLA Book Basket Auction Benefits the NCBLA

Scholastic Audiobooks has donated 10 new audiobooks, including Gregory Maguire’s New York Times Best Seller What-the-Dickens! for an online auction to benefit The National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance (www.thencbla.org), a 501C3 not-for-profit that advocates and educates on behalf of literacy, literature, libraries and the arts. This audiobook collection includes The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick; Main Street #1 by Ann Martin; Stoneheart by Charlie Fletcher; and Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

In addition, the NCBLA Board has donated many personally autographed audiobooks and books to this collection including works by M.T. Anderson, Natalie Babbitt, Susan Cooper, Nikki Grimes, Patricia MacLachlan, Gregory Maguire, and Katherine Paterson. The retail value of this book basket exceeds $1,000. For a detailed list of books and audiobooks, go to: http://www.thencbla.org/ncblanews.html

The auction begins today, January 31, 2008, and runs until February 9. 2008. To find the online auction, on or after January 31 go to: www.ebay.com.

In the search window, top left, paste in the title of the auction:

Signed Wicked! +Unique Collection Autographed New Books

and click, Search.

If you like you can also select the category: Books.

Or go to: http://cgi.ebay.com/Signed-Wicked-Unique-Collection-Autographed-NEW-Books_W0QQitemZ110220394075QQihZ001QQcategoryZ279QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Teen Poetry Writing Workshop in New York!

POETRY WESTCHESTER!
Begins with Teen Writing Workshop
at Mount Pleasant Public Library

Monday, February 4, 4:30pm

Poetry Westchester! — a new Westchester-wide initiative offering free writing workshops, poetry readings and discussions — is funded by the Westchester Library System, NY. Poetry Westchester! begins with a Teen Poetry Writing Workshop led by poet Hettie Jones on Monday, February 4, at 4:30pm at Mount Pleasant Public Library. The workshop continues on February 11, 25, and March 3.

Hettie Jones will act as "poet in residence" in Mount Pleasant, where she'll lead workshops for adults and teens and give a talk on "The Beat Poets." Joining her in a distinguished roster will be award-winning poets Edward Hirsch, speaking about How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love With Poetry (the title of his best-selling book) and reading from his latest poetry collection Special Orders, and Tom Sleigh, the author of Space Walk, who has been hailed by Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney as a poet of "lyric absolution."

For a complete schedule of Poetry Westchester! programs in Irvington , Hastings , Katonah, Larchmont, Mount Pleasant, Pelham, Scarsdale and White Plains, visit www.poetshouse.org/librariespitbr.htm

Contact:

Mount Pleasant Public Library
350 Bedford Road
Pleasantville, NY 10570
(914) 769-0548 (ph)
(914) 769-6149 (fax)

Library Fundraiser in Westhampton, Massachusetts!

Mardi Gras Party & The Gypsy Wranglers Fundraiser-
You're Invited!
Saturday, February 2, 6:30-10:30 pm Westhampton Town Hall, in Westhampton Massachusetts.
Come celebrate the recent fund raising successes and accomplishments of Westhampton's Town Center Library Project. Delicious New Orleans finger foods, decadent desserts and live swing music featuring The Gypsy Wranglers. Suggested donation at the door, $10 adult; $20 family. 6:30-8: Food, mask making, socializing 8-10:30: Live music & dancing. All welcome. Family Friendly. Extravagant costumes encouraged. Sponsored by the Friends of the Westhampton Memorial Library.
For more info: 413-527-5903 or www.librarywesthampton.org

Great Blog!

For Teachers, Parents, Librarians,
and Children's Literature Aficionados:
Check Out Educating Alice!

Monica Edinger, a teacher and member of the 2008 Newbery Award Committee,
writes Educating Alice, an informative and entertaining blog for everyone
interested in books for young people. Put it on your blog hit list!
Check it out at: http://medinger.wordpress.com/

And while you are there take note of this special posting concerning the The Micki Nevett Literature Scholarship that honors an outstanding school librarian from New York who recently passed away.
Micki was one of those magical school librarian who change children's lives.
Go to:
http://medinger.wordpress.com/2008/01/25/the-micki-nevett-literature-scholarship/

Book Festival at Oxford

Meg Rosoff, David Almond
and Charlie Higson to Appear
at Sunday Times
Oxford Literary Festival

"For centuries, the magnificent university city of Oxford has fostered ideas, art, literature and fierce debate. This spring, at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, we invite readers to witness all these in the making – and to take part in their shaping. Between March 31 and April 6, Christ Church, Oxford’s most beautiful college, will throw open its doors to all who want to think, to laugh, to disagree and to discover." Sunday Times, UK

For more information go to:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3246371.ece

BOOK BASKET AUCTION FOR NCBLA!

Scholastic Audiobook/NCBLA Book Basket Auction Benefits the NCBLA

Scholastic Audiobooks has donated 10 new audiobooks, including Gregory Maguire’s New York Times Best Seller What-the-Dickens! for an online auction to benefit The National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance (www.thencbla.org), a 501C3 not-for-profit that advocates and educates on behalf of literacy, literature, libraries and the arts. This audiobook collection includes The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick; Main Street #1 by Ann Martin; Stoneheart by Charlie Fletcher; and Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

In addition, the NCBLA Board has donated many personally autographed audiobooks and books to this collection including works by M.T. Anderson, Natalie Babbitt, Susan Cooper, Nikki Grimes, Patricia MacLachlan, Gregory Maguire, and Katherine Paterson. The retail value of this book basket exceeds $1,000. For a detailed list of books and audiobooks, go to: http://www.thencbla.org/ncblanews.html

The auction will begin on January 31, 2008 and run until February 9. 2008. To find the online auction, on or after January 31 go to: www.ebay.com.

In the search window, top left, paste in the title of the auction:

Signed Wicked! +Unique Collection Autographed New Books

and click, Search.

If you like you can also select the category: Books.

MUST READ!

Gregory Maguire, NCBLA Board Member, 
Recommends This Provocative Essay by Ursuline Le Guin 
in Harper's February Issue!

Excerpt from
Staying Awake. Notes on the Alleged Decline of Reading 
by Ursula K. Le Guin

If people make time to read, it's because it's part of their jobs, or other media
aren't readily available, or they aren't much interested in them‹or because they enjoy
reading. Lamenting over percentage counts induces a moralizing tone: It is bad that we
don't read; we should read more; we must read more. Concentrating on the drowsy
fellow in Dallas, perhaps we forget our own people, the hedonists who read because
they want to. Were such people ever in the majority?

I like knowing that a hard-bitten Wyoming cowboy carried a copy of Ivanhoe in
his saddlebag for thirty years, and that the mill girls of New England had Browning
Societies. There are readers like that still. Our schools are no longer serving them
(or anybody else) well, on the whole; yet some kids come out of even the worst schools
clutching a book to their heart.

Of course books are now only one of the "entertainment media," but when it
comes to delivering actual pleasure, they're not a minor one. Look at the
competition. Governmental hostility was emasculating public radio while Congress
allowed a few corporations to buy out and debase private radio stations. Television has
steadily lowered its standards of what is entertaining until most programs are either
brain-numbing or actively nasty. Hollywood remakes remakes and tries to gross out,
with an occasional breakthrough that reminds us what a movie can be when undertaken
as art. And the Internet offers everything to everybody: but perhaps because of that
all-inclusiveness there is curiously little aesthetic satisfaction to be got from Web-surfing.
You can look at pictures or listen to music or read a poem or a book on your computer,
but these artifacts are made accessible by the Web, not created by it and not intrinsic to it.
Perhaps blogging is an effort to bring creativity to networking, and perhaps blogs will develop
aesthetic form, but they certainly haven't done it yet.

Besides, readers aren't viewers; they recognize their pleasure as different from that of
being entertained. Once you've pressed the on button, the TV goes on, and on, and on,
and all you have to do is sit and stare. But reading is active, an act of attention, of absorbed
alertness‹not all that different from hunting, in fact, or from gathering. In its silence, a book
is a challenge: it can't lull you with surging music or deafen you with screeching laugh tracks
or fire gunshots in your living room; you have to listen to it in your head. A book won't move
your eyes for you the way images on a screen do. It won't move your mind unless you give it
your mind, or your heart unless you put your heart in it. It won't do the work for you.

To read a story well is to follow it, to act it, to feel it, to become it everything short of
writing it, in fact. Reading is not "interactive" with a set of rules or options, as games are;
reading is actual collaboration with the writer's mind. No wonder not everybody is up to it. 

To access the full article online, go to: http://harpers.org/archive/2008/02/0081907
For a blog response by Scott Horton, got to: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/01/hbc-90002193

NEW BOOK AWARD SEEKS SUBMISSIONS!

NCBLA Board Member Nikki Grimes
shouts out for a new children's book award-
Horace Mann Upstanders Book Awards

Antioch University Los Angeles today announced the launch
of their first annual Horace Mann Upstanders Book Awards
for K-6 fiction. An 'upstander' is a person who recognizes injustice
and acts in a way to right the wrong. The award honors new
children's literature that best exemplifies the ideals of social
action and in turn encourages young readers to become agents
of change themselves."Being an Upstander is when an individual
or a group chooses to take a positive stand and act on behalf of 
themselves and others" added Dr. J.Cynthia McDermott, 
Chair of the Education program at Antioch University Los 
Angeles. "These awards honor literature that encourages 
readers to take that risk and stand up for something they 
believe in." 

The award committee will be comprised of Antioch University 
Los Angeles graduate students, faculty members, and local 
educational community leaders from the greater Los Angeles community. 
The panel will be looking for literature that is well developed, with 
sincere characters and a heartfelt story that promotes upstanding 
behavior and choices. Examples of literature works that would meet 
the criteria include: The Araboolies of Liberty Street by Sam Swope;
Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell; and The Good Griselle by Jane Yolen.

"The Horace Mann Upstanders Book Awards are all about encouraging 
children to become civically engaged and to become active members in 
our democratic society" said Dr. Neal King, President of Antioch University 
Los Angeles. "At AULA we are passionate about social change and we believe 
there is no better way to encourage this behavior than through literature."
The awards are sponsored by the Antioch University Los Angeles graduate 
education program, in partnership with the Better World JL Institute and
the South Bay Literacy Foundation. Books submitted for consideration must have 
been published in North American in 2007/2008 and be targeted towards K-6 grade 
readers. Submissions are being accepted through March 15, 2008 and the first 
annual Horace Mann Upstanders Book Award winner(s) will be announced in 
June, 2008.

For more information contact Joanna Gerber, Director of Communications &
Public Relations, at (310) 578-1080 ext. 119.

Great Read:

Baltimore Sun:
Hometown Author
Wins Newbery Medal


Read the delightful article and interview with Newbery Award winning author Laura Amy Schlitz in Baltimore Sun at:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/booksmags/bal-lifestyle-newberry-0114,0,1829647.story?coll=bal_sports_baseball_util

For more information concerning the American Library Association's Young People's book awards go to:
http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2008/january2008/announce08.htm

NCBLA ANNOUNCES FALL PUBLICATION!

Our White House:
Looking In, Looking Out


Publisher's Weekly great "Children's Bookshelf" newsletter unveils the cover of the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance's fall publication, Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out.

Our White House, which boasts a stunning cover illustration by NCBLA Board member David Macaulay and a moving introduction by Pulitzer Prize winning historian and NCBLA Honorary Board Member David McCullough, has been created by the NCBLA to promote both family literacy and historical literacy. In planning Our White House, the NCBLA kept the needs of busy families and busy classroom teachers in mind. It is our deepest hope that Our White House will not only make American history "come alive" but that it will provide a springboard for young people to read more about America's great heritage and culture together with their families and classmates!

To check out the Our White House:Looking In, Looking Out cover, and to find more new books about history, government, and elections go to PW"s Children's Bookshelf at:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/enewsletter/CA6519297/2788.html

Newbery and Caldecott Medal Announced!

The following is a list of all ALA Youth Media Awards for 2008:

John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature. “Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village,” written by Laura Amy Schlitz, is the 2008 Newbery Medal winner. The book is published by Candlewick.

Three Newbery Honor Books were named: “Elijah of Buxton,” by Christopher Paul Curtis, published by Scholastic; “The Wednesday Wars,” by Gary D. Schmidt, published by Clarion and “Feathers,” by Jacqueline Woodson, published by Putnam.

Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children. “The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” illustrated by Brian Selznick, is the 2008 Caldecott Medal winner. The book is published by Scholastic.

Four Caldecott Honor Books were named: “Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad,” illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Ellen Levine, and published by Scholastic; “First the Egg,” illustrated and written by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, and published by Roaring Brook/Neal Porter; “The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain,” illustrated and written by Peter Sís, and published by Farrar/Frances Foster; and “Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity,” illustrated and written by Mo Willems, and published by Hyperion.

Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults. “The White Darkness,” by Geraldine McCaughrean, is the 2008 Printz Award winner. The book is published by HarperTempest, an imprint of HarperCollins. Four Printz Honor Books were named: “Dreamquake: Book Two of the Dreamhunter Duet,” by Elizabeth Knox, published by Frances Foster Books, an imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux; “One Whole and Perfect Day,” by Judith Clarke, published by Front Street, an imprint of Boyds Mills Press, Inc.; “Repossessed,” by A. M. Jenkins, published by HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollins; and “Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath,” by Stephanie Hemphill, published by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children's Books.

Coretta Scott King Book Award recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults. “Elijah of Buxton,” written by Christopher Paul Curtis, is the King Author Book winner. The book is published by Scholastic. Two King Author Honor Books were selected: “November Blues,” by Sharon M. Draper, published by Atheneum Books for Young Adults and “Twelve Rounds to Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali,” written by Charles R. Smith Jr., illustrated by Bryan Collier, published by Candlewick Press.

“Let it Shine,” illustrated and written by Ashley Bryan, is the King Illustrator Book winner. The book is published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Two King Illustrator Honor Books were selected: “The Secret Olivia Told Me,” by N. Joy, illustrated by Nancy Devard, published by Just Us Books, and “Jazz On A Saturday Night,” by Leo and Diane Dillon, published by Scholastic Blue Sky Press.

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award; “Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything in It,” written by Sundee T. Frazier is the Steptoe winner. The book is published by Delacorte Press.

Schneider Family Book Award for books that embody the artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences. “Kami and the Yaks,” written by Andrea Stenn Stryer, illustrated by Bert Dodson and published by Bay Otter Press of Palo Alto, Calif. wins the award for young children (age 0 to 10).

“Reaching for Sun,” by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, published by Bloomsbury USA Children's Books, New York is the winner in the middle grades category (age 11-13).

“Hurt Go Happy,” written by Ginny Rorby, a Starscape Book, published by Tom Doherty Associates, is the winner in the teen category (age 13-18).

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for the most distinguished book for beginning readers. “There Is a Bird on Your Head!,” written and illustrated by Mo Willems is the 2008 Geisel Award winner. The book is published by Hyperion.

Four Geisel Honor Books were named: “First the Egg,” written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger and published by Roaring Brook/Neal Porter; “Hello, Bumblebee Bat,” written by Darrin Lunde, illustrated by Patricia J. Wynne and published by Charlesbridge; “Jazz Baby,” written by Lisa Wheeler, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie and published by Harcourt; and “Vulture View,” written by April Pulley Sayre, illustrated by Steve Jenkins and published by Holt.

Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults. Orson Scott Card is the recipient of the 2008 Margaret A. Edwards Award honoring his outstanding lifetime contribution to writing for teens for his novels “Ender's Game” and “Ender's Shadow.”

The Pura Belpré Award honoring Latino authors and illustrators whose work best portrays, affirms and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in children's books. Yuyi Morales, illustrator of “Los Gatos Black on Halloween,” written by Marisa Montes and published by Holt is the winner of the 2008 Pura Belpré Illustrator Award. Margarita Engle, author of “The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano,” illustrated by Sean Qualls and published by Holt, is the 2008 Pura Belpré Author Award recipient.

Two Honor Books for illustration: “My Name Is Gabito: The Life of Gabriel García Márquez/Me llamo gabito: La vida de Gabriel García Márquez,” illustrated by Raúl Colón, written by Monica Brown and published by Luna Rising and “My Colors, My World/Mis colores, mi mundo,” written and illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez and published by Children's Book Press.

Three Author Honor Books were named: “Frida: ¡Viva la vida! Long Live Life!” by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand and published by Marshall Cavendish; “Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale,” retold by Carmen Agra Deedy, illustrated by Michael Austin and published by Peachtree; and “Los Gatos Black on Halloween,” written by Marisa Montes, illustrated by Yuyi Morales and published by Holt.

Robert F. Sibert Medal for most distinguished informational book for children. “The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain,” written and illustrated by Peter Sís, is the 2008 Sibert Award winner. The book is published by Farrar/Frances Foster.

Two Sibert Honor Books were named: “Lightship,” written and illustrated by Brian Floca, published by Simon & Schuster/ Richard Jackson and “Nic Bishop Spiders,” written and illustrated by Nic Bishop, published by Scholastic/Scholastic Nonfiction.

Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in children's video. Producer Kevin Lafferty along with executive producer John Davis, and co-producers, Amy Palmer Robertson and Danielle Sterling, are the 2008 recipients of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Children's Video - for the production of “Jump In! Freestyle Edition.”

Mildred L. Batchelder Award for the most outstanding children's book translated from a foreign language and subsequently published in the United States.

VIZ Media is the winner of the 2008 Mildred L. Batchelder Award for “Brave Story.” Originally published in Japanese in 2003 as “Bureibu Sutori,” the book was written by Miyuki Miyabe and translated by Alexander O. Smith.

Two Batchelder Honor Books also were selected: “The Cat: Or, How I Lost Eternity,” published by Milkweed Editions, originally published in German as “Die Katze,” and “Nicholas and the Gang,” published by Phaidon Press, originally published in French as “Le petit Nicolas et les copains.”

The first-ever Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production is Live Oak Media for “Jazz.”

Five honor titles were named: “Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary 'Jacky' Faber, Ship's Boy,” produced by Listen & Live Audio; “Dooby Dooby Moo,” produced by Scholastic/Weston Woods; “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” produced by Listening Library; “Skulduggery Pleasant,” produced by HarperChildren's Audio; and “Treasure Island,” produced by Listening Library.

Alex Awards for the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences “American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China,” by Matthew Polly, published by Penguin/Gotham Books; “Bad Monkeys,” by Matt Ruff, published by HarperCollins; “Essex County Volume 1: Tales from the Farm,” by Jeff Lemire, published by Top Shelf Publications; “Genghis: Birth of an Empire,” by Conn Iggulden, published by Delacorte; “The God of Animals,” by Aryn Kyle, published by Scribner; “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier,” by Ishmael Beah, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Sarah Crichton Books; “Mister Pip,” by Lloyd Jones, published by Random/Dial Press; “The Name of the Wind,” by Patrick Rothfuss, published by DAW; “The Night Birds,” by Thomas Maltman, published by Soho; and “The Spellman Files,” by Lisa Lutz, published by Simon & Schuster.

May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture recognizing an individual of distinction in the field of children's literature, who then presents a lecture at a winning host site. Walter Dean Myers, widely acclaimed author of picture books, novels, poetry and non-fiction for children and young adults, will deliver the 2009 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture.

Recognized worldwide for the high quality they represent, ALA awards guide parents, educators, librarians and others in selecting the best materials for youth. Selected by judging committees of librarians and other children's literature experts, the awards encourage original and creative work. For more information on the ALA youth media awards and notables, please visit the ALA Web site at www.ala.org.

Blog Buzz

Reading Rockets!

Make sure you check out children literature expert, and NCBLA advisor Maria Salvadore's entertaining and informative blog on the Reading Rockets website!

Go to:
http://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/pagebypage

Professional Development Workshops

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art

Designed for classroom teachers, librarians, art teachers, and others interested in engaging students in the visual arts and the art of the book, the Museum’s professional development programs emphasize teaching through the arts to encourage critical and creative thinking.

Upcoming topics include:
Picture Book Texts: One Part of the Whole Book
A Space to Create
An Introduction to Visual Thinking Strategies
A Book in Hand: Leading Multiple Copy Storytimes with Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers
2008 Education in Pistoia, Italy

For more dates, directions, and more information go to:
http://www.picturebookart.org/Programs_Events/For_Professionals/#E350

Quotes of Note

Isaac Bashevis Singer
In his 1978 Nobel Prize address Isaac Bashevis Singer cited ten reasons why he writes for the young:

1. Children read books, not reviews. They don't give a hoot about the critics.

2. Children don't read to find their identity.

3. They don't read to free themselves of guilt, to quench their thirst for rebellion, or to get rid of alienation.

4. They have no use for psychology.

5. They detest sociology.

6. They don't try to understand Kafka or Finnegans Wake.

7. They still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other such obsolete stuff.

8. They love interesting stories, not commentary, guides or footnotes.

9. When a book is boring, they yawn openly, without any shame or fear of authority.

10. They don't expect their beloved writer to redeem humanity. Young as they are, they know that it is not in his power. Only adults have such childish illusions.

Agree? Disagree?

WE CAN NO LONGER TAKE SCHOOL LIBRARIES FOR GRANTED!!!

"We realized that the school libraries are hemorrhaging, and it was far worse than we ever imagined," said Layera Brunkan.

Parents' group tries to stop demise of the school librarian in Seattle.

Bill Richardson the only presidential candidate in either party who has consistently addressed education issues has now dropped out of the race. Those of us who care about our children, their education, and one of our greatest national treasures-- our free public and school libraries-- need to speak up. All presidential candidates need to know that education is as big a priority to us as national security or health care. What is happening in Seattle is happening all across the country, and in many areas schools, and school and public libraries, are in much worse shape than Seattle.

Take a moment and contact the presidential candidates, as well as your political party, and let them know that you want them to start talking about our children and their education, NOW!

Read more about Seattle libraries at:
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2007/12/25/parents_group_tries_to_stop_demise_of_the_school_librarian/

Contact Presidential candidates and national political parties:

Democratic Party website and contact info:
http://www.democrats.org/
http://www.democrats.org/contact.html

Republican Party website and contact info:
http://www.rnc.org/
http://www.gop.com/Connect/ContactUs.htm

Presidential Candidates websites and contact information:
Hilary Clinton:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/help/contact/

John Edwards
http://www.johnedwards.com/splash/
http://www.johnedwards.com/about/contact/form/

Rudy Giuliani
http://www.joinrudy2008.com/
http://www.joinrudy2008.com/contact/

Mike Huckabee
http://www.mikehuckabee.com/
http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=ContactUs.Home

John McCain
http://www.johnmccain.com/landing/?sid=gorganic
http://www.johnmccain.com/Contact/

Barack Obama
http://www.barackobama.com/
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/contact/

Mitt Romney
http://www.mittromney.com/
http://www.mittromney.com/ContactUs

Fred Thompson
http://www.fred08.com/
http://www.fred08.com/Contact/Contact.aspx

Upcoming Literary Event-New England

7th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards

Thursday, February 7 1:30p

at Massachusetts State House, Boston, MA

Celebrating Massachusetts writers Louise Gluck, Alice Hoffman, Claire Messud, Nathaniel Philbrick & others at annual awards event for Massachusetts books and writers.

For more information go to the Massachusetts Center for the Book website at: http://www.massbook.org/

In Case You Missed It!

"..I began to be aware that, of the two audiences, adult and young, it was the young people who were being profoundly affected by what they read. Time and again I received letters from kids telling me of ways in which they found themselves not just moved, but changed by a book."
Lois Lowry


Lois Lowry visited Yale University last November. Interview and article of interest in the Yale Daily News.
Interview: http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/22354
Article: http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/22328

ACTIVIST ALERT!

For Everyone Who Cares About
Young People,Literacy, and Libraries!

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Parents, Teachers, Librarians,
Community Leaders, Literacy and Library Activists!!!


We need your help to ensure the inclusion of the Strengthening Kids’ Interest in Learning and Libraries (SKILLs) Act in the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). This is the single most important piece of legislation concerning school libraries that will come before Congress this year. Reauthorization of this bill is critical to the future of school libraries.

Urgent Action Needed: This legislation is critical to the future of school library media specialists and the bill will be marked up by the week of September 24. Please contact your Representative immediately and ask him/her to co-sponsor the SKILLs Act.

When contacting your Representative prepare yourself to state why this issue is of critical importance:

The SKILLs Act

• Requires school districts, to the extent feasible, to ensure that every school within the district employs at least one highly qualified school library media specialist in each school library;
• Defines highly qualified school library media specialists as those who have a bachelor’s degree and have obtained full state certification as a school library media specialist or passed the state teacher licensing examination, with state certification in library media in such state;
• Establishes as a state goal that there be at least one highly qualified school library media specialist in every public school no later than the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year;
• Broadens the focus of training, professional development, and recruitment activities to include school library media specialists;
• Ensures that funds will serve elementary, middle, and high school students;
• Requires books and materials to be appropriate for and engage the interest of students in all grade levels and students with special learning needs, including English language learners.

Talking Points

• Multiple studies have affirmed that there is a clear link between school library media programs that are staffed by a school library media specialist and student academic achievement. Across the United States, research has shown that students in schools with good school libraries learn more, get better grades, and score higher on standardized test scores than their peers in schools without libraries.
• Academic Librarians: School libraries are KEY to ensuring college readiness.
• Public Librarians: School library media specialists give students the skills they need to utilize your library to its fullest extent.
• Long regarded as the cornerstone of the school community, school libraries are no longer just for books. Instead, they have become sophisticated 21st century learning environments offering a full range of print and electronic resources that provide equal learning opportunities to all students, regardless of the socio-economic or education levels of the community – but only when they are staffed by school library media specialists trained to collaborate with teachers and engage students meaningfully with information that matters to them both in the classroom and in the real world.
• Only about 60 percent of our school libraries have a full-time, state-certified school library media specialist on staff.
• With limited funding and an increased focus on school performance, administrators are trying to stretch dollars and cut funds across various programs to ensure that maximum resources are dedicated to improving student academic achievement.
• Because NCLB does not highlight the direct correlation between school library media specialists and increased student academic achievement, library resource budgets are increasingly being used to mitigate the effects of budgetary shortfalls.

On September 24, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor will be considering reauthorization of the NCLB. In order for the SKILLs Act to be included in NCLB – that is, to place a highly qualified school library media specialist in every school – each member of the House must co-sponsor the SKILLS Act.

There is little more than two weeks to accomplish this goal and the name of your Representative must appear on this bill. If your Representative’s name does not appear as a co-sponsor, please call his/her office immediately and request that he/she support the SKILLs Act. If your Representative’s name DOES appear on this bill, contact his/her office and thank him/her for the continued support of school libraries and school library media specialists.

Sponsors:

Raul Grijalva (AZ-7)
Vernon Ehlers (MI-3)

Co-Sponsors:

Bart Gordon (TN-6)
Tim Holden (PA-17)
Steve Cohen (TN-9)
James McGovern (MA-3)

---

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:
1. Fax or call your State Representative to tell him or her to support the SKILLS act.
2. To find out the name, fax, and email address of your congressional representatives, go to: http://www.capwiz.com/ala/directory/congdir.tt
3. Be sure to write or speak respectfully, be direct, state your support of the SKILLS act and the reasons why you support its enactment.

For more information go to:
http://www.capwiz.com/ala/issues/alert/?alertid=10223941
http://www.capwiz.com/ala/issues/alert/?alertid=10086066