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From therapy dogs to make your own book, from bilingual readings to book festivals.

All told, there will be over 5,000 events across the 1,300 participating schools, libraries and bookstores in all 50 states throughout the week of April 29 to May 5 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Children’s Book Week.

Many locations are having events every day of the week, from local author readings to make your own bookmark contests. Many will also be holding voting for the Children’s & Teen Choice Book Awards.

A look at a just a few of the types of events going on this week:

• Building favorite scenes or characters with LEGOs and STEM/STEAM activities based on different children’s books.
• Several locations will bring in Paws to Read therapy dogs and a library is having a “Write to a Writer” activity.
• One indie bookstore will have a local member of the fire department in to read picture books and another will host a local heroes’ story time in the park with police and fire fighters.
• Theater companies will perform in libraries, from the Dewey Decimal Players in Mt. Airy, NC to the Bridgeport, CT Downtown Cabaret.
• Some schools, libraries and stores are hosting Book Week poster art contests, creating book starters for kids to write and illustrate their own bound books to take home, or having a make your own comic contest.
• Several schools will host bilingual Spanish/English story times and a library in California will celebrate Children’s Book Week with songs and dance from South America.
• A Children’s Book Week Tic Tac Toe Game with donated children’s books as prizes.
• A Seattle museum has paired children’s books with works of art to spark discussion.

In addition, 100 authors and illustrators will holding events at stores and libraries during Book Week. Before these official Spotlight events, an announcement about Children’s Book Week’s anniversary will be read.

Major events of note:

• Children’s Book Week poster illustrators Emily Arnold McCully, Peter Sis, Rosemary Wells, David Wiesner, Uri Shulevitz, Paul O. Zelinsky, and Chris Raschka will join Leonard Marcus, author of 100 Years of Children’s Book Week Posters at Books of Wonder on Monday evening, April 29.
• The Library of Congress will livestream a special program on April 29 featuring local authors who are members of the Children’s Book Guild of DC reading from twenty special children’s books of historical significance from the Library’s collections.
• Eloise Greenfield and Jason Reynolds will be in conversation on April 30 at Takoma Park Library, organized with Politics & Prose, in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Coretta Scott King Awards.
• Cori Doerrfeld, the winner of this year’s Anna Dewdney Read Together Award, will receive a plaque and her winner’s check at a special event at the Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul on May 2.
• The Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore and the Maryland SPCA are co-hosting a special event May 4 with Lisa Papp and her Madeline Finn and the Shelter Dog. The SPCA will bring a shelter dog or two for a “meet and greet” with the children.
• The Curious Iguana, in conjunction with Screen Free Week, is hosting Meghan Cox Gurdon for her book, The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction.
• Two “Literary Landmark” ceremonies will take place during Book Week: On May 1 at the Harvin Clarendon County Library in Manning, SC for the Peggy Parish landmark dedication; and on May 4 at the Esther Crawford Public Library in Monticello, NY in honor of Vera B. Williams, with readings by Vera’s children. (This program is administered by United for Libraries in partnership with the CBC.)

Also, thanks to publisher generosity, these costume characters were sent out to Book Week locations: Baby Mouse, Bad Kitty, Bruce the Bear, Clifford, Elephant & Piggie, Geronimo Stilton, Gruffalo, Hedgie, Huckle Cat & Lowly Worm, Junie B Jones, Lady Bug Girl, Pete the Cat, Paddington, Peter Rabbit, Poky Little Puppy, Pout Pout Fish, Scuffy the Tugboat, Splat the Cat, Spot the Dog, and Thea Stilton.

In addition, the beautiful 100th anniversary poster by Yuyi Morales will be handed out at three festivals on May 4: the Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley, at the OMG Book Fest in St. Louis, and at the 75 book creator Hudson Children’s Book Festival in Hudson, NY– with CBC in attendance.

Many people and organizations are making the 100th anniversary of Children’s Book Week possible: hundreds of authors and illustrators, thousands of librarians, teaches, booksellers, and parents, marketing partners such as Book Con, Parents Magazine, KidLit TV, Screen Free Week, and Sesame Workshop.

Next week’s celebration is just one of the peaks of this year-long anniversary celebration! We’re rolling out the 12 panel poster all year long as well as 100 KidLit TV videos. And we’ll celebrate Children’s Book Week again in early November with a new event kit, activity pages in 15 languages, and 10 new Get Caught Reading posters.

Remember: #BookWeek100

Children’s Book Week resources
The Map!

In coordination with CBC member publishers, over 100 authors and illustrators holding events at stores and libraries from April 29 to May 4 will be featured as Spotlight events.

Before each library or bookstore event, an official announcement about Children’s Book Week will be read.

The 2019 Children’s Book Week Spotlight authors and illustrators are: S. K. Ali, Airlie Anderson, Graham Annable, Zeno Alexander, Hayley Barrett, Ross Baruch, Aaron Becker, John Benzee, Cate Berry, Natascha Biebow, Cate Berry, Bea Birdsong, Tracy Bishop, Jessica Brody, Lisa Brown, Lynn Brunelle, Jimmy Cajoleas, Rosani Choksi, Raul Colon, Ying Chang Compestine, Ricardo Cortes, Edwidge Danticat, Rana DiOrio, Cori Doerrfeld, Chris Van Dusen, Carolyne Dee Flores, Amanda Foody, David Gallaher, Dan Gemeinhart, Eloise Greenfield, Stuart Gibbs, Nikki Grimes, Meghan Cox Gurdon, Dan Gutman, Vashti Harrison, Perrin Hendrick, Christine Herman, Lisa Hall, Cory Ann Haydu, Gareth Hinds, Greg Howard, Amy Ignatow, Melissa Iwai, Susie Jaramillo, Ruth Harper Johnson, Michelle Ruíz Keil, Golzar Kheiltash, Aram Kim, Vincent X Kirsch, Jo Knowles, Steve Light, Tonya Lippert, Jennifer Love, Ann Malaspina, Leonard Marcus, Tim McCanna, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Nicole Melleby, Sharee Miller, Laurie Morrison, Marissa Moss, Lisa Papp, Linda Sue Park, Kate T. Parker, Alex Penfold, Nicki Pau Preto, Jason Reynolds, Isabel Roxas, Adam Rubin, Cecilia Ruiz, Doug Salati, Stephen Savage, Lisa Scott, T. R. Simon, Andrew Smith, Brady Smith, Mika Song, Amy Rebecca Tan, Tiffani Thiessen, e. E. Trujillo, Andrea Tsurumi, Dawn Ventola, Booki Vivat, Kiersten White, Fran Wilde, Judd Winick, Katie Tamasaki, Dan Vaccarino, Will Walton, Rowboat Watkins, Ashley Yazdani, Jane Yolen, Suzanne Young, and Ginger Zee.

The Red Balloon Bookstore to Host Reading and Award Event May 2

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, NY – April 23, 2019 – Penguin Young Readers, the Children’s Book Council, and Every Child a Reader are proud to announce that The Rabbit Listened, written and illustrated by Cori Doerrfeld (Dial Books), is the winner of the third annual Anna Dewdney Read Together Award.

This award is given annually to a picture book that is both a superb read-aloud and also sparks compassion, empathy, and connection. The award commemorates the life and work of author/illustrator Anna Dewdney, and celebrates her commitment to reading with young children and putting books into as many little hands as possible.

Along with The Rabbit Listened, Cori Doerrfeld has illustrated popular books such as Little Bunny Foo Foo and The True Adventures of Esther the Wonder Pig. Her next book from Dial will be Goodbye, Friend! Hello, Friend! which releases July 2, 2019. She lives with her family in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

A reading by Cori and an award presentation will take place at the Red Balloon Bookstore in St. Paul, Minnesota on May 2 at 10:30 AM. This event is one of many children’s literature events taking place across the U.S. from April 29 to May 5 at 1,300 schools, libraries and bookstores as part of the 100th anniversary of Children’s Book Week.

The Honor Books for 2019 are: Drawn Together, by Minh Lê; illus. by Dan Santat (Disney Hyperion); Dreamers, by Yuyi Morales (Holiday House); I Am Enough, by Grace Byers; illus. by Keturah A. Bobo (Balzer & Bray/Harper); Julian is a Mermaid, by Jessica Love (Candlewick); and Thank You, Omu!, by Oga Mora (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers).

Doerrfeld will be awarded a prize of $1,000 from the Children’s Book Council and Penguin will purchase and donate 250 copies of The Rabbit Listened to a school, library, or literacy organization of her choice.

The winner and honor books were chosen by voting over the last two months by librarians, teachers, and booksellers across America.

About Anna Dewdney
Anna Dewdney was the New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of Llama Llama Red Pajama. Other award-winning books in the Llama Llama series include Llama Lama and the Bully Goat, Llama Lama Time to Share, Llama Llama Misses Mama, Llama Llama Holiday Drama, and Llama Llama Mad at Mama. Llama Llama Loves to Read will release in May 2018. She was also the author/illustrator of Little Excavator, Nobunny’s Perfect, Roly Poly Pangolin, and Grumpy Gloria. Anna worked as a rural mail carrier and taught at a boys’ boarding school for many years before becoming a full-time author and illustrator. Anna was a committed advocate of literacy, speaking regularly on this topic and publishing articles in the Wall Street Journal and other national outlets.

About Penguin Young Readers
Penguin Young Readers is one of the leading children’s book publishers in the United States. The company owns a wide range of imprints and trademarks including Dial Books, Dutton, Grosset & Dunlap, Kathy Dawson Books, Nancy Paulsen Books, Penguin Workshop, Philomel, Puffin, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Viking, Razorbill, Speak, and Frederick Warne. These imprints are home to such award-winning, New York Times- bestselling authors as, Laurie Halse Anderson, Judy Blume, Jan Brett, Eric Carle, Ally Condie, Roald Dahl, Tomie dePaola, Sarah Dessen, Anna Dewdney, John Flanagan, John Green, Oliver Jeffers, Marie Lu, Mike Lupica, Richelle Mead, Richard Peck, Ruta Sepetys, Jacqueline Woodson and dozens of other popular authors. Penguin Young Readers Group is also the proud publisher of perennial brand franchises such as the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series, Peter Rabbit, Spot, the Classic Winnie the Pooh, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Madeline, Mad Libs, the Rangers Apprentice, Skippyjon Jones, Who Was?, and Flower Fairies among many others. Penguin Young Readers Group is a division of Penguin Group LLC, a Penguin Random House company.

About Every Child a Reader
Every Child a Reader is a 501(c)(3) literacy charity dedicated to inspiring a lifelong love of reading in children and teens across America. Every Child a Reader’s major national programs include: Children’s Book Week, celebrating 100 years this year; the Children’s & Teen Choice Book Awards; Get Caught Reading; and the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature program, in partnership with the Library of Congress.

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Penguin Contact:
Marisa Russell, Director of Publicity 212-414-3467 mrussell@penguinrandomhouse.com
Tessa Meischeid, Senior Publicist, Penguin Young Readers Group, 212-414-3561  tmeischeid@penguinrandomhouse.com

CBC/Every Child a Reader Contact:
Shifa Kapadwala, Publicity Manager shifa.kapadwala@cbcbooks.org

In Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Children’s Book Week

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York, NY – April 16, 2019 – KidLit TV, an award winning producer of resources for parents, teachers and librarians, with the support of the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader, released the first of 100 book creator videos today. The first two CREATOR CORNER videos – by Karyn Parsons and Steve Light – went online today at KidLit TV with more videos to be released each week throughout 2019. Audiences can keep track of new video releases on social media by following #BookWeek100.

A part of the yearlong celebration of the 100th anniversary of Children’s Book Week, the 100 CREATOR CORNER videos featuring three-to-five minute videos of well-known and popular children’s book authors and illustrators speaking about their favorite character creations, will be available at KidLit TV for years to come for classroom, library and home viewing.

The 100 CREATOR CORNER videos feature, in alphabetical order: Maya Abu-Alhayyat, David Adler, Mary Amato, Hayley Barrett, Tracey Baptiste, Kamilla Benko, Jessica Boehman, Max Brallier, Kathy Brodsky, Nick Bruel, Jen Calonita, Selene Castrovilla, Tami Charles, Eva Chen, Sayantani DasGupta, Catherine Doyle, Ame Dyckman, Shira Erlichman, Elizabeth Eulberg, Molly Felder, K. Heidi Fishman, Sarah Wassner Flynn, Krystyna Poray Goddu, Jacob Grant, Lisa Greenwald, Adele Griffin, Dan Gutman, Daniel Haack, Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan, Raj Halder, Tracey Hecht, Will Hillenbrand, Lynda Mullaly Hunt, Jessie Janowitz, Emily Jenkins, Michelle Knudsen, Jackie Azúa Kramer, Susan Kuklin, Rajani LaRocca, Emmy Laybourne, Dana Alison Levy, Steve Light, Mariana Llanos, Mariah MacCarthy, Carolyn Mackler, Paul Meisel, Nicole Melleby, Yuyi Morales, Kass Morgan, Richard Morris, Roxie Munro, Donna jo Napoli, Yevgenia Nayberg, Robin Newman, Tom O’Donnell, Lin Oliver, Emma Otheguy, Karyn Parsons, Audrey Penn, Jerry Pinkney, Ally Condie and Brendan Reichs, Jessica Rinker, Julia Fogliano and Christian Robinson, Cecilia Ruiz, Julia Sarcone-Roach, Stephen Savage, Laura Vaccaro Seeger, David Shannon, Mark Siegel, Anita Silvey, Meera Sriram, Phil Stamper, Vesper Stamper, David Ezra Stein, Todd Strasser, Samantha Thornhill, Iza Trapani, Trudi Trueitt, Eric Velasquez, Shirley Vernick, Booki Vivat, Sean Vogel, Cynthia Weill, Carol Weston, Anna Kang and Christopher Weyant, Barry Wittenstein, Mike Wohnoutka, Kenneth and Sarah Jane Wright, Jane Breskin Zalben, Paul 0. Zelinsky, and Katie Zhao, with several additional names to be announced this summer.

Julie Gribble, KitLit TV Founder, said: “Our production team is proud to help create these historic snapshots of the stories behind the characters we love! We learned and laughed a lot with our kid lit friends during the filming. We’re certain kids will have fun learning and laughing along with them, too.”

Shaina Birkhead, Associate Executive Director for Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader, added: “This has been a major undertaking, but with the professionalism of Julie and her team and the generous spirit of these awesome book creators, we have a celebration of children’s books for this year and a legacy of enjoyment for years to come.”

About KidLit TV
KidLit TV is a winner of the Parents’ Choice Gold Award, the Norton Juster Award for Devotion to Literacy, and one of the American Library Association’s Great Websites For Kids. We’re a trusted resource for parents, teachers, and librarians! KLTV is available in over 600,000 schools worldwide via our website and video distribution partners. We’re a diverse group of parents, educators, librarians, kid lit creators, and award-winning filmmakers working together to create fun new ways to reinforce an appreciation of reading that children will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

About Every Child a Reader & the Children’s Book Council

Every Child a Reader is a 501(c)(3) literacy charity dedicated to inspiring a lifelong love of reading in children and teens. Every Child a Reader’s national programs include Children’s Book Week (celebrating its 100th anniversary this year), Get Caught Reading, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature program (in conjunction with the Library of Congress), and the Children’s & Teen Choice Book Awards. Every Child a Reader is managed by the Children’s Book Council, the nonprofit trade association for children’s book publishers in North America, partnering with national organizations on reading lists, educational programming, and diversity initiatives.

Media Contact:
Shifa Kapadwala, Publicity Manager, CBC/Every Child a Reader, Shifa.Kapadwala@cbcbooks.org, 212-966-1990
https://www.facebook.com/EveryChildAReader/ https://twitter.com/EveryChildRead

In Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Children’s Book Week and Beyond

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York, NY – March 25, 2019 – KidLit TV, an award winning producer of resources for parents, teachers and librarians, announces a partnership with the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader to produce 100 book creator videos for teachers, parents, librarians, and educators across the country to share with their students. This campaign commemorates the 100th anniversary of Children’s Book Week, and the three-to-five minute long videos feature well-known and popular children’s book authors and illustrators speaking about their favorite character creations.

The videos will be housed at KidLitTV.com and feature an opening celebratory image of the 100th anniversary of Children’s Book Week, and will run throughout 2019. Starting in 2020, the videos will remain up for classroom, library and home use.

Julie Gribble, KitLit TV Founder, said: “Our production team is proud to help create these historic snapshots of the stories behind the characters we love! We learned and laughed a lot with our kid lit friends during the filming. We’re certain kids will have fun learning and laughing along with them, too.”

Shaina Birkhead, Associate Executive Director for Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader, added: “This has been a major undertaking, but with the professionalism of Julie and her team and the generous spirit of these awesome book creators, we have a celebration of children’s books for this year and a legacy of enjoyment for years to come.”

About KidLit TV
KidLit TV is a winner of the Parents’ Choice Gold Award, the Norton Juster Award for Devotion to Literacy, and one of the American Library Association’s Great Websites For Kids. We’re a trusted resource for parents, teachers, and librarians! KLTV is available in over 600,000 schools worldwide via our website and video distribution partners. We’re a diverse group of parents, educators, librarians, kid lit creators, and award-winning filmmakers working together to create fun new ways to reinforce an appreciation of reading that children will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

About Every Child a Reader & the Children’s Book Council

Every Child a Reader is a 501(c)(3) literacy charity dedicated to inspiring a lifelong love of reading in children and teens. Every Child a Reader’s national programs include Children’s Book Week (celebrating its 100th anniversary this year), Get Caught Reading, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature program (in conjunction with the Library of Congress), and the Children’s & Teen Choice Book Awards. Every Child a Reader is managed by the Children’s Book Council, the nonprofit trade association for children’s book publishers in North America, partnering with national organizations on reading lists, educational programming, and diversity initiatives.

Media Contact:
Shifa Kapadwala, Publicity Manager, CBC/Every Child a Reader, Shifa.Kapadwala@cbcbooks.org, 212-966-1990
https://www.facebook.com/EveryChildAReader/
https://twitter.com/EveryChildRead

In the brand new book, 100 Years of Children’s Book Week Posters (Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, on sale now), renowned historian Leonard S. Marcus offers a visual history tour of a century of beloved illustrators and the stunning posters they created for the annual celebration of Children’s Book Week.

In honor of the books release, Leonard S. Marcus gives you the inside scoop on his favorite posters, exciting details he was able to add to this new edition, and more!

How did you get involved with creating the original book, 75 Years of Children’s Book Week Posters?

By 1994, I had written quite a lot about the history of American children’s books. My biography of Margaret Wise Brown had been published two years earlier, I had done several articles for PW and the Horn Book and was deep into Ursula Nordstrom’s 100,000-letter editorial archive in search of the representative cross-selection of letters that became Dear Genius. Along the way, I interviewed many of the great artists and writers in the field, including Garth Williams, Leonard Weisgard, Maurice Sendak, William Steig, and James Marshall, all of whom had designed Book Week posters. So, knowing my background, Paula Quint, who was then the CBC’s executive director, called me one day and asked if I would like to write a book about the posters. It sounded like a good project, and it was, though it took much longer than I expected.

Why was that?

One reason it took so long is that in Book Week’s early years, the posters were not always designed by book illustrators, whose careers tend to be well documented. Several were done by advertising artists, who were more apt to see themselves as hired guns and were typically far less concerned about leaving a paper trail. I soon realized that I was in for some real detective work. When I could find nothing at the library about Jay Maurice Reibel (1936), for instance, I followed a hunch and looked for his name in the Manhattan White Pages. I thought it unlikely that he was still alive, but doing this gave me the phone number of a young man who turned out to be Reibel’s nephew. Thanks to him, I then made contact with the late artist’s brother, with whom I spent an afternoon at a New Jersey retirement home gathering the information I needed.

In updating the book for the 100th anniversary, what are some interesting new facts that you discovered/decided to share?

The World Wide Web barely existed in 1994, and I was still doing all my research the old-fashioned way. The extraordinary resources now available online for genealogical research and biographical work generally made it possible this time round to fill in nearly every missing birth and death year and to bring to light some fascinating information about some artists’ lives. Jon O. Brubaker (1925, 1926) created one of the most graphically splendid posters in the series–and was also one of the hardest artists to pin down. I had previously discovered that he’d built his reputation as a billboard painter, which must have seemed an exciting new form of mass communication in the days when Americans were first taking to the road in cars. In the new edition I was able to add that Brubaker also had a passion for rail travel that expressed itself in the ads he designed for the New York Central Railroad and for the Lionel Corporation, for generations the makers of the absolutely coolest electric model trains. I still wonder why an artist with a talent as special as Brubaker’s did not have a much bigger, more public career. One newly discovered source hinted at the possibility of his having lost all his money in the 1929 stock market crash. Perhaps there is a sad story there. The vagaries of the freelance life!

In the note about Eric Carle, I added a mention of the museum Carle founded in 2002 in Amherst, MA. This won’t necessarily be news to readers, and it certainly wasn’t news to me considering that I have been an Eric Carle Museum trustee from the very beginning. But it’s worth a call-out here because in 1994, when Book Week turned 75, a full-dress art museum devoted to children’s book illustration would have seemed a wild improbability. The fact that such a museum is now a going concern is as strong an indicator as any of the extent of the children’s-book industry’s coming of age over these past 25 years.

What are some of your favorite Children’s Book Week posters?

The 1925 Brubaker poster I mentioned before is my absolute favorite. I have also always loved William Steig’s (1972), especially his extravagant suggestion that an elephant’s back might be a good place to curl up with a book. Emily Arnold McCully’s “Book Power” poster (1969) sums up a whole era of youth protest and activism while somehow remaining a playful image that has not dated. It’s hard not to crack a smile at the outrageousness of Tomi Ungerer’s two-kids-in-a-catapult poster (1967), which Ungerer re-purposed for Book Week after Pepsi-Cola rejected it for use in its advertising. Of the recent posters, my favorite is Christian Robinson’s (2017), because it says what it set out to say with such clarity and in such a spirit of celebration.

Are there any historical moments that made a big and noticeable impact on the Book Week posters of that time?

Yes, the posters reflect many of the key moments and developments in American history over the last century, just as the children’s books of the same period do. Jessie Willcox Smith’s two inaugural posters (1919-1923 and 1924) herald the rise of an American middle-class that embraced the goal of fostering a love of reading in its children. Ralph Bell Fuller’s (1939) modernist graphic of the earth encircled by a ring of books points to America’s growing awareness of its inescapable role on the world stage. You can sense the hopeful post-war impulse that culminated in the founding of the United Nations in the posters for 1944 and 1945 by Nedda Walker and Gertrude Howe respectively, both of which bear the slogan “United Through Books.” You can witness the arrival on the American scene of the exciting new post-war international graphic design sensibility in the posters of Paul Rand (1958) and Bruno Munari (1964) among others. Created at the height of the civil rights movement, Ezra Jack Keats’s poster (1965) reflects the American book world’s belated recognition of the importance of diversity in children’s books. Recent posters like those by Christian Robinson (2017) and Brian Selznick (2013) show that that truism continues to bear restating.

How would you say that Children’s Book Week has affected children’s publishing?

It has provided a catalyst for book-based community activities on a national scale. The original goal of Book Week was to get parents directly involved by encouraging them to read to their children, set up home libraries so that books would become a natural presence in their children’s lives, and to participate in local grass-roots celebrations of books and reading. Later, the main focus of Book Week shifted to providing teachers, librarians, and booksellers with coordinated opportunities to highlight their love of books within their communities.

For those excited to learn more about the history of Children’s Literature, can you recommend some good books to read?

I would invite readers to visit my website (www.leonardmarcus.com). Of the more than 25 books I have published so far, a good one to start with (besides 100 Years of Children’s Book Week Posters!) might be Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom, which chronicles Nordstrom’s visionary career as the publisher of Goodnight Moon, Charlotte’s Web, Where the Wild Things Are, and other classics through her correspondence with her authors and artists. Nordstrom was always wise about books and the creative alchemy behind them, and–the daughter of two vaudevillians–she was often hilarious, too.

Of the books about children’s books that have meant the most to me, I would put Barbara Bader’s American Picturebooks from Noah’s Ark to the Beast Within at the top of my list. It’s a history of the art form through the mid-1970s, when this encyclopedic chronicle was published, written with verve and understanding. I also still go back to Selma G. Lanes’ Down the Rabbit Hole, a collection of smart, peppery essays that first appeared in the Washington Post and New York Times. Maurice Sendak’s essays in Caldecott & Company never fail to be revelatory either as writing or commentary. I have also learned a great deal from Vivian G. Paley’s The Girl with the Brown Crayon, a kindergarten teacher’s account of a year spent sharing Leo Lionni’s picture books with her class in all sorts of open-ended and deeply nourishing ways.

What else are you up to?

Several projects have come to fruition, and between February and May I will have had three new books published and two exhibitions on view that I have curated. Besides our Book Week book, I have written the art book and biography, Helen Oxenbury: A Life in Illustration; and the University of Minnesota Press will publish The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter, a fully illustrated catalog based on my exhibition of the same name. Some readers will recall having seen that show at the New York Public Library in 2013-14. I’m thrilled to say that “The ABC of It” has been given a new life at the University of Minnesota’s Andersen Library, and that when its run ends there in May it will go out on an international tour. My second exhibition this spring is at the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, MA. It is called “OUT OF THE BOX: The Graphic Novel Comes of Age” and is that museum’s first exploration of the world of comics. I have long thought that if I had to choose a personal motto, it would be: “Everything happens at the same time”–and I guess this solar convergence of new work proves the truth of those words.

Learn more about Leonard S. Marcus at leonardmarcus.com

12th Annual Awards are the Only National Book Awards Voted on Only by Children and Teens

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, NY – Thursday, February 21 – Every Child a Reader, a nonprofit literacy organization dedicated to inspiring a love of reading in children and teens across America, is proud to announce the finalists in four categories for the 12th Annual Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards. Launched in 2008 by Every Child a Reader and the Children’s Book Council, the awards provide young readers with an opportunity to “Voice Your Choice” about new books that they loved.

Voting for the awards will begin online at a COPA-compliant website on March 1 and finish June 2 at BookCon in New York City; the winning authors and illustrators will be announced this summer. Teachers, librarians, and booksellers can also collect group or classroom votes to enter online. Starting March 1, the online “voting booth” will feature jacket art and descriptions; a list of the finalists is available online now. Also available are paper ballots and visual materials to help display the finalists.

There are five finalists in each of the three Children’s Choice Book Awards categories: K – 2^nd grade, 3^rd – 4^th grades, and 5^th– 6^th grades, and five finalists in the Teen Choice Book Award category. The three categories of children’s award finalists were chosen in pre-voting by children from different regions of the U.S. with supervision by the International Literacy Association. The teen category finalists were nominated at TeenReads.com.

The 20 finalists for the 2019 Children’s & Teen Choice Book Awards are rich in relevance, plotline and prose. Subject matter for the finalists includes non-fiction books about social justice, a pizza-loving dinosaur, a National Book Award winner, and a boy who wants to be a mermaid.

Shaina Birkhead, Associate Executive Director for Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader, stated: “It’s wonderful that these are the only national book awards chosen only by kids and teens! They know the books they love and we are proud to work with so many teachers, librarians, and booksellers to help have the books read and gather the votes.”

About Every Child a Reader & the Children’s Book Council
Every Child a Reader is a 501(c)(3) literacy charity dedicated to inspiring a lifelong love of reading in children and teens. Every Child a Reader’s national programs include Children’s Book Week (celebrating its 100^th anniversary this year), Get Caught Reading, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature program (in conjunction with the Library of Congress), and the Children’s & Teen Choice Book Awards. Every Child a Reader is managed by the Children’s Book Council, the nonprofit trade association for children’s book publishers in North America, partnering with national organizations on reading lists, educational programming, and diversity initiatives.

Media Contact:

Shifa Kapadwala, Publicity Manager, CBC/Every Child a Reader, Shifa.Kapadwala@cbcbooks.org, 212-966-1990

https://www.facebook.com/EveryChildAReader/

https://twitter.com/EveryChildRead

The 100th anniversary official Children’s Book Week poster was revealed yesterday. See the full PW Children’s Bookshelf article here for more details about our year-long celebrations.

More details about the amazing poster by artist Yuyi Morales can be found here.

About Yuyi Morales

Born in Xalapa, Mexico, where she currently resides, Yuyi Morales lived for many years in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she still maintains close relations with booksellers and librarians. Professional storyteller, dancer, choreographer, puppeteer, and artist, she has won the prestigious Pura Belpré Award for Illustration six times, for Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book (2003), Los Gatos Black on Halloween (2006), Just in Case: A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book (2008), Niño Wrestles the World (2013), Viva Frida (2014)–also a Caldecott Honor Book–and Dreamers (2019). In Dreamers, Yuyi tells her own immigration story, which is also available in Spanish as Soñadores.

Announces Ayesha Curry as the Centennial Spokesperson and Reveals 100th Anniversary Poster

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, NY – February 12, 2019 – Launched in 1919, Children’s Book Week, a national celebration of books for young people and the joy of reading, proudly announces its centennial celebration. The longest-running literacy initiative in the United States, organized by Every Child a Reader, is kicking-off the celebration with Ayesha Curry, a New York Times bestselling author, television host, and mother of three, as its spokesperson and chair.

Also revealed for the first time is the official 100th anniversary poster, illustrated by Yuyi Morales. Over 125,000 posters will be distributed during Children’s Book Week between April 29 and May 5 at over 1,000 participating schools, libraries, and bookstores in all 50 states. The 100th anniversary theme – “Read Now. Read Forever.” – looks to the past, present, and future of the fun and enriching experience that is children’s and young adult books. The poster art and downloadable resources are now up at Every Child a Reader.

Additionally, Parents, the preeminent magazine for moms and dads, will be a media partner for the centennial celebration. Marketing partners include BookCon, First Book, Sesame Street, Screen Free Week, and other national organizations.

“I’m proud to serve as the spokesperson and chair for the 100th year of Children’s Book Week. My family is at the heart of everything I do and one of the things that we all share is a love of reading,” Ayesha said. “I remember reading and being read to as a child and that experience has shaped my life. As a parent, I love watching my children get excited about reading. With a book in their hands, they can travel to make-believe lands or read about people who make a difference.” Ayesha is the bestselling author of The Seasoned Life Entrepreneur, host of Ayesha’s Home Kitchen on Food Network, and wife of NBA superstar Stephen Curry. Her list of must-read children’s books is posted now at Every Child a Reader.

 

Key components of the yearlong 100th anniversary celebration will include author videos for the classroom, book award voting, a commemorative book publication, and a museum exhibit:

>> KidLit TV is sponsoring and producing 100 videos of authors and illustrators talking about their favorite characters. These three-to-five minute spots will be posted online at KidLit.tv beginning in late March and be available throughout 2019 and beyond.

>> Voting will take place for the 12^th annual Children’s & Teen Choice Book Awards, the only national book awards chosen solely by young readers. Kids and teens can “Voice Their Choice” online from March 1 through June 2. Teachers can also submit group ballots for an entire class online and print out “I Voted” stickers.

>> Random House is publishing 100 Years of Children’s Book Week Posters, edited by Leonard Marcus, on March 5, featuring work from early luminaries such as N. C. Wyeth and Marcia Brown to contemporary illustrators such as David Wiesner, Mary GrandPré, Christian Robinson, and Jillian Tamaki.

>> Nineteen acclaimed illustrators are producing collaborative yearlong anniversary poster panels, to be released a month at a time, and six original bookmarks. Also available online at Every Child a Reader’s website will be event kits, activity pages in a dozen languages, a poetry bookmark, and much more. Locations and details for over 2,500 events being held during Children’s Book Week (April 29 – May 5) will be listed on an online map at EveryChildaReader.net in early April.

>> The Rabbit Hole, the world’s first “Explor-a-Storium,” will feature a three-dimensional portal through which kids and teens can experience the history of Children’s Book Week and classic children’s books. This Kansas City museum is due to open this fall.

Shaina Birkhead, Associate Executive Director of Every Child a Reader & the Children’s Book Council, stated: “We’ve been planning for the 100th anniversary for quite some time, and to see every segment of the children’s book world come together so enthusiastically is very rewarding, and mostly because kids of all ages will have lots of many fun materials and original visual resources to enjoy before, during, and long after this year’s Children’s Book Week!”

About Every Child a Reader & the Children’s Book Council
Every Child a Reader is a 501(c)(3) literacy charity dedicated to inspiring a lifelong love of reading in children and teens. Every Child a Reader’s national programs include Children’s Book Week, the Children’s & Teen Choice Book Awards, Get Caught Reading, and the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature program (in conjunction with the Library of Congress). Every Child a Reader is managed by the Children’s Book Council, the nonprofit trade association for children’s book publishers in North America, partnering with national organizations on reading lists, educational programming, and diversity initiatives.

 

Media Contacts:
Audra Boltion, The Boltion Group Public Relations, 646-331-9904, Audra@thebgpr.com

Shifa Kapadwala, Publicity Manager, CBC/Every Child a Reader, Shifa.Kapadwala@cbcbooks.org

Jacqueline Woodson’s first year as Ambassador has come to a close, and what a year it was! The announcement of her appointment and following inauguration were met with fanfare from publishers, readers, and the national media. Since then, she has traveled across the country sharing her inspiring platform, Reading = HOPE × CHANGE with kids and adults through multiple in person events, participation in NCTE’s National Day on Writing, a huge webinar with First Book’s network of classrooms, and more. Plans are already underway for her 2019 events, including something big for the 100^th anniversary of Children’s Book Week.

“My first year as National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature has been many things. It’s been eye opening and rewarding. It’s been phenomenal and heartbreaking. It’s been exhilarating and exhausting! What I’ve learned from traveling the country is that writers MUST continue getting out into the world and sharing themselves and their work with the young people. My fellow writers of young people’s literature are ALL ambassadors. Each time one of us walks into a room, we change something — a young person’s dream becomes that much more of a reality. A young person’s question get answered by a live writer. A young person’s perceptions of what a writer ’should look like’ gets re-examined. A young person’s creative brilliance gets re-affirmed. I’ve realized that the work we’re doing is more important and necessary than we’ll ever truly know but that we MUST keep doing it because, to the young people, our literature (and our presence) is helping them shape their own future narratives. I think I kinda knew that before going into this. But man, do I REALLY know it now!” – Jacqueline Woodson

Right before the start of the 2018/2019 school year, we released a wonderful Reading = HOPE × CHANGE activity kit. This kit gives kids everywhere a chance to connect with Jacqueline’s message and figure out what their reading equation is. We are thrilled to announce an exciting new addition to the event kit for 2019, created by our 5^th National Ambassador, the incomparable Gene Luen Yang. This illustrated Jacqueline can be printed and used as a bookmark or a standee for your desk. Download the activity kit today!

See Jacqueline Woodson’s full schedule of Ambassador events for 2018 here.