The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is asking for our help in creating reading lists for elementary, middle and high schools students. The Summertime Nonfiction reading list will reflect Common Core standards while encouraging students to read science, history and biographies for their own enjoyment. The public is asked to suggest books and a final selection will be made by a panel of experts.
Don’t complain about what isn’t on the list if you don’t take the opportunity to suggest titles now! Be prepared to state what lasting value you believe the book has and provide a brief summary.
I don’t see a closing date on the announcement, so please submit your titles sooner rather than later.
International Book Giving Day is a volunteer initiative aimed at getting books in the hands of as many children as possible on February 14, 2013.
International Book Giving Day’s focus is on encouraging people worldwide to engage in simple acts of giving. We will invite individuals to: 1) give a book to a friend or family member, 2) leave a book in a waiting room for children to read, or 3) donate a book to a local hospital, shelter or library or to an organization that distributes used books to children internationally.
In addition, we will encourage people to support the work of nonprofit organizations (i.e. charities) that work year round to give books to children, such as Room to Read, Books for Africa, Book Aid International, The Book Bus, Indigenous Literacy Foundation and Pratham Books.
I’ve written quite a bit about attending the ALAN conference, but never about ALAN.
ALAN is the Assembly on Literacy for Adolescents.
The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents is an independent assembly of NCTE. Founded in November 1973, ALAN is made up of teachers, authors, librarians, publishers, teacher-educators and their students, and others who are particularly interested in the area of young adult literature.
ALAN offers a wealth of opportunities to anyone interested in young adult literature. Our memberships is made up of teachers, librarians, professors, authors, publishers, agents, and anyone else who loves YA! On the sidebar is a list of docs describing our mission, our outreach programs, our grants, our membership benefits, and our publications.
At the conferences I’ve attended, I’ve met academics, public librarians, lawyers who write YA, storytellers, teachers, publishers and authors. While I’ve been dismayed by the lack of people of color at the events, I have been impressed by their commitment to diversity.
During the conference, the following points were made.
• ALAN is looking for state representatives to work locally with members.
• There is a need for more people to review books for ALAN. The reviews appear on the ALAN website and/or in the journal.
• ALAN is making efforts to do more work with middle and high school teachers. You could be a teacher, publisher, author or student who has ideas on how this organization can provide resources for this endeavor.
ALAN maintains an online community which anyone can join. Log it, join the discussions, share your ideas and let your voice be heard! Think about going to the conference next year (Have I mentioned that you’ll receive 30 books when you attend??). Consider applying for a grant. Join! Give a friend a membership for Christmas! If you, like me want to see more books for teens of color, we both have to be more active in the YA community.
Each season seems to temper our reading selection and summer seems to be the time to stop meeting expectations and read to truly enjoy whether it be a pile of classics, a newly purchased paperback romance or the ESPN magazines that have been stacking up all year. It’s easier to get some teens to read during the summer than others because even the most avid may want to take a break from all the books. Yet, we know that summer reading is critical for teens to retain and hopefully improve reading skills. Give them the newspaper, magazines, comic books, novels or biographies. Giving them what they want to read will keep them reading! Us too!
Chameleon by Charles R. Smith Shawn’s mother may think it’s time for Shawn to grow up, but he’s planning nothing but fun for this summer before high school!
When the stars go blue Candid Ferrer Soledad by plans to spend her summer teaching dance and saving some money until stars cross and she meets Jonathan and gets talked into joined the drum and bugle corps.
Mare’s war by Tanita Davis Octavia and Tali spend their summer on a road trip with Mare, their red sports car driving grandmother who is too young to be called ‘grandma’.
Surf mules by Greg Neri Logan and Z-boy have finished high school and are given a summer job that could make them quite rich, if it doesn’t kill them first! Yeah, and they surf, too!
