A couple of weeks ago on Feb. 8, 2018 the UNLV COE and the Gayle A. Zeiter Center hosted a Children's and Young Adult Literature Conference. You can read more about our visit with Javaka Steptoe and Vogue Robinson. As part of the conference their were several breakout sessions. One of those sessions was put together by student groups in one of Denise Davila's classes. They had been assigned to explore and study various awards for Children's and Young Adult Literature. The projects they produced were wonderful and informative. A large portion of these awards are given through the American Library Association (ALA). Many of these student groups agreed to share their PowerPoints. I believe being aware of the various awards is the fastest way to keep up to speed with trends in the fields of Children's and and Young Adult Literature. Let's face it, we can't read everything. We can, however, trust the work of our colleagues. By being aware of the results, we can add to our reading list. Another move would be to explain the awards to our students at every level. If our students browse the awards they will very likely find books that represent they various interests and their backgrounds. The awards represent various ethnic and racial groups and a variety of genres.
I had hoped to run this earlier, but the tragic events in Parkland occurred and I felt obligated to cover that event, at least briefly. Then the blog had a few other posts that were scheduled to appear.
Get ready, there is a lot of information below that you might want to download and use in your classroom to help students find the right book for them. Oh! If your students are doing cool things, I would love to hear about them.
In addition, I have added my own PowerPoints from presentations that I that I had prepared for the Nevada Reading Week conference that was "held" in Reno last Friday and Saturday. The snow was beautiful, but most of the presentations had to be cancelled. Ellen Flocker will be one of my heroes forever. I applaud her efforts, her cheerfulness, and the loyalty she inspires in the face of disappointment. I had planned two presentations: 1.) a survey of the most recent awards with a focus on YA literature and my list covers some of the awards not listed by the student in the work below--i.e. the Printz, Obris, and the National Book Award. 2.) An overview of African American authors that will be covered in a three book series that Dr. Shanetia Clark and I have under contract with Rowman and Littlefield.
Not much narrative in either one, but they should put you on the right track for a number of books that should be on your "to read" list. For example, many of you will know Julius Lester, but have you read To Be a Slave, a Newbery Honor Book, with illustrations by Tom Feelings to boot? If not, I recommend you find this classic text from 1968 as soon as you can. If is a frank discussion of slavery that Lester pieces together from slave narratives and his commentary. His primary source of information is from the Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938. This project was another idea of John Lomax, the advisor on Folklore and Folkways for the FWP. Lester also used two other sources: Lay My Burden Down a Folk History of Slavery by B. A. Botkin and The Negro in Virginia by the Virginia Writer's Project. It was amazing to me how informative the book was even with the perspective of 50 years having gone by since the publication. Now, much more of the original research has been organized and made available from the original 2,300 interviews and over 500 photographers at the Library of Congress
I had hoped to run this earlier, but the tragic events in Parkland occurred and I felt obligated to cover that event, at least briefly. Then the blog had a few other posts that were scheduled to appear.
Get ready, there is a lot of information below that you might want to download and use in your classroom to help students find the right book for them. Oh! If your students are doing cool things, I would love to hear about them.
In addition, I have added my own PowerPoints from presentations that I that I had prepared for the Nevada Reading Week conference that was "held" in Reno last Friday and Saturday. The snow was beautiful, but most of the presentations had to be cancelled. Ellen Flocker will be one of my heroes forever. I applaud her efforts, her cheerfulness, and the loyalty she inspires in the face of disappointment. I had planned two presentations: 1.) a survey of the most recent awards with a focus on YA literature and my list covers some of the awards not listed by the student in the work below--i.e. the Printz, Obris, and the National Book Award. 2.) An overview of African American authors that will be covered in a three book series that Dr. Shanetia Clark and I have under contract with Rowman and Littlefield.
Not much narrative in either one, but they should put you on the right track for a number of books that should be on your "to read" list. For example, many of you will know Julius Lester, but have you read To Be a Slave, a Newbery Honor Book, with illustrations by Tom Feelings to boot? If not, I recommend you find this classic text from 1968 as soon as you can. If is a frank discussion of slavery that Lester pieces together from slave narratives and his commentary. His primary source of information is from the Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938. This project was another idea of John Lomax, the advisor on Folklore and Folkways for the FWP. Lester also used two other sources: Lay My Burden Down a Folk History of Slavery by B. A. Botkin and The Negro in Virginia by the Virginia Writer's Project. It was amazing to me how informative the book was even with the perspective of 50 years having gone by since the publication. Now, much more of the original research has been organized and made available from the original 2,300 interviews and over 500 photographers at the Library of Congress
Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature
| The first two students are Vivien Lee and Windy Salelee. The official website of this award is www.apalaweb.org/awards/literature-awards/ The Asian/Pacific American Award for literature is an annual award to honor and raise awareness of works of literature about Asian/Pacific American cultures and experiences by Asian/Pacific Americans. The award features five catagories ranging from Adult fiction, adult nonfiction, Young Adult literature, Children's literature, and picture books, in which nominees are evaluated based on their artistic and literary merit by the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association, an affiliate of the American Library Association. |  |
The Amelia Bloomer Award
This group includes, Kimberly Crossley, Sabrina Harrison, Minza Shahzad
We did well working together and learned a lot about the Amelia Bloomer Award.
Amelia Bloomer Awards feminist books that show women solving problems, while gaining personal power, and empowering young readers. They celebrate girls and women as an equal participant. These books help explain gender issues of the past and present. A book with a strong female character that does not demonstrate that an inequality exists may not be a feminist book. Strong female characters may be spunky, brave, courageous, intelligent, resourceful, and independent–some titles may not appear to be feminist.
We did well working together and learned a lot about the Amelia Bloomer Award.
Amelia Bloomer Awards feminist books that show women solving problems, while gaining personal power, and empowering young readers. They celebrate girls and women as an equal participant. These books help explain gender issues of the past and present. A book with a strong female character that does not demonstrate that an inequality exists may not be a feminist book. Strong female characters may be spunky, brave, courageous, intelligent, resourceful, and independent–some titles may not appear to be feminist.
Dolly Gray Award
The Dolly Gray Award group consists of: Faith G, Megan W, Rhonda H, and Aaron C. The provide a list of the awards with annotations in the file below as well as a PowerPoint.
| dolly_gray_award_brief_annotations.docx |
The Pura Belpre Award
| The Pura Belpre is an award that is given to Latinx writers and illustrators for their works that celebrates and displays the Latino culture and experience. She was Puerto Riceña and was the first Latina Librarian at the New York Public Library. (American Library Association) The group consisted of Leah, Tony, Jessica, and Ashley http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/belpremedal |  |
The Giverny Book Award
Cierra Ritter wrote her groups explanation.
1. The award that my group presented on is called the Giverny Book Award, but is known for being a science trade book award. The Giverny Award is an annual children’s science picture book award that was established in 1998 by Dr. Jim Wandersee and Dr. Elisabeth E. Schussler. At the time both Wandersee and Schussler were associated with the 15º Laboratory at Louisiana State University. The 15º Laboratory website was the only source that was helpful for my group because there is truthfully not an abundant amount of information when it comes to this award. The main goal of the Giverny award is to praise an author and illustrator for making a connection between art and science while presenting a visual capture, visual explanations, and visual exemplification of a view of our world. Lastly, nineteen authors and illustrators have been awarded the Giverny Book Award.
2. http://www.15degreelab.com/givernyawarddescription.html
3. The following image is of two children viewing my groups presentation at the Zeiter Conference on Thursday evening. (Elise Salsbury is the group member pictured in this photo.)
4. Christine Churches, Riley Lauria, Cierra Ritter, & Elise Salsbury
1. The award that my group presented on is called the Giverny Book Award, but is known for being a science trade book award. The Giverny Award is an annual children’s science picture book award that was established in 1998 by Dr. Jim Wandersee and Dr. Elisabeth E. Schussler. At the time both Wandersee and Schussler were associated with the 15º Laboratory at Louisiana State University. The 15º Laboratory website was the only source that was helpful for my group because there is truthfully not an abundant amount of information when it comes to this award. The main goal of the Giverny award is to praise an author and illustrator for making a connection between art and science while presenting a visual capture, visual explanations, and visual exemplification of a view of our world. Lastly, nineteen authors and illustrators have been awarded the Giverny Book Award.
2. http://www.15degreelab.com/givernyawarddescription.html
3. The following image is of two children viewing my groups presentation at the Zeiter Conference on Thursday evening. (Elise Salsbury is the group member pictured in this photo.)
4. Christine Churches, Riley Lauria, Cierra Ritter, & Elise Salsbury
Outstanding Science Trade Books K-12
| Elsa Lopez, James Koch, Rachel Wallace, Cody Westlund The OSTB award is an annual list that awards science-themed trade books for grades K-12. Each year a variety of different themed books are selected, approximately thirty per year’s list. The genres, themes, and titles themselves are decided by both the National Science Teachers Association and by the Children’s Book Council. Previous winners dating back to 1996, submission guidelines, as well as information about the award can be found at the National Science Teachers Association website. http://www.nsta.org/publications/ostb/ |  |
The Tomás Rivera Book Award
The Tomás Rivera Book Award was created in 1995 to honor authors and illustrators that create works that depict the Mexican American experience. Since its creation, the award has been given to thirty works of literature. The award was created to honor Tomás Rivera, a prominent Mexican American author, and alumnus of Texas State University, where the award finds its roots.
There are several websites that cover this award:
Official website of the award: http://www.education.txstate.edu/ci/riverabookaward/
These two (click here and here) also over additional information
There are several websites that cover this award:
Official website of the award: http://www.education.txstate.edu/ci/riverabookaward/
These two (click here and here) also over additional information
Dr. Bickmore's Two Presentations
As mentioned in the introduction, I had two presentations to give at Reno. They are PowerPoints in the true sense. They do not have a lot of words, but they do point to YA book awards in the first African American Authors of YA literature who will be addressed in the three books series. I hope you they spur you on to further reading.
PowerPoint on YA book awards:
Including African American YA Literature in Your Classroom: Engaging Students with Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Doors
RSS Feed