Category Archives: Youth Services

Do young people still write letters? They do if they want to tell an author about how books can make a difference in a young person’s life. Young Nebraska writers who wrote winning letters in the Letters About Literature competition received award certificates from Gov. Pete Ricketts on at a proclamation-signing ceremony celebrating National Library Week, April 8-14, 2018. Letters About Literature is a national reading and writing promotion program. Nearly 50,000 adolescent and young readers nationwide, in grades four through twelve, participated in this year’s Letters About Literature program—hundreds of them from Nebraska. The competition encourages young people to read, be inspired, and write back to the author (living or dead) who had an impact on their lives.

This annual contest is sponsored nationally by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, with funding from Dollar General Literacy Foundation. The Center for the Book was established in 1977 as a public-private partnership to use the resources of the Library of Congress to stimulate public interest in books and reading. The Nebraska competition is coordinated and sponsored by the Nebraska Center for the Book, Nebraska Library Commission, Houchen Bindery Ltd., Humanities Nebraska, and Chapters Bookstore in Seward.

Young Nebraska writers to be honored are:

Winners
Avery Yosten, Norfolk, for a letter to Rob Buyea
Caleb Hans, Omaha, for a letter to Trenton Lee Stewart
Harper Leigh Wells, Axtell, for a letter to Harper Lee

Alternate Winners
Ryan Ostrander, Lincoln, for a letter to Katherine Applegate
Conleigh Hemmer, Lincoln, for a letter to Herman Melville
Daniel Con, Lexington, for a letter to Suzanne Collins

The students wrote personal letters to authors explaining how his or her work changed their view of themselves or the world. They selected authors from any genre, fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classic. Winners were chosen from three competition levels: upper elementary, middle, and secondary school.

The Nebraska winners are honored at a luncheon and receive cash prizes and gift certificates. Their winning letters are placed in the Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors at Bennett Martin Public Library in Lincoln. They will advance to the national competition, with a chance to win a trip to Washington, D.C. for themselves and their parents. For more information about the competition see http://centerforthebook.nebraska.gov/programs/LAL.html.

The Nebraska Center for the Book is housed at the Nebraska Library Commission and brings together the state’s readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, publishers, printers, educators, and scholars to build the community of the book, supporting programs to celebrate and stimulate public interest in books, reading, and the written word. The Nebraska Center for the Book is supported by the Nebraska Library Commission. As the state library agency, the Nebraska Library Commission is an advocate for the library and information needs of all Nebraskans. The mission of the Library Commission is statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library and information services, bringing together people and information.

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The most up-to-date news releases from the Nebraska Library Commission are always available on the Library Commission Website, http://nlc.nebraska.gov/publications/newsreleases.

Here is a quick look at some of the book awards announced today in Denver.  For a PDF of the complete list of winners and Honor Books click here.

John Newbery Medal goes to Hello, Universe, written by Erin Entrada Kelly. Three Honor Books were also named.

Randolph Caldecott Medal was awarded to Wolf in the Snow, illustrated and written by Matthew Cordell. Four Honor Books were named.

Coretta Scott King Author Award was given to Piecing Me Together, written by Renée Watson, and three Honor Books were named.

Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award recipient is Ekua Holmes for Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets, two Honor Books were named.

Michael L. Printz Award recipient is We Are Okay, written by Nina LaCour and four Honor Books were noted.

I hope you get a chance to read one or two award-winning titles of your choice.  It is a great day when the country’s attention is on reading and books.

Jason Reynolds on Encouraging Reading

One librarian’s blog, Alicia Abdul, and her list of “Six Sensational YA + MG” titles for 2017. Since seeing this I have checked one title out of the library, and am pleased that two of her six were on Jill Annis and my Teen list for 2017.

But I really hope you will take the 3+ minutes to hear what Jason Reynolds has to say about reluctant readers. Makes good sense. It is included on this page, right under his title Long Way Down.

I was tempted to include my review of Long Way Down but thought that might be redundant.  Instead here is my review of brave by Svetlana Chmakova.  A full-color graphic novel: Jensen, is just starting middle school and still trying to figure it out. He knows to avoid Foster and Yanic – they are never nice. He sees the school as a video game, all he needs to do is survive to the end of the day. Math is hard, but he lives for art club after school. He becomes involved with the newspaper crew as an on-call helper, and then as a possible subject for their bullying article. He isn’t certain he is being bullied, aren’t his “friends” just joking with him? He slowly finds his way and eventually speaks up on his own behalf.

(The Nebraska Library Commission receives free copies of children’s and young adult books for review from a number of publishers. After review, the books are distributed free, via the Regional Library Systems, to Nebraska school and public libraries.)

School Library Journal’s Best Books 2017

Once again it is time for journals to print (or post) their choices for “Best Books of…” lists. School Library Journal recently posted their choices and the lists can be found here.

A total of 71 titles have been honored this year, divided into the following categories: Picture Books (14 titles), Chapter Books (1 title), Middle Grade (13 titles), Young Adult (18 titles) and Nonfiction (25 titles). I enjoy learning about excellent titles I did not encounter earlier, and also finding some agreement with some I have read and put on my lists. Now here is the chance for you to do the same.

On the main page, scroll down to find a form to fill out in order to download, at no charge, a printable PDF version of the full list.  There is also an “Other Bests” link on the right side of the screen which contains a print list of six additional categories, such as “Top 10 Graphic Novels,” “Top 10 Audiobooks,” and “Top 10 Apps.”  I hope you can find some time to explore these pages.  For the Best Books of 2017, once you click on one of the categories you will see a slide show of the titles.

One of the selected picture books from 2017 is The Three Billy Goats Gruff, adapted and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, gives readers another wonderful retelling of a popular folktale with outstanding artwork.  The author notes at the back of the book that this story gave him trouble because in many versions the Troll does not have the opportunity to learn his lesson.  Mr. Pinkney found a satisfying way for this to happen in his version.  I will say it again: It is great that Pinkney is retelling both folktales and fables so children today can continue to hear them.

(The Nebraska Library Commission receives free copies of children’s and young adult books for review from a number of publishers. After review, the books are distributed free, via the Regional Library Systems, to Nebraska school and public libraries.)