Dear Jamie Lee Curtis,      Congratulations! My name is Brittney Ward, and I am pleased to inform you that your book, I'm Gonna Like Me, has been chosen as the recipient of the Kira Elizabeth Award for excellence in children's literature about growing up.      This award was created as part of an assignment in the Elementary Education block courses at Penn State University - Altoona Campus. Each student's task was to create an award for some unique aspect of children's literature and then create the criteria for the award. Our fellow students then nominated books for our award following the specific criteria. After looking closely at several nominations, we were to pick a winner and notify the author of our winning book.      The Kira Elizabeth Award was to be presented to a book that provided guidance to a child going through the trials and tribulations of growing up. In today's society, children are "growing up" much faster than in the past. Because growing up is a part of life, I wanted the book to be one a child could turn to when they wanted to learn about or take shelter in knowing the social and emotional obstacles that come along with growing up. Nominations had to include appropriate facts, reassurances, or guidance on how to deal with the social, emotional, and/or personal changes children age's 5-9 experience growing up, such as how to make friends, getting along with classmates, understanding their feelings, etc.      This award is in honor of a little girl named Kira Elizabeth Angello. She is three years old and, in my opinion, is growing up entirely too fast. I watch her from time to time and she loves books. Her mother always wants to make sure that she has high self-esteem and that she loves who she is. Therefore, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to 'shop around' for books that deal with that issue. In the wo

This book is about a hippo named Hilda who loves to dance. However, Hilda's dancing is very destructive. All of her friends wish she would take up a less destructive hobby. They recommend knitting and singing, but Hilda didn't like either one, so she sticks to dancing. Finally, the water buffalo recommend swimming to Hilda. It is then that she discovers her passion for water ballet dancing. Hilda was good at water ballet and she didn't destroy anything in the process. Best of all, her friends loved it and told her to keep dancing. This book will communicate a passion for the arts, specifically dancing, to the students who read it. The illustrations are bright and colorful. The one weakness of this book is that it shows Hilda's friends not supporting her dancing on land. As a teacher, this book would be good to recommend to students who like dance, or just enjoy the arts in general.

This book is about a girl named Lauretta who is confined to a wheelchair. She is tired of her old, ratty wheelchair and dreams of getting a new one. Lauretta's mom surprises her one day by taking her to get a new wheelchair. Lauretta tries out numerous models, but none of them are fast enough for her. Then, she spots a 92-speed dirt-bike wheelchair that she just has to have. Graciously, Lauretta's mom buys it for her. One day when Lauretta was trying out her new wheelchair, she gets a speeding ticket. When her parents find out about the ticket, they insist  the wheelchair be returned. However, when her brother has an accident, Lauretta's fast, new wheelchair saves the day. Zoom shows that children with disabilities can do anything, and sometimes even more, than someone who has no disabilities. This would be a good book to recommend to a student with a disability who is having trouble accepting their disability.

This book is about a girl named Maria Isabel, a Hispanic child growing up in the United States. When she starts school, her teacher changes her name to Mary because there are already two other girls with the name Maria in her classroom. Maria Isabel has trouble answering to Mary because it is not her name. Maria Isabel is proud of her name because of the fact that she is named after relatives whom she loves. Because Maria Isabel finds it impossible to answer to Mary, she is excluded from the school's Winter Pageant. This book shows a Hispanic child's pride in her heritage and how difficult it is to fit into a new environment that doesn't understand your culture. With a growing multi-cultural population, this book is great to recommend to older students of all ethnicities to help them understand and accept different cultures.

This books is about Bird who wakes up one day feeling grumpy. He is too grumpy to eat or play, and even too grumpy to fly. Because he is too grumpy to fly, he walks that day. While he is walking, a few of his friends (Sheep, Rabbit, Raccoon, Beaver, and Fox) decide to walk with him. Before too long, with some exercise and friends, Bird realizes he is no longer grumpy. This book does a good job of showing kids that when you are grumpy you don't need to be violent. I also like the fact that when Bird decides to walk, the author makes sure Bird doesn't walk alone. This would be a good book to put in a collection so that if a student is grumpy, he or she can read this book and possibly shake his or her bad mood too!

This book is about a little boy who is relaxing by the lake and a fly goes by. The little boy grows curious as to why the fly flew past so fast. He catches up to the fly and finds out he is running from a frog. This begins a story where various animals and a man are running from the thing that comes after them. The little boy finally figures out that the animals aren't chasing after each other and that one noise started it all. The repetitive rhyming nature of this book will hook children instantly. The book does an amazing job in combining the elements of a story and poetry. This would be a great book to use in a poetry unit to show that poems aren't always just a few lines long.

This book features eighteen children who showcase their family. On each left-hand page, there is a photo of the child and their family. The left-hand page also features the child's signature. This book does a good job of exposing children to different kinds of families. It could also help a child, who feels they live with a "different" family, accept and appreciate the family they have. The book also reassures children that they are not the only ones who live in a non-traditional family by explaining family differences from the perspective of a child. A weakness of this book is that it features a lesbian family and a foster family, which could raise questions in younger children.

In this story, Miss Nelson's class has trouble following rules and listening to Miss Nelson. Fed up with the misbehavior, Miss Nelson comes up with a plan and "disappears". Since Miss Nelson can't be found, the school call in Viola Swamp. With Viola Swamp in charge, the children find themselves doing twice the amount of homework and losing their storytime. The kids set out to find Miss Nelson to bring her back. Finally, when Miss Nelson comes back, her students are well behaved and appreciate the teacher they have. This book could bring a smile to anyone's face when the students are coming up with ideas of what happened to Miss Nelson. From a teacher's perspective, this could be a good story to read to a class that is having behavior problems.

This book is about a boy named Alex who suffers from dyslexia. He doesn't like to go to school because his peers make fun of him for not being able to read. He says that the letters jump around and he is unable to put them back together. He visits the school's psychologist who suggests that he visit Mrs. Baxter's room for kids with learning differences. In Mrs. Baxter's room, Alex finds his own way to learn how to read. He finally decides he likes reading and is determined to eventually read a full book on his own. This book shows children that there are other children out there that struggle with reading too. It also shows them that they can get better at reading as long as they have the help they need. Finally, it conveys the message to kids that they shouldn't give up. If you see a student struggling with reading, this would be a good book to recommend to the parents of that student. 

The Kira Elizabeth Award for excellence in Children's Literature about growing up will be awarded to the author who provides guidance to a child that is going through the trials and tribulations of growing up. In the book "Interpreting Literature with Children" by Shelby Wolf, she borrows the words of author E.B. White saying "...all the children represented here have "got to grow up sometime...". In today's society, children are "growing up" much faster than in the past. Growing up is an inevitable part of life; therefore, we should be encouraging children to grow up 'gracefully'. Children should be able to turn to literature when they want to learn about or take shelter in knowing the social and emotional obstacles that come along with growing up. This award does NOT include books that discuss the physical changes that children go through.
Nominations for this award should include picture books, preferably. The books that are nominated can be of any genre, but must include appropriate facts, reassurances, or guidance on how to deal with the social, emotional, and/or personal changes children ages 5-9 experience growing up such as how to make friends, getting along with classmates, understanding their feelings, etc.
Nominations for this award are due no later than February 19, 2008.