Good work! Thank you -- Kirstin

kate1510 wrote:
> This award will be given to a picture book that features a strong and empowered female character. Many children's books show girls who are passive and dependent. Also, children's books usually show males as the problem solvers. This is disturbing considering the day and age we live in. Shirley B. Ernst author of the article "Gender Issues in Books for Children and Young Adults" said, " I would like, however, to see more books with strong female characters who are active, inventive, and in charge of their own destinies." This quotation is found on page 75 in the book Battling Dragons, which is edited by Susan Lehr. Nominations for this award must show independent and non-stereotypical female characters. The picture books will be for children in kindergarten through second grade. Nominations are due by February 19, 2007.

Looks great, Tania. Thank you -- Kirstin
tml5025 wrote:
> The Aiden Jacob Lewis award for excellence in Children's Literature about Children who grow up in a single parent home will be awarded to the author of a children's book that helps children understand that growing up in a single parent home isn't always as bad as it may sometimes seem, and that they are not the only one who lives in a home like they do. As Erma Bombeck says, "A family is a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing stuffy noses, colds, and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instance, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together." No matter the size or number of people in your family, a family is a family as long as there is love. Too many times a book is read in a classroom about that "One big happy family", and in this meaning a mommy, daddy, and child, and sitting out there is a child who lives with just a mommy or just a daddy and feels ashamed or that he/she does not have a whole family. So these books should give children the comfort in knowing that living in a single parent home is just as fufilling and wonderful as living in a home with both parents. The selection should reach out to any children of any age. Please have nominations submited by February 19th, 2008.

As nominations are posted for your award, locate the books and read them. As you read, use your reader's notebook to think like a teacher. Look at the books for their salient features, and take professional notes about how you might use these books in your future classroom. To whom would you recommend these books? What is the reading level? The genre? Are there specific curricular or social issues that this book might address? Are there specific literary elements that could be demonstrated in this book? How do illustrations and text work together? Or, if the book is not illustrated, what are the images that the book creates in the reader's mind? Use Lehr's collection of essays, Wolf, or Fletcher to assist you in this reading research.

Once you have selected a winning book (keeping it a secret until the ceremony), create an award with signature lines for yourself, the nominator, and your LLED professors. Write a letter to the author that explains our class project and your award criteria.

Also in your letter, explain your specific reasons for selecting the book, including attention to the following concerns:
1. Reader response, as an aesthetic or efferent reading, especially considering a reader from a cultural background different from your own and/or different from the author's.
2. Relevance of the book as an historical or cultural artifact.
3. The author's skill at developing specific literary elements to relate the story on intellectual, sensory, and emotional levels.

Prepare an envelope to mail the award (including proper mailing address, return address, and postage). Do not seal the envelope until after the award ceremony.

At the award ceremony, you should give a brief speech about the award and some praise for the winning book. The nominator of the book should then come forward to make a brief acceptance speech on behalf of the author. Each signatory will then sign the award. Envelopes should be ready to mail after the ceremony.

After the award ceremony, the websites of the winning books should be tagged and highlighted in Diigo. Each winning book should be marked by a Diigo sticky note that repeats the information included in the award letter.

First, read your classmates' calls for nominations. Pay close attention to the requirements of each award. Then, head for a children's library or a book store with a good collection of children's books. As you read these books, think like a teacher: keep a reader's notebook for the children you serve, noting titles of books and taking brief notes about each book so that you can recommend good books to the school librarian, principal, and the parents and children you work for. There is no exact number of books required here, although you should probably think about reading a dozen books or so for each nomination so that you are closer to nominating the best possible book.

Next, select your nominations for each of your classmates' awards. These should be books that you look forward to sharing with children because of their literary quality, their thoughtful approach to the world of children, and their ability to evoke a response in the reader.

The Altoona Area Public Library and the Penn State Altoona library are willing to hold books for us so that they cannot be checked out during the nomination process. If they do not own the books, they may be willing to order them, especially with your professor's recommendation.

Post your nominations in Diigo by marking the websites of each book through its publisher. You may also mark a bookseller's site.

Using Diigo bookmarking functions, highlight important features of each nominee to share in the nominations group. Create sticky notes for the books that include full annotations: 1) bibliographic entry, 2) brief (2-3 sentence) summary of form and content, 3) analysis of at least three rhetorical devices (strengths and weaknesses), and 4) professional evaluation of how teachers and students might approach the book.

Finally, make the book available to the award's creator. If your book is selected, you will accept the award on behalf of the author at the award ceremony.

Please post your award announcement in the "Group Forum."

* Name your book award after a special person, place, or idea.
* Be careful not to duplicate or overlap with any of your classmates' topics.
* Be specific about what the award is about (i.e., social issue, reader response, literary genre, or literary element)
* As you describe the requirements for the award, please include a quotation from one of our 402 readings (from Lehr, Wolf, or Fletcher).
* Give clear directions about the type of book that will be awarded (genre, format, or expected age of readers)
* Include a final date for nominations to be posted.

Aesop Prize
ALSC Awards and Notables
American Academy of Poets
Americas Award
Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature
Arizona Young Readers' Award
Arkansas Charlie May Simon and Diamond Awards
Australian Literary Awards and Prizes
Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children
BlackBird Mysteries Awards
Bologna Ragazzi Award
Book Sense Book of the Year Award (formerly the ABBY Award)
Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards
Bram Stoker Award
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books: Blue Ribbons Books
Caldecott Medal
California Young Reader Medal Booklist
Canadian Children's Literature Service
Carnegie Medal [United Kingdom]
Carter G. Woodson Award
Charlotte Zolotow Award
Children's Book Guild Award for Nonfiction
Claudia Lewis Award
Colorado Children's Book Award
Connecticut Nutmeg Children's Book Award
Coretta Scott King Award
Delaware Blue Hen Book Award
Denali Press Award
Edgars
Eleanor Farjeon Award
Elizabeth Burr Award
Emphasis on Reading Booklist from Library Media.
Ezra Jack Keats Award
Flora Stieglitz Award
Florida Sunshine State Young Readers
GA Child Lit Book Award
Geoffrey Bilson Award
Giverny Book Award
Golden Duck Awards
Golden Kite Award
Hans Christian Andersen Medals
Hawaii Nene Award
Hugo Awards
Illinois Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award
International Reading Association Children's Book Awards
Iowa Children's Choice Award
Jane Addams Book Award
Jefferson Cup
John Steptoe Award for New Talent
Josette Frank Award
Kansas Reading Association. Bill Martin, Jr. Picture Book Award
Kansas William Allen White Children's Book Award
Kate Greenaway Medal [United Kingdom]
Kentucky Bluegrass Award
Laura Ingalls Wilder Award
Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award
Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award
Louisiana Young Readers' Choice Award
Maine Lupine Award
Maine Student Book Awards
Margaret A. Edwards Award
Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Book Awards
Massachusetts Children's Book Award
Michigan Readers' Choice Award
Mildred L. Batchelder Award
Minnesota Maud Hart Lovelace Award
Missouri Mark Twain Award
Missouri Show Me Readers Award
Mythopoeic Awards
National Book Awards for Young People's Literature
National Jewish Book Awards
Nebraska Golden Sower Award
Nestle Smarties Book Prize
Nevada Young Readers' Award
New Hampshire Great Stone Face Award
New Jersey Garden State Children's Book Award
New Mexico Land of Enchantment Book Award
New York Charlotte Award
New York Knickerbocker Award
New Zealand Literary Prizes, Awards
Newbery Medal
North Carolina Children's Book Award
North Dakota Flicker Tale
Notable Children's Books
Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts
Notable Children's Books, American Library Association
Notable Children's Trade Books in the Social Sciences
Ohio Buckeye Children's Book Award
Oklahoma Sequoyah Award
Orbis Pictus Award
Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children
Pacific Northwest Young Reader's Choice Award
PEN/Norma Klein Award for Children's Fiction
Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Awards
Phoenix Award
Pura Belpre Award
Read Michigan
Rhode Island Children's Book Awards
Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award
Science Books & Films Editor's Choice Columns
Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Award
SFWA Nebula Awards
Signal Poetry Award
SLJ Best Books
SLJ Online. Awards Announcements
Society of School Librarians International Awards
Society of School Librarians International. Best Science Books
South Carolina Children's Book Award
South Dakota Prairie Pasque Children's Book Award
Sydney Taylor Book Awards
Tennessee Volunteer Children's Book Award
Texas Bluebonnet Award
Arthur C. Clarke Award
Tomas Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award
Utah Children's Book Awards
Vermont Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award
Virginia Young Readers' Award
West Virginia Children's Book Award
Whitbread Award for a Children's Novel [United Kingdom]
Wisconsin Golden Archer Award
Wyoming Book Awards
Young Reader's Choice Award

Call for nominations: The Sha-Narah award for literature about adolescent popularity

The Sha-Narah award for excellence in literature about adolescent popularity seeks nominations for literature by and about high school students on the themes of popularity, acceptance, and rejection. These works of literature may be poetry, fiction, or non-fiction, and they should explore the emotional lives of teenagers as they negotiate their social networks in the school setting. The length of the work is not relevant to the selection committee, nor is the publication status. Please include in your nomination a brief summary of the text and a summary of the text's particular strengths, especially as they concern the relevance of this book to the award's theme. Nominations due by ___________.

Call for nominations: The Gabriel Award for excellence in children's literature about dragons and castles

The Gabriel Award for excellence in children's literature about dragons and castles will be awarded to a children's book that uses both story and illustration to re-invent the "traditional" medieval tale in a fresh and exciting way and to challenge the assumptions perpetuated by "traditional" literature about race, class, gender, or physical ability. Please submit nominations by __________.

Lucky is a wonderful child whose mother has died and father has abandoned her. She now lives with a guardian, but she worries constantly that the guardian, whom she admires very much, will not love her enough or will leave her again. The book uses lively descriptions of the characters so that the reader will have a strong sympathy for each of them, even the "anonymous people" whom Lucky eavesdrops on. The setting is a bit unbelievable unless you've actually experienced a setting like that: their home is a series of connected trailers situated in an extremely hot, dry desert with very few people and very few economic opportunities. Lucky is a strong and wonderful child with a lot of fears and insecurities; I'm sure that many children her age will identify. Even though this book is controversial because the word "scrotum" appears on the first page, I'm certain that the book's fast-pace and high interest will be enjoyed by both children and their teachers and parents.