Industry News

The Kids in Need Foundation is calling for applications for its classroom grants program. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund released Raising a Reader! How Comics & Graphic Novels Can Help Your Kids Love to Read, a free resource that promotes comics' positive impact on readers' literacy skills. Apply for the Estela and Raúl Mora Award, which recognizes exemplary programming that celebrates El día de los niños/El día de los libros. Edie Parsons has won the first Karen and Philip Cushman Late Bloomer Award that celebrates authors over the age of 50 who have not been traditionally published in the children’s literature field.

The Lockwood Lions crosstown rivals, the Grovehill Giants, seem to have it all. Or do they? When the cheer squad and the football players get together, it always gets intense. But there are two sides to every story—whose side are you on? Five lucky winners will get a collection of leveled readers, including the new Truly Fine/Forever Hot from Saddleback.

Linda Lord, Maine’s state librarian, represented the nation’s 16,400 public libraries Wednesday in her call to Congress to provide a “proactive vision for meeting the educational and learning needs of our communities for the next 15 years and beyond.” Her testimony—at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation—also detailed the success of the E-rate program in helping serve more than 30 million people every week.

Lizzie Skurnick Books, a new imprint from Ig Publishing, brings back beloved YA titles; Laurie Halse Anderson wins the Empire State Award; nominate your favorite librarian for the "I Love My Librarian" award; and more.

The National Education Association this week voted to support the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) in its lobbying efforts with regard to the "Strengthening America’s Schools Act," the first piece of legislation to recognize the role school library programs play in student learning since 1965, according to the American Library Association.

Acclaimed children’s book creator Marc Simont, who illustrated nearly 100 children’s books, died on Saturday, July 13. He was 97. His many honors include a Caldecott Medal for the art in Janice May Udry’s A Tree is Nice, and Caldecott Honors for illustrating Ruth Krauss's The Happy Day, and his own The Stray Dog.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan hosted the first Let’s Read! Let’s Move! event of 2013 on Wednesday, July 10, at the U.S. Department of Education headquarters in Washington, D.C. Along with Rep. John Kline of Minnesota; Sam Kass, executive director of Let’s Move!; and Michelle Kwan, member of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition and Olympic figure skater, the celebrity guests read to a group of students. Kwan then led the children in a session of fun, physical activities.

The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has announced the finalists for the 2013 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award for Young Adult Fiction. No surprises here - just some tough decisions to make. Former winners include Lauren Myracle (Shine, Amulet), Francisco X. Stork (The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, Scholastic) and Kristin Cashore (Fire, Penguin).

For the growing numbers of us searching for online courses, as well as online educational resources, the portals are quickly growing in both number and size. Finding the best or most relevant content may be a challenge.  Sites like Kayak take care of of the would-be traveler with a cross-portal search, but what’s the would-be [...]