The Black Caucus of the American Library Association, Inc. (BCALA) welcomes book submissions for the current cycle of its Children & Young Adult Literary Awards.
The Black Caucus of the American Library Association, Inc. (BCALA) is open to book submissions for the current cycle of its Children & Young Adult Literary Awards (CYALA).
Launched in 2021, the CYALA program is sponsored by School Library Journal and honors outstanding works of fiction and nonfiction for children and young adults by African American authors.
To be eligible for the current awards cycle, titles must be published between January 2024 and January 2025. Award categories are Fiction, Non-Fiction, First-time/Debut Author, and Graphic Novel. A winner and an honor book will be named in each category.
The submission deadline is December 15, 2024.
Winners will be notified in early 2025, with an awards presentation to be held in conjunction with the ALA Annual Conference.
CYALA submission criteria:
Indies are welcome if there are adequate purchasing options. To get an idea of the books considered, see BCALA's Best of the Best Booklist.
For more information about the award and submissions, email dgray19@schools.nyc.gov.
I recommend keeping The Great Gatsby and Great Expectations. Both exhibit extremely skilled and complex writing and plotting; learning to comprehend these characteristics of literature will be valuable in building skill for the young reader. For each, the author's moral position needs to be dug out, over the course of events whose meaning isn't obviously apparent at first.
Secondly, the themes possibly are more relevant now than when written. Which characters are worthy of love and respect and which have worldly position but lack something, even genuine humanity? How does the protagonist or narrator learn where to place value, regardless of society's dictates.
For summer reading I recommend The Outsiders by S.E Hinton, The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald and Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett. They are great stories with great messages and perfect for 12 and up
Speaking of Great Expectations have you read the Outsiders.
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