Volume 1, Issue 8 University of Kentucky School of L i b r a r y a n d I n f o r m a ti o n S c i e n c e
April 2012
The McConnell Center for the Study of Youth Literature
2012 McConnell Conference—A Success! Lecture, which had the entire banquet This year’s McConnell Conference began with several breakout sessions we hall laughing! hope you enjoyed, including a On Saturday, we began presentation by Ellen the morning with Jenay Hall on “Bringing author/illustrator Lisa Youth Literature to Desimini, which was Life,” another by Becky standing room only Nelson and Erin Conness before the event began! on “School & Public Afterwards, we Library Collaboration,” separated for breakout and the Caldecott/ sessions with the Newbery and Printz Caldecott/Newbery presentations by UKpresentation, a Meet-the Back Row, left to right: Patsi SLIS graduate students.. Trollinger, Dr. Stephanie Reynolds, and -Author session with Following the breakout Martha Bennett Stiles Row, left to right: Lisa Desimini, M.T. Anderson, and two sessions, M.T. Anderson Front more sessions presented M.T. Anderson, and Jennifer Holm gave the Joy Terhune by local librarians: “Literature and Early Literacy” presented by Mary Landrum and Lowena Latiff, and “Autism in Print” presented by Becky Nelson, Melinda Caldwell, and Jill Barrows. At Saturday’s luncheon, Jennifer Holm shared the inspirations for all of her novels with us—including a picture of her brother that inspired the Squish the Amoeba series, and afterwards, we finished up our breakout sessions with the Printz presentation, Meet-the-Author with Jennifer Holm, Meet-the-Illustrator with Lisa Desimini, and “But Then I’d Have to Kill You: What I Can and Cannot Tell You About Serving on the Newbery Committee” presented by
Peter Howard. We had several signing sessions, and joining us for two of them, in addition to M.T. Anderson, Jennifer Holm, and Lisa Desimini, were local children’s authors Patsi Trollinger with her new book Thrill in the ‘Ville and Martha Bennett Stiles with galley copies of her newest novel Sailing to Freedom which will be available in July. This year was another wonderful Conference for us, and if you couldn’t join us this time, we hope you will be able to in 2013! We’ll have our Save-the-Date flyer out soon!
Table of Contents
McConnell Conference Recap Events Reminder Connecting with Characters Contest Winners! Welcome Mercedes! A Special Thanks April Is… National Poetry Month Roses are Red… Congrats to Our Conference Contest Winners! On the Blog/In the Center About the Center
M.T. Anderson delivering his hilarious lecture.
Upcoming McConnell Center Events April 14th, 2012, 6pm–7:30pm A Monster Calls Book Discussion This is our rescheduled date for a discussion of A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.* http://on.fb.me/MonsterCalls
April 1st–May 1st Summer Reading Discussion Survey Help us what to read and discuss this summer by taking the following survey! http://bit.ly/SRPoll2012
April 21st, 2012, 11am–12pm Spring Stories for the Kids of CIS Join us for a Baby & Toddler Story Time for the Kids of CIS! Check out our Facebook page for the most up to date information*: http://on.fb.me/SprStories
*If possible, we would appreciate your RSVP on our Facebook pages or the new form found here for these events so we know approximately how many are coming or if we need to reschedule. ~Thanks!
April 1st–April 17th Book Spine Poetry Competition Create poetry with book spines and enter photos of your creations for a chance to win books! See page four for more information.
A Special Thanks to Blue Marble Books for supplying the Conference with wonderful books and excellent service!
Congratulations to the 2012 Connecting with Contest Winners! We had many fantastic entries this year. It was so hard to choose winners for all three of the categories! Congratulations to you all, and thank you for sharing your letters and art with us.
Brennen Scudder, Age 7, 2nd Grade, Gallatin County Lower Elementary School Library, Donna Kannady, Librarian, Warsaw, KY (Iris Has a Virus by Arlene Alda/Illustrated by Lisa Desimini)
Jonah Graham Gabriel Vittitow, Age 6, 1st Grade, Gallatin County Lower Elementary School Library, Donna Kannady, Librarian, Warsaw, KY (Dot the Firedog by Lisa Desimini)
Cesar Aranda, Age 9, 3rd Grade, Booker T Washington Academy, Tracie Dreyer-Hanes, Librarian, Lexington, KY (Whales on Stilts! by M.T. Anderson)
Ava Mylor, Age 6, 1st Grade, Gallatin County Lower Elementary School Library, Donna Kannady, Librarian, Warsaw, KY (Lulu’s Piano Lesson by Arlene Alda/Illustrated by Lisa Desimini)
Adeline Caitlyn Barnes, Age 10, Hearn Elementary School, Becky B. Nelson, Librarian, Frankfort, KY (Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer Holm) Vincenzo Bianco, Age 13, 8th Grade, East Oldham Middle School, Candy Thomas & Cheryl McCall, Teacher & Librarian, Crestwood, KY (Feed by M.T. Anderson)
Thank you to all of the teachers, librarians, and students who participated. We’ll be sending out information for the 2013 Conference later in the year.
Our three winning picture entries. From left to right, pictures are based on the books: Iris Has a Virus, Lulu’s Piano Lesson, and Dot the Fire Dog.
Welcome Mercedes! The 2012–2013 GA Where are you from and what previous education do you have? I’m from Lexington, KY. I went to the University of Kentucky for my undergraduate degree and received my Bachelor of Arts in classics with a minor in anthropology. Why are you studying to be a librarian/what are your career goals? I have not thought of any other career path besides being a librarian, since Mrs. Railing gave me my first book in grade school. My career goal is to become a children’s librarian someday and give many other children their first book.
Who is your favorite youth lit author? John Green is my favorite youth lit author at the moment because I’m obsessed with his entire collection of novels.
What are a few of your nonreading hobbies? I am a complete nerd when it comes to board games. I play Dungeons and Dragons and have a closet filled with every board game imaginable.
Name one thing that makes you unique as a librarian. I really love talking to people. I’m the kind of person that needs to be involved in activities and socializing. I really want to break the stereotype that librarians are quiet and antisocial people.
Do you have a library/youth litrelated topic you're passionate about? What are your top three favorite I am very passionate about diversity in youth literature. I believe that the youth lit books? Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson collection of novels in a library should reflect the community in Levine which it is in. America is changing The Book Thief by Markus and becoming a more diverse Zusak society and our collections should The Witch of Blackbird Pond reflect this sentiment. by Elizabeth George Speare
Anything else you'd like to tell us? I am very excited to start this new position. Hopefully, I can learn enough from Rachel, who is amazing, to do the best job possible.
A Special Thanks We would like to give a special thanks to all of our wonderful volunteers and presenters, who worked with us before, during, and after the conference. Your help is greatly appreciated, and we hope you all had a great time! Jill Barrows Julia Basil Will Buntin Melinda Caldwell Lousetta Carlson Sara Cavitt
Erinn Conness Ellen Jenay Hall Patricia Hartman Peter Howard Dr. Jeff Huber Ashley Izzo David Jenkins Meredith Kerrick Krista King Mary Landrum Lowena Latiff Kayla Meadows Stacie Musser
Becky B. Nelson Emily Pike Ellen Stevens Randy-Lynne Wach Kathy Watson Jackie White Bookie Wilson Candlewick Press McClelland & Stewart Random House Simon & Schuster Blue Marble Bookstore LIS611 Students http://cis.uky.edu/lis/
April is... April is a busy month of celebrations for libraries! In addition to our events, here are a few youth-related national events. You’ll find more events at: http://www.ala.org/conferencesevents/ celebrationweeks
National Bookmobile Day— April 11th http://www.ala.org/bookmobiles National Drop Everything and Read Day—April 12th http://bit.ly/DEARDay
School Library Month http://www.ala.org/aasl/slm
Support Teen Literature Day - April 12th http://bit.ly/TeenLit
National Poetry Month http://bit.ly/PoetryMonth2012
El Día de los niños/El Dia de los libros— April 30th http://dia.ala.org/
National Library Week— April 8th–14th http://www.ala.org/nlw
National Poetry Month—Book Spine Poetry Contest It’s National Poetry Month, and the McConnell Center is celebrating with a contest!
18, the entry must be submitted by an adult. Please indicate the minor entrant's name and age in the body of the email.
Send your photos as jpeg formatted 4"x6" attachments The winner will be announced on to stephanie.reynolds@uky.edu April 26th. The prize will be a by April 17, 2012. selection of book chosen by The McConnell Center staff. Please include the entrant's name in the photo file name (e.g., You can find some ideas and tips here: JessicaJones.jpg). One entry per http://bit.ly/BookSpinePoetry2012 person, please. This contest is inspired by the work of Entries will be posted for online artist, Nina Katchadourian and the judging from April 18th through ALSC blog. April 25th. Here are some of our own works! By emailing an entry, the submitter is authorizing The McConnell Center (of the School of Library & Information Science, University of Kentucky) use of the photo, and is affirming his or her ownership of the photo. If the owner of the photo is under age
Roses are Red... It’s National Poetry Month! Here are some books of poetry you can share with your students and patrons.
Lai, T. (2011). Inside out & back again. New York: HarperCollins.
Smith, H. (2008). Keeping the night watch. New York: Henry Holt Books for Young Readers.
Levine, G. (2012). Forgive me, I meant to do it. New York: Cullinan, B. (2009). Another jar of HarperCollins. tiny stars. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press. Mora, P. (2000). My own true name. Houston, TX: Pinata Books. Frost, H. (2009). Crossing stones. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Nelson, M. (2001). Carver: A life in Giroux. poems. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press. Greenberg, J. (2001). Heart to heart. New York: Abrams. Prelutsky, J. (2012). I've lost my hippopotamus. New York: Hines, A. (2011). Peaceful pieces: HarperCollins. Poems and quilts about peace. New York: Henry Holt and Sidman, J. (2010). Dark emperor Company. & other poems of the night. New York: Houghton Mifflin Books Hughes, L. (1994). The dream for Children. keeper and other poems. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Silverstein, S. (2011). Everything on it. New York: HarperCollins.
ALSC has announced its 2012 Notable Children’s Books—What are some of your favorites? Tell us on the blog! http:// bit.ly/2012ALSCNotable
Congrats to Our Conference Contest Winners! In December we held the “12 Days of Youth Literature” Trivia Contest to give away seats at the author/illustrator table for the 2012 McConnell Conference. Congratulations to our winners! We hope you enjoyed the evening! Emily Northcutt Julie Ledford Karen Allen Meredith Kerrick Becky Nelson
We also held a contest drawing for our wonderful Conference volunteers. All volunteers received a galley of Jennifer Holm’s Squish #3: The Power of the Parasite. Thanks again to all of our wonderful volunteers! The winners of the drawing for a bag of books each were: Julia Basil Kayla Meadows Congratulations everyone! http://cis.uky.edu/lis/
On the Blog and In the Center On the Blog: ARC Read & Review 2012! We have the following titles available for anyone who wants to read and review them for the McConnell Center blog at http:// youthlitmatters.wordpress.com/
Young Adult Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Our available titles are: Juvenile Fiction Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger
The Storyteller by Antonia Michaelis
In the Center: Join us for the McConnell Center Reading Club! Our next discussion will be a dinner discussion of A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness on April 14th, 2012,
Dying to Know You by Aidan Chambers Welcome, Caller, This is Chloe by Shelli Coriell
6pm–7:30pm in the Center. http://on.fb.me/MonsterCalls What should we discuss this summer? Help us decide here: http://bit.ly/SRPoll2012
Graphic Novel Explorer: The Mystery Boxes edited by Kazu Kibuishi
13 Hangmen by Art Corriveau
The Youthlitmatters Group Facebook Page is here: https:// www.facebook.com/ groups/249490781731022/
A Greyhound of a Girl by Roddy Doyle The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook by Joanne Rocklin Jinxed by Kurtis Scaletta, illustrated by Eric Wight
*New! You can now RSVP for Center Events via the following form: http://bit.ly/McConnellRSVP
About the Center A vital gathering place for books and ideas, the McConnell Center is committed to identifying excellent literature for children and adolescents and to bringing this literature to the attention of those adults who have an academic, professional, career, or personal interest in connecting young readers with books. We maintain two main, noncirculating collections: Our Current Collection includes all books sent to us for review by publishers during the current year. The Permanent Collection is several collections of books
http://cis.uky.edu/lis/
maintained in the Center as a resource for students and librarians. It includes the Basic Collection, the Awardwinning Collection (Caldecott, Newbery, Printz, Morris, Pura Belpré, Sibert, and Orbis Pictus Awards), the Kentucky Collection (notable Kentucky authors and books about Kentucky), the Reference Collection, and the Periodical Collection. Our Spring 2012 hours are Tuesday/ Thursday 12–5pm and Monday/ Wednesday 9–2pm. Please visit our website for more information: http://cis.uky.edu/lis/ mcconnellcenter
Contact us! Dr. Stephanie Reynolds stephanie.reynolds@uky.edu Rachel McGuire, GA remcguire@uky.edu
Visit us!
Lucille Little Library, 3rd Floor, Room 310 N Spring 2012 Hours: Tuesday/Thursday 12–5pm & Monday/Wednesday 9–2pm