Volume 1, Issue 5 Dec./Jan. 2011-2012
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
The McConnell Center for the Study of Youth Literature Happy Holidays from the McConnell Center! Happy Holidays from the McConnell Center! Upcoming holidays are: Hanukkah, December 20–28 Christmas, December 25 Kwanzaa, December 26–Jan 1
more correct answers will be entered into the drawing for one of four seats at the Author/Illustrator table at the banquet on March 23, 2012.
Participate in our 12-Days of Youth Literature Trivia Contest for a chance to win a seat at the Author/Illustrator table at the 2012 McConnell Conference!
Winner will be notified via e-mail by December 20th. Please note that registration for the McConnell Conference is not included. To claim their seat, winners will need to register and pay for the banquet by February 10, 2012. Unclaimed seats will be reassigned.
On weekdays, from December 1st through the 16th, we’ll post trivia questions about youth literature for you to answer. Questions will be posted at 9am, and answers will be accepted for 24 hours. Those who submit six or
Have a happy and safe holiday season!
Check Out: Penny from Heaven by Jennifer Holm It’s 1953 and 11-year-old Penny dreams of a summer of butter pecan ice cream, swimming, and baseball. But nothing’s that easy in Penny’s family. For starters, she can’t go swimming because her mother’s afraid she’ll catch polio at the pool. To make matters worse, her favorite uncle is living in a car. Her Nonny cries every time her father’s name is mentioned. And the two sides of her family aren’t speaking to each other! (Publisher’s Description)
If you enjoy Penny from Heaven, you might also like these titles: Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool A Corner of the Universe by Ann M. Martin Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer Holm Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo Jennifer Holm is one of our featured presenters for the 2012 McConnell Conference. You can register for the McConnell Conference here.
Table of Contents Happy Holidays! Penny from Heaven Events Reminder Mock ALA Youth Media Awards Winter Celebrations Bibliography New Year’s Bibliography Mock ALA Nominations January Youth Lit Author Birthdays YALSA Books for Teens Mock ALA Awards Spotlight Blog Information About the Center
44th McConnell Conference Save the Date: March 23rd and 24th at Embassy Suites Hotel, Lexington KY
Upcoming Events Reminder January 12, 2012 Back to School Warm Up Join us in the McConnell Center from 4–5:30pm for a snack and a hot beverage to get warmed up for the semester! Feel free to bring along your own snack and/or help us save the environment and bring your own covered mug!
March 23rd–24th, 2012 McConnell Conference 2012: Celebrate great children’s literature and meet our featured presenters this spring! Registration is now open. Check here for more information: http://bit.ly/McConnellConference2012
February 1, 2012 Connecting with Characters Contest: Encourage your students to submit their letters and artwork for a chance to win a signed book by one of our Conference authors. Full rules/guidelines here: http://bit.ly/CharactersContest
Mock ALA Youth Media Awards Nominations Nominate and vote for your favorite youth lit books of the year! Nominations for the McConnell Center’s Mock ALA Youth Media Awards are now open on our blog. You can nominate your favorite books published in 2011 for the Mock Printz, Newbery, and Caldecott Awards by leaving the title and author/illustrator name in the comment sections of the appropriate posts linked to the right.
Voting opened on December 4, 2011 and will close on January 21, 2012. Winners will be announced on January 22nd.
Vote here: http://bit.ly/McConnellMockVote
Winter Celebrations Bibliography Christmas Bunting, E. (2002). Christmas cricket. New York: Clarion Books. Buzzeo, T. (2011). Lighthouse Christmas. New York: Dial. dePaola, T. (1994). The legend of the poinsettia (Mexican folktale). New York: Putnam Juvenile. O’Connor, J. (2009). Fancy Nancy, splendiferous Christmas. New York: HarperCollins. Snickett, L. (2008). The lump of coal. New York: HarperCollins.
Hanukkah Heiligman, D. (2008). Celebrate Hanukkah: With light, latkes, and dreidels. Washington, DC: National Geographic Children’s Books. Kimmel, E. A. (1994). Hershel and the Hanukah goblins. New York: Holiday House. Melmed, L. K. (2005). Moishe’s miracle: A Hanukkah story. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. Polacco, P. (2000). The trees of the dancing goats. New York: Aladdin. Snickett, L. (2007). The latke who couldn't stop screaming: A Christmas story. San Francisco: McSweeney’s.
Kwanzaa Cooper, M. (2007). Seven days of Kwanzaa. New York: Cartwheel Books. Katz, K. (2003). My first Kwanzaa. New York: Henry Holt and Company. Medearis, A. (2000). Seven spools of thread: A Kwanzaa story. New York: Albert Whitman & Company. Otto, C. B. (2010). Celebrate Kwanzaa: With candles, community, and the fruits of the harvest. Washington, DC: National Geographic Children’s Books. Tokunbo, D. (2009). The sound of Kwanzaa. New York: Scholastic Press.
New Year’s Bibliography Bae, H. (2007). New clothes for New Year's day. London: Kane/ Miller Book Pub. Compestine, Y. (2001). The runaway rice cake. New York: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers. Compestine, Y. (2011). The runaway wok: a Chinese New Year tale. New York: Dutton Juvenile. Compestine, Y. (2006). D is for dragon dance. New York: Holiday House.
Haugaard, K. (2006). The day the dragon danced. Walnut Creek, CA: Shen's Books.
Ruelle, K. G. (2004). Just in time for New Year's!: AHarry & Emily adventure. New York: Holiday House.
Miller, P. (2011). Squirrel's New Year's resolution. Park Ridge, IL: Albert Whitman & Company.
Shea, P. D., To, N. & Pham, V. (2003). Ten mice for Tet! San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
Piernas-Davenport, G. (2007). Shante Keys and the New Year's peas. Park Ridge, IL: Albert Whitman & Company.
Silverman, E. (2003). When the chickens went on strike: A Rosh Hashanah tale. New York: Puffin.
Preus, M. (2008). The Peace Bell. New York: Henry Holt & Co.
http://www.uky.edu/CommInfoStudies/SLIS/mcconnellcenter/
Our Mock ALA Award Nominees Printz Nominees Kick (Myers & Workman) Entwined (Dixon) Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck (Engle) Every You, Every Me (Levithan) To Timbuktu: Nine Countries, Two People, One True Story (Scieszka) Between Shades of Gray (Sepetys) Underdogs (Zusak) Chime (Billingsley) This Dark Endeavor (Oppel) Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Taylor) A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Newbery Nominees Breadcrumbs (Ursu) The Flint Heart (Paterson) Okay for Now (Schmidt) The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale (Deedy & Wright) Wonderstruck (Selznick) Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans (Nelson) Inside Out and Back Again (Lai) Dead End in Norvelt (Gantos) The Trouble with May Amelia (Holm)
Caldecott Nominees Meadowlands: A Survival Story (Yezerski) Peaceful Pieces: Poems and Quilts about Peace (Grossnickle Hines) Little White Rabbit (Henkes) Bumble-Ardy (Sendak) Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku (Wardlaw) Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom (Evans) Jonathan and the Big Blue Boat (Stead)
January Youth Lit Author Birthdays J.R.R. Tolkien - January 3, 1892
Michael Bond - January 13, 1926
Katie Davis - January 4, 1959
Hugh Lofting - January 14, 1886
Jacob Grimm - January 4, 1785
Kate McMullen - January 16, 1947
Phyliss Reynolds Naylor - January 4, 1933
John Bellairs - January 17, 1938
Mary Mapes Dodge - January 26, 1831 Lewis Carroll - January 27, 1832 Vera B. Williams - January 28, 1927
Lynne Cherry - January 5, 1952 Bond Nancy - January 8, 1945 Walter R. Brooks - January 9, 1886 Robert C. O'Brien - January 11, 1918
Rosemary Wells - January 29, 1943 Robert Cormier - January 17, 1925 Lloyd Alexander - January 30, 1924 A. A. Milne - January 18, 1882 Polly Horvarth - January 30, 1957 Arthur Ransome - January 18, 1884 Rafe Martin - January 22, 1946
Jack London - January 12, 1876
Katharine Holabird - January 23, 1948
Charles Perrault - January 12, 1628
Jules Feiffer - January 26, 1929
Eza Trapini - January 12, 1954
Check out more youth lit author birthdays here.
YALSA’s Books for Teens December Challenge YALSA’s Books for Teens provides at-risk teens with free, high quality, new books to encourage them to succeed. Funds raised through Books for Teens are distributed to libraries in low income areas, where teens services librarians will purchase new books, encourage teens to get library cards, and provide teens with reading-focused events and activities. This year, a generous donor has offered to donate an additional $500 if Books for Teens can raise $500 in December. Help give teens books for the
holidays by making a donation of any size to YALSA’s Books for Teens. To make a donation, visit the “Support Books for Teens” page at: http://www.causes.com/ causes/552398-support-booksfor-teens Or you can also support Books for Teens by “liking” them on Facebook: https:// www.facebook.com/ booksforteens Please pass this information along and help Books for Teens meet their goal for December!
Mock ALA Awards Spotlight: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do.
And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.
But it isn’t the monster Conor's been expecting.
Ness, P. (2011). A monster calls. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.
He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming… The monster in his back garden, though, this monster is something different. Something ancient, something wild.
It wants the truth. (Publisher’s Description)
Patrick Ness wrote this story based on an idea of Siobhan Dowd’s. Ms. Dowd died of cancer before she could write the story. This one was nominated on the blog for the Mock Printz Award. We think it has a chance. How about you? Vote now at: http://bit.ly/McConnellMockVote
http://www.uky.edu/CommInfoStudies/SLIS/mcconnellcenter/
School Library Journal Announces their Best Books of 2011 here. Check it out: “Critical issues in Juvenile Detention Libraries” paper to be presented at YALSA’s Trends Impacting Young Adult Services for Midwinter. Read the article here.
On the Blog and In the Center On the Blog: For book reviews of new and upcoming youth literature, check out our blog Youth Lit Matters at: http:// youthlitmatters.wordpress.com/
In the Center: Join us on Facebook! We have a page for the McConnell Center here: https://
Here are some of the new titles we received this past month! Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi 12 Things to Do Before You Crash and Burn by James Proimos Prized by Caragh M O’Brien Desert Angel by Charlie Price
And a group called Youthlitmatters here: https://www.facebook.com/ groups/249490781731022/
www.facebook.com/ groups/164302160289842/
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 maintained in the Center as a resource for students and librarians. It includes the Basic
Collection, the Award-winning 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. The hours for the Spring 2012 semester will be Monday and Wednesday 9am–2pm and Tuesday and Thursday 12pm–5pm. Please visit our website for more information: http://www.uky.edu/ CommInfoStudies/SLIS/mcconnellcenter/
http://www.uky.edu/CommInfoStudies/SLIS/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 Fall Hours: Monday and Wednesday 12–5pm; Tuesday and Thursday from 9–2pm