From: Hendon, Alison <A.Hendon>
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 15:26:37 -0500

Richie wrote: 1. YALSA desperately needs to institute an informational book award, a companion to the Sibert. That this year's Printz committee had the good wisdom to award JOHN LENNON a Printz Honor does not negate this fact. Nevertheless, as I stood/sat through the press conference, it was so exciting and satisfying to learn that Betsy Partridge's book would actually have a well-deserved medal on it. And Waller added:
 Please note that the National Council of Teachers of English has for several years awarded its annual Orbis Pictis Award to the outstanding work of non-fiction for young people. This doesn't mean the ALA, or one of its councils, might not choose to offer such an award - simply to point out that there is already a significant national award for precisely this purpose. To which I continue, The books nominated for the Orbis Pictis award have another criterion: "In addition, each nomination should be useful in classroom teaching grades K-8" To me, that means that the Orbis Pictis and the Sibert Awards are both for the same age level. There is no specific nonfiction/informational book award for older readers, though the Printz award is not limited to fiction. I agree with Richie in that we need more YA awards.

Alison
Received on Mon 30 Jan 2006 02:26:37 PM CST