William Allen White Award Books Curriculum Guides

Taken from a post on KanLib-L submitted by

Barbara Stransky, Acquisitions Librarian and Sociologist

Kansas City Kansas Community College Library:

As in past years, the utilization of books selected for the William Allen White Children's Book Award master list has been enhanced with the addition of curriculum guides for use in teaching or preparing instructional units based on these books. These curriculum guides, written by Kansas teachers and librarians who volunteer to do this service, provide summaries along with discussion questions and suggested activities as well as bibliographic and author information for each title selected by the William Allen White Committee. These guides will help the books really come alive for our young readers in Kansas! Thanks so much to guide-writers Jane Burton, Bev Nye, Mary Ann Sadler, Mary Harmon, Wendy Morris, Kim Glover, Barbara Bahm, Retta Eiland, Barbara Clark-Evans, Vickey Long, and Amy Brownlee.

The guides for the 2009-2010 contenders for next year's award are now posted. Check out the WAW website at Emporia State University for the curriculum guides that can be used by teachers and librarians to encourage Kansas students to read these exceptional books, and vote for next year's award:
http://www.emporia.edu/libsv/wawbookaward/curriculumguides/cg09-10.html .
Studies by respected educators have shown that connecting discussions and activites with books used in classrooms is a truly effective teaching and learning strategy. "When highly qualified teachers and library media specialists value children's literature and know how to locate and use it effectively in collaboration with students, an environment where children learn can be created."
Nancy L. Williams and Patricia T. Bauer, Source:The Reading Teacher 60.1(Sept 2006):p14(9)

Two of My Favorite Library Quotes

Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest. -- Lady Bird Johnson

"Libraries can get you through times of no money better than money can get you through times of no libraries." -- Ann Herbert, The Whole Earth Catalog

Sorry for Lack of Postings

Hello Everyone,
I see by the Statistics Counter that this blog has had more than 1600 hits, most of them first time readers. I apologize for being slow to post in 2009. I retired on Dec. 15, 2008 and have been highly distracted. It's amazing how busy you can get when you stay home all the time. :)

I have several ideas for more postings -- particularly on universal topics like cataloging and basic librarianship. I promise to get back to the blog soon.

Kansas students pick 2009 William Allen White Children’s Book Award winners

News Release hot off the presses from Emporia State University

“Clementine,” by Sara Pennypacker and “Yellow Star,” by Jennifer Roy are the choices of Kansas schoolchildren for the 2009 William Allen White Children’s Book Awards.

The awards will be presented Oct. 10 in Emporia. The 57th annual ceremony will cap two days of activities ranging from author autographs to story telling, attracting school children from across Kansas.

Each year, approximately 50,000 third- through eighth-graders take part in naming the two White Award-winning books. “Clementine” was the choice of third through fifth graders, while “Yellow Star” won the sixth through eighth grade award. The books were among a list of 24 chosen by a selection committee for the students to consider.

Pennypacker’s “Clementine” is the first in a series chronicling the adventures of the eponymous eight-year-old who sorts through difficulties in her friendship with Margaret, her neighbor. Pennypacker has written seven children’s books, and lives on Cape Cod, Mass.

“Yellow Star” is Roy’s story of a four-year-old girl named Syvia, a Jewish girl who struggles to survive with her family in Poland’s Lodz ghetto during the Nazi occupation of World War II. The book is a novelization of the true experiences of the author’s aunt. Roy has written more than 30 books for children and young adults. She lives in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Pennypacker and Roy are first-time William Allen White Children’s Book Award winners. They have been invited to participate in the October awards presentation.

The White Awards program is the nation’s first statewide reader’s choice award. It is directed by Emporia State University and is supported by the Trusler Foundation. The program was founded in 1952 by Ruth Carver Gagliardo, a children’s literature specialist, to honor the memory of one of the state’s most distinguished citizens by encouraging Kansas schoolchildren to read and enjoy good books.

ABOUT THE BOOKS:

Pennypacker, Sara. Clementine. New York, Hyperion Books for Children, 2006.

Roy, Jennifer. Yellow Star. Tarrytown, NY. Marshall Cavendish, 2006.