National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature
It’s Ambassador Scieszka to you. Yes, John Scieszka is the United States first National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. I don’t think they could have chosen a better author. Scieszka writes both children’s and young adults, especially for the age when most boys stop reading. The position, created by the Library of Congress, is for two-years and the ambassador will travel the country promoting reading. Jon stated in his interview for NPR, his own experience as an author teaching children to read for pleasure. He is looking forward to challenging the recent NEA report stating a decline in overall reading among young adults. Scieszka sees the importance of non-fiction titles and comic books as being included in good reading habits for kids. This is an exciting time for youth literature.
January 31st, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Name spelled ‘Jon’ - no ‘h.’
Some of Scieszka’s books: Pete’s Party; Zoom! Boom! Bully; Smash! Crash!; Squids Will Be Squids; Fresh Morals, Beastly Fable; Tut, Tut; Time Warp Series; Math Curse; The Book That Jack Wrote; The Good the Bad and the Goofy; The Not-So-Jolly-Roger; Knights of the Kitchen Table; Your Mother Was a Neanderthal; The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales; Frog Prince; The True Story of the Three Little Pigs… Lane Smith illustrated most of his older children’s books, David Gordon pairing with him now.