This is from the PubYac list. I think it’s a wonderful position that was created and cannot wait to see who will be the first to fill it.
Thanks and appreciation to Michelle F. Bayuk of the Children’s Book Council for sending it to the list and for permission to post on this blog.
LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS TO NAME
NATIONAL AMBASSADOR
FOR YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE
The Library of Congress announced today that, through its Center
for the Book, it will create the post of National Ambassador for Young
People’s Literature. Appointed for a two-year term by the Librarian of
Congress, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature will speak
to the importance of fiction and non-fiction books in children’s lives.
Selected for extraordinary contributions to the world of books for young
people, the National Ambassador will encourage the appreciation of young
people’s literature throughout the United States through both personal and
media appearances.
“The Ambassador will be an award-winning author or illustrator
whose position will acknowledge-at the national level-the importance of
exceptional authors and illustrators in creating the readers of tomorrow,”
said James H.
Billington, the Librarian of Congress.
The National Ambassador program is a joint initiative of the Center
for the Book in the Library of Congress and the Children’s Book Council
(CBC). The appointment of the first National Ambassador for Young People’s
Literature will be announced in January 2008.
“We are thrilled. The National Ambassador for Young People’s
Literature will honor and promote the essential role young people’s
literature plays in every aspect of our society,” said Simon Boughton, Chair
of the CBC Board of Directors and Executive Vice President & Publisher of
Roaring Brook Press.
The National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature will travel
and speak extensively during the two-year term, participating in book and
reading promotion events throughout the United States. While each term will
bring new events in different areas of the country, the National Ambassador
will speak in Washington, DC each fall at the National Book Festival and in
New York City each spring during Children’s Book Week.
The National Ambassador will choose a platform on which the
two-year term will focus.
This platform will emphasize literacy, education, and related issues
concerning books and young people. In addition to regular speaking
engagements, the National Ambassador will work with national media outlets
to promote this platform to an even wider audience.
The National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature position is
patterned after the Children’s Laureate in the United Kingdom. The Center
for the Book and the Children’s Book Council will administer the project
jointly, including naming the Selection Committee, overseeing the selection
process, and organizing the National Ambassador’s travel schedule.
The Selection Committee will consider all nationally-prominent
creators of fiction and non-fiction books for children and young adults in
the United States. Selection criteria will include, but will not be limited
to, level of national prominence and popularity with young people, as well
as the candidate’s known enthusiasm for specific issues in children’s and/or
young adult literature.
Financial support for the National Ambassador program is provided
by Cheerios(r) cereal, which has been getting books into children’s hands
and encouraging families to read together through its Spoonfuls of
Stories(r) program. Over the past 5 years, Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories
has distributed more than 25 million books free inside boxes of Cheerios
cereal, and donated more than $2 million to First Book(r), an international
children’s literacy organization. Additional financial support for this
program is provided by HarperCollins Children’s Books, Penguin Young Readers
Group, Random House Children’s Books, Holiday House, Inc., National
Geographic Children’s Books, Houghton Mifflin Company, Harcourt Children’s
Books and Candlewick Press. The CBC, through its associated 501(c)(3)
entity, the CBC Foundation, is seeking additional financial support for the
National Ambassador program from the private sector and encourages those
interested in supporting this exciting program to contact CBC and CBC
Foundation Executive Director, Robin Adelson at 212-966-1990 or
< mailto:Robin.Adelson@cbcbbooks.org>Robin.Adelson@cbcbbooks.org .
# # #
The Children’s Book Council, established in 1945, is the non-profit
trade association of publishers and packagers of trade books and related
materials for children and young adults in the United States. The goals of
the Children’s Book Council are to make the reading and enjoyment of
children’s books an essential part of America’s educational and social
goals; to enhance public perception of the importance of reading by
disseminating information about books and related materials for young people
and information about children’s book publishing; to create materials to
support literacy and reading encouragement programs; and to encourage the
annual observance of Children’s Book Week.
The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress was established
in 1977 by Public Law
95-129 to use the resources of the Library of Congress to stimulate public
interest in books and reading. Its entire program is supported by private
funds. To carry out its mission, the center has created two national
networks:
affiliates in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and national
reading promotion partners, mostly non-profit organizations, such as the
Children’s Book Council, that promote books, reading, literacy, and
libraries. The Center for the Book plays a key role in the development of
the National Book Festival, held each year on the National Mall in
Washington, DC.