Industry News
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First Book’s Community of Educators Tops 275,000, Provides Growing Insights, Market Power to Further Educational Equity
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A second grade teacher in Atlanta, the executive director of a literacy program in Nashville, and a school librarian in Lyman, Wyo. These are just a few of …
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Remembering Lois Duncan
By the time she was 13 year old, Duncan had published her first story. After winning the grand prize in a literary contest, Duncan published her first novel, Debutante Hill (1958). She …
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Carrying On After Orlando
Contributed by Ashley Woodfolk, Marketing Manager, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group
Weeks ago, when I signed up for a guest post in June, I had planned it to be a celebration of Pride month. I had planned to do a round-up of all my favorite YA novels that feature LGBTIA plus characters, like Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, I’ll Give You the Sun, Carry On, and Ask the Passengers. But I can’t write light-heartedly about how I love Simon Vs. The Homosapien Agenda almost as much as I love Oreos, or how Boy Meets Boy was the first book that made me really think about the things I’d been raised to believe, because 49 people senselessly died this month just because of where they were and who they love, and writing about books feels embarrassingly insignificant, if not completely impossible.
But when I sat down to write this post, I started thinking that maybe writing isn’t as insignificant as it feels. Maybe if stories like Two Boys Kissing weren’t being banned by schools or challenged by parents, more people would read them and understand that two boys kissing isn’t so bad. That two boys feeling safe enough to kiss is kind of beautiful.
Maybe if books like The Miseducation of Cameron Post were used to reeducate, the world would be a little bit better for girls who love other girls. For girls who have been told that loving another girl is wrong or bad or evil, and who believe it.
If more people were reading magical novels like Ash and The Raven Cycle, they’d realize that for most gay and lesbian people, finding love can sometimes feel like magic, just as it does for everyone else.
And maybe, if there were more stories out there like Not Otherwise Specified, None of the Above, If I Was Your Girl, and A + E 4ever, there wouldn’t be so much hate towards people we can’t fit into the neat little boxes we’ve created.
Stories like these need to be told, because people like the characters in these stories are real. They shouldn’t still be made to feel other—they shouldn’t have to hide or feel ashamed. And they certainly shouldn’t be killed during the one month of the year when they’re allowed to openly and proudly be their truest selves.
I wanted to write this post because too many people aren’t reading these stories. And we’ve all seen the explicit and physical danger of only having a single, flawed narrative with what happened in Orlando.
To everyone feeling the impact of this tragedy: You are loved. You are wanted. You are brave. My hope is that one day soon, you will be safe.
Embrace diverse books. Read a diverse story that may be a window into a world you know nothing about. It’s one small step we can all take, and it’s one of the few ways we, as individuals, can hope to change the world.
Ashley Woodfolk graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in English and her life-long love of books led her straight to the publishing industry. She’s a member of the CBC Diversity Committee and markets books for children and teens at Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and pit bull puppy, Winnie. Her debut young adult novel, Unraveling Lovely, is due out in Fall 2017 from Delacorte/Random House Children’s Books.
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The New York Public Library Challenges Kids and Parents To Read 20 Minutes A Day This Summer
New York, NY – In an effort to combat “summer slide” and keep kids and teens thinking over break, The New York Public Library has issued a challenge to all …
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YALSA Announces its Teens Succeed With Libraries Video Contest Winners
CHICAGO, IL — The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has announced the winners of its Teens Succeed with Libraries video contest. The contest was open to library staff and the …
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The Reading Experience of Kids and Adults
For Prose, the immersive reading experience of childhood is difficult to recapture as a mature reader, but still possible. Moser prefers to revisit favorite reads, allowing himself to turn off his …
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YA Roundtable
Though they write in different genres, the four authors are united by an enduring connection to the joys and struggles of young people, which makes their writing ring true. From the recent …
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YALSA Announces its 2016 Top Ten Summer Learning Programs
CHICAGO, IL — The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has announced its list of 2016 Top Ten Summer Learning Programs from its Teen Programming HQ contest. The top ten …
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2016 Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced
The 2016 Lambda Literary Award winner in the LGBT Children’s/Young Adult category is: George by Alex Gino, Scholastic Press 2016 Finalists: About a Girl: A Novel, Sarah McCarry, St. Martin’s Griffin Anything …
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2016 Ned Vizzini Teen Literary Prize Announced
The first-ever prize was presented on June 7 at the Brooklyn Public Library. The poetry winners were Kat Snoddy, Odelia Fried, and Lucy Berry. The prose winners were Stina Trollbäck, Adil Gondal, and …
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Reading Is Fundamental Implements Summer Reading Grant Initiative
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), the nation’s largest children’s literacy organization, announced the recipients of a Read for Success grant to promote summer reading, and help improve reading proficiency …
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Ezra Jack Keats “100th Birthday Blowout Weekend” In June Planned In Brooklyn To Celebrate Centenary Of Late Author-Illustrator
NEW YORK, June 2, 2016 — In honor of the late children’s author-illustrator Ezra Jack Keats’centenary, the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation is planning an “Ezra Jack Keats’ 100th Birthday Blowout Weekend,” …
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YA Authors Share Advice for Their Teenage Selves
Nicola Yoon (Everything, Everything) wishes she’d known as an adolescent that “the answers don’t matter as much as the asking“; Rosalind Jana (Notes on Being Teenage) proclaims that “you are enough as …
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11 Leading Educators Announced as Next Group of Heinemann Fellows
BOSTON, MA – Heinemann, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, today announced the 2016 class of Heinemann Fellows, a select group of accomplished educators who share the goal of advancing the …
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Dame Helen Mirren to Narrate Beatrix Potter’s Rediscovered ‘The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots’
NEW YORK, NY — Award-winning actress Dame Helen Mirren will narrate the recently rediscovered Beatrix Potter story THE TALE OF KITTY-IN-BOOTS (on sale September 6, 2016), her first audiobook recording. …
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Barnes & Noble Announces 20th Anniversary of Summer Reading Program That Gives Kids Across America the Opportunity to Earn a Free Book
New York, NY — Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the nation’s largest retail bookseller and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today announced the 20th …
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The 2016 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award Winners Announced
June 2, 2016, Boston, MA — The 2016 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award winners were announced today by The Boston Globe and The Horn Book in a video presentation that was …
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Kate DiCamillo Named National Summer Reading Champion
As a Summer Reading Champion, DiCamillo hopes to inspire children of all ages to take advantage of all that their local libraries have to offer. Books give me an understanding …
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“LGBTQ Writers in Schools” Program Coming to New York City
Los Angeles, CA (May 25, 2016) – Lambda Literary, the global leader advancing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender literature, today announced a historic partnership with the New York City Department …
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Authors for Earth Day Kid-Driven Donations Surpass $50,000
From the United States to Israel, thousands of eager students were inspired by this year’s amazing line-up of A4ED authors: Dan Gutman, Linda Crotta Brennan, Jody Feldman, Miri Leshem-Pelly, Peter Lourie, Patricia Newman, Miranda Paul, Jeanie Franz Ransom, Amy …
