A quick round-up of education and literacy related news and events for May:
- Two more weeks! There are just two more weeks until our 20th Annual Awards Luncheon on Friday May 13th. Tickets are still available for the event and can be purchased by visting the Events page on our website. Don't miss out on seeing this year's Max Warburg Fellows!
- Boston Public Schools has partnered with Swap.com for the Swap4Schools program. The program is a new and innovative way of helping schools receive the items and supplies they need. Schools are invited to create an account with a wishlist of materials for their classrooms. Swap.com then matches the school's needs with items available from community members' inventory. At a time when schools are facing increased budget cuts, this program will help deliver books, CDs, DVDs and other classroom items to the schools.
- A new study from the MA Department of Public Health found that 1 in 4 Massachusett's middle school students have been bullied. According to the Boston Globe, "the report found that students who said they had been involved in bullying, as both a perpetrator and a victim, were five times more likely to report they had been hurt physically by a family member." The study is one of the first of its kind and highlights the strong connection between school and family life. The survey was conducted in 2009 and released one year after MA lawmakers enacted a law that requires schools to adopt clear anti-bullying procedures.
- As part of National Library Week in April, the American Library Association released the 2011 State of America's Libraries report. Among the reports findings were some sobering statistics regarding school libraries: middle and high school libraries in high-poverty areas suffered the most budget cuts last year and saw decreases in book, video and periodical holdings. The full report (which includes new information about how libraries are approaching digital content) can be viewed on the ALA website.
- Upcoming Book Events: satirist David Sedaris will be at Harvard University's Sanders Theater in Cambridge on Saturday May 7th; Brookline Booksmith will host Kathryn Stockett, author of the best-selling novel The Help (soon to be a movie) on Wednesday, May 11th; the Diversity in YA tour (with authors Holly Black, Cindy Pon, Malinda Lo, and Francisco Stork) will come to the Cambridge Public Library on Thursday Mary 12th; and middle-grade fairy tale author Gail Carson Levine will read from her newest book at Wellesley Booksmith on Wednesday May 18th.
