Notes from The Max

Celebrating 20 Years of Courage

This past Sunday, The Max celebrated its 20th Anniversary with a Celebration and Recognition Dinner at the Boston Public Library. The event marked The Max's twenty years of dedication to literacy, courage and character development and took time to thank the donors and friends who have supported the organization throughout the years.

The dinner was held in the library's majestic Bates Hall Reading Room, the perfect place to honor the Courage Curriculum's two decades of work instilling in Boston’s children a love of reading and writing and the capacity to recognize moments of courage in their own lives. The Nor'Easters, a co-ed a cappella group from Northeastern University, helped welcome guests to the library by singing during the cocktail hour and set the tone for a joyous evening. Throughout the night, guests were also encouraged to embrace their silly side by creating their own flip book, courtsey of Flip Chix.

Thank you so much to everyone who came out for this event. We are especially grateful to our our 20^th Anniversary co-chairs, Carrie Bell, Suzanne Bloomberg, Ann Gund and Alicia Winn, as well as our guest speakers - 2010 Max Warburg Fellow Jordan Zayas and teacher Dawn Avery - and, of course, Stephanie, Jonathan and Fred Warburg.

We truly appreciate all you do to help The Max. With your generous support, the Courage Curriculum is able to reach thousands of children annually and make a distinctive contribution to the children of Boston. We are so grateful and honored that you were a part of this wonderful event.

Spring Literary Notes

A quick round-up of March literary news, along with a few reminders:

• Don't forget - our 20th Annual Awards Lucheon is just seven weeks away. Circle Friday May 13th on your calendar and watch our Events page for more information. You don't want to miss the chance to meet this year's Max Warburg Fellows and celebrate 20 years of courageous children. 
• Mark the date! The 3rd annual Boston Book Festival will be held on Saturday October 15, 2011 in Copley Square from 10am to 6pm. The Max will be there once again, handing out copies of The Courage of Boston's Children and answering questions about our programs. It's a great event with something for everyone! 
• Are you a child or teen (or something in between)? Do you know one? Online voting is now open for the Children's Book Week's Children's Choice Awards. As part of Children's Book Week, readers of all ages can vote for their favorite books of the year. Winners will be announced during the CBW celebrations, which will be held from May 2nd to the 8th.
• Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has proposed moving the headquarters of the Boston Public School Department to Dudley Square as part of effects to revitalize that Dorchester neighborhood.The proposed move would bring the school department employees closer to the schools and the students they serve. 
• March is Red Cross Month - to help support the Red Cross and the work it does, considering bidding on some of the items in the Writers for the Red Cross auction. Each week in March, various publishing-related packages and services are being auctioned off, with the proceeds going towards the American Red Cross. Inspiring authors can bid on critiques by editors while book fans can score bundles of books by their favorite authors. Visit the website for more information.  
• Should students be required to read 50 books each year as part of the curriculum? The British Education Secretary believes so. After a recent tour of American charter schools, Michael Gove believes Britain needs to "raise the bar" on childhood reading. While many British authors agree with Mr. Gove that reading should be a fundamental part of school, many point to the large number of library closures in England as the real problem. Other authors said that quality - and not quantity - mattered more. What do you think? 

Literary March Madness

Leave the basketballs to the sports fans and grab your books!

It's March Madness and while basketball aficionados are glued to the television watching their favorite teams play game after game, literature fans have their own way of celebrating with several annual "battle of the books." Various publications and websites hosted battles relating to literary fiction, fantasy novels, children's book and even cookbooks; there's something for every reader.

Each year, School Library Journal takes charge of the children's and young adult March Madness by hosting The Battle of the Kids' Books. During this friendly competition, 16 of the very best children's books from the previous year are pitted against each other. Led and moderated by the Battle Commander, SLJ selects judges from the children's literature world to read, then choose, between two of the books. This year's judges include well-regarded authors such as Francisco Stork, Mitali Perkins and Grace Lin.

Choosing between two worthy, but often quite different, books is a difficult task for these judges. Many times, several of the books have won numerous awards - how can one possibly stack up against another? Each judge writes a blog post explaining his or her thought-process and, essentially, defending his or her ultimate choice. Some judges even get creative with their decision - author Barry Lyga wrote his as a one-act play between himself and his clone. Readers participate by voting for their favorite book in the "Undead" poll, which gives the winner a second chance and allows that book to come back from "the dead" to battle against the final two contenders.

There are always surprises during the Battle of the Kids' Books and 2011 is no exception. Among them: One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia has already been knocked out of contention in round one! Williams-Garcia book was a 2011 Newbery Honor book, winner of the 2011 Coretta Scott King Book Award, winner of the 2011 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction AND a 2010 National Book Award finalist. And yet it seems even the mighty One Crazy Summer couldn't stand the heat of Battle of the Books.

Though it may come back in the final round as the "Undead" winner, Williams-Garcia's loss proves that during March Madness - even March Madness with books - anything can happen.

2011 Amelia Bloomer Project List

There are many books available that encourage young readers to dream big and celebrate what makes them unique. Each year, the Amelia Bloomer Project, part of the ALA's Feminist Task Force, sets out to find and recommend the best books for young girls - and boys - from birth to age 18.

Each recommended book has significant feminist content, excellent writing and is age appropriate for a specific age group. These books celebrate and honor strong, smart girls - many of whom act courageously to break barriers, bring about change and help others - and give children of all ages (and genders) examples to look up to.

Amelia Bloomer Project's Recommended Titles are divided into three categories: young readers, middle readers and young adults. Each category is furth divided by fiction and nonfiction. The AB Project also releases a Top Ten list, featuring books that are appropriate for all ages.

The Amelia Bloomer Project is currently accepting field nominations for its 2012 list. If you have a book you would like to nominate, read through the book criteria and then fill out a form. Nominations are open until October 1, 2011.

Best of 2010

As the year winds down to a close, here is a look at some of the best children's and young adult books from 2010.

• School Library Journal released its "Best of 2010" list, divided into fiction, nonfiction and picture books. According to SLJ editors, fantasy books continue to dominate the top spots, with books that are "frightening, edgy, wildly funny, electrifying, and magical, with protagonists fighting evil in brilliantly created new landscapes, realms, and kingdoms, as well as in our world."
• SLJ also released its list of the Best Adult Books For Teens, books that are typically published for adult audiences but that will also appeal to older teen readers. This list has fiction and nonfiction selections and includes one of the most buzzed-about books of 2010, Emma Donoghue's Room.
• Kirkus Reviews divded its list of top 2010 books into children's and teens categories, then further subdivided the books by genre (such as books that "make you think," sci-fi and historical fiction). Kirkus culled their list from the thousands of reviews they write each day, selecting the best of the very best.
• Like SLJ, Publisher's Weekly distinguished their best 2010 children's and YA books by sorting them into three categories: fiction, nonfiction and picture books. The fiction category contains books for both middle grade and high school readers, and includes many of the books that earned starred reviews from PW earlier in the year.
• Boston-based children's publishing magazine Horn Book offered up their Fanfare 2010 list, revealing its best children's and young adult books of the year. In addition to picture, fiction and nonfiction books, Horn Book also singles out folklore and poetry books.
• Bookselling powerhouse Amazon.com goes into great detail with its Best Books of 2010 lists: there are lists for both middle grade readers and teens, and editors' picks and customer favorites. And for those tech-savvy readers with a Kindle or e-reader, Amazon also lists its choices for the best e-books of the year. 
• If the above selections weren't enough, there are list "best of 2010" lists from Barnes and Noble and the Columbus Dispatch and for local readers, Boston Globe's 10 Glittering Stars of 2010.

Several books appeared on a number of lists, indicating both widespread popularity and critical acclaim. These titles include Alchemy and Meggy Swan (Karen Cushman), Revolution (Jennifer Donnelly), Incarceron (Catherine Fisher), One Crazy Summer (Rita Williams-Garcia), Will Grayson, Will Grayson (John Green and David Levithan), Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins), Countdown (Deborah Wiles) and Fever Crumb (Philip Reeve).

Taken all together, these lists provide a glimpse into a year in children's and young adult publishing. And, as we move towards the new year, more books will start to get their time in the spotlight as we anticipate the Newbury and Printz awards, which will be announced at the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting in January.

December News from The Max

December - and cold weather - are officially here. In between holiday shopping and seasonal parties, you may have missed some of the literary-related news in recent weeks, so here's a quick overview from The Max:

• Finalists for a couple of American Library Association Youth Media Awards have been announced. YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association, a branch of the ALA has revealed the five finalists for the Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults award and the William C. Morris Award, which honors a book written for teens by a previously unpublished author. The nonfiction finalists include Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing; They Call Themselves the KKK; Spies of Mississippi; The Dark Game; and Every Bone Tells a Story. The Morris finalists are: Hush; Guardian of the Dead; Hold Me Closer, Necromancer; Crossing the Tracks; and The Freak Observer. The winner will be announced at ALA's Midwinter Meeting in January, along with the winners of the Newbery, Caldecott and Printz awards.
• Saturday December 4th was the First Annual Take Your Child to a Bookstore day. The grassroots campaign was started to encourage parents and guardians to bring their children to a bookstore and hopefully instill a lifelong love of reading. Bookstores across the country - including some in Medford and Andover, MA - particpated by scheduling family-friendly activities. Organizers hope to make this event a yearly occurance.
• A new social networking site called Figment is aimed at literary-minded teens. The project, which launched on Monday December 6th, allows teen writers and readers to post their own writing - whether it's a novel in progress, short stories, poems or more - and then give and receive feedback from the community of users. Approximately 4,000 teens registered as Figment users in the first day. 
• Scholastic, which is the largest publisher and distributor of children's books, recently released a list of the top 10 trends in children's literature for 2010. Among the popular trends are a growing young adult audience (thanks to the many adults who read YA), an increased interest in both dystopian fiction and mythology-based stories, more books in a diary or journal style and less attention on picture books.

Any big stories you think we missed? Let us know in the comments!

National Book Awards, 2010

Last night, in New York City, the National Book Foundation awarded its 2010 National Book Awards to four deserving authors. The National Book Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the previous year. Along with the National Book Critics Circle Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, the NBAs are one of the three most prestigious book awards given to American authors. Some even describe the NBAs as the "Oscars of the literary world."

The 2010 NBA for Young People's Literature went to Kathryn Erskine for her novel, Mockingbird, which tells the story of Caitlin, an 11-year-old with Asperger's syndrome, who must learn to cope with the death of her older brother. In her acceptance speech, Erskine credited her mother with teaching her to learn about the "why's" of the world.

The other finalists in the Young People's Literature category included Paolo Bacigalupi (Ship Breaker), Laura McNeal (Dark Water), Walter Dean Meyers (Lockdown), and Rita Williams-Garcia (One Crazy Summer). The winner and the five finalists were selected from more than 200 submitted titles.

Other winners of the night: Jaimy Gordon in the Fiction category for Lord of Misrule; Patti Smith in the Nonfiction category for Just Kids; Terrance Hayes in the Poetry category for Lighthead; and Tom Wolfe for the lifetime achievement award (Distinguished Contribution to American Letters award). The Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community was given to Joan Ganz Cooney, one of the driving forces behind the Sesame Workshop and Sesame Street. 

You Are What You Read

Think back to your childhood and adolescence, maybe even your early young adult years. Which books stand out the most? Which books made the biggest impact on your life? Scholastic is asking everyone to consider which five books had the biggest effect on their lives, then list them on a new social networking website called You Are What You Read.

According to the website, You Are What You Read "provides a unique opportunity for readers all over the world to connect with each other through their shared bookprints, as Scholastic celebrates the books that bind us together and make us who we are today."

Readers are encouraged to create their own bookprints, lists of five books that "left an indelible mark on our lives, shaping who we are and who we become." Then, they can exchange messages with other readers who have listed the same or similar books on their bookprints. The interaction allows for readers to promote literacy and their favorite books, while engaging with new people online and discovering new books to read.

Users can even view and compare booklists by celebrities, including President Bill Clinton, Taylor Swift, Ellen DeGeneres, and Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe. You Are What You Read also features special sections for educators, librarians and authors. Readers of all ages can participate, though Scholastic did create versions for both young readers and adults. Lesson plans for teachers wanting to use You Are What You Read in the classroom are forthcoming, as is an area for children to have a deeper social media experience through their reading preferences.

Scholastic is a global education, publishing and media company dedicated to children's literacy. You Are What You Read was created as part of Scholastic's 90th anniversary celebration.

Teen Read Week

The American Library Association (ALA) and the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) are celebrating Teen Read Week this week, using the theme "Books with Beat" to encourage teens to consider reading poetry or books about music or even to listen to audiobooks. The goal of Teen Read Week is to remind teens just how fun reading for pleasure can be.

During this particularly difficult year for libraries due to budget cuts, this year YALSA teamed up with publishers to offer mini-grants to school and local libraries so they could purchase much-needed materials and books for teens. 10 libraries across the country were awarded $450 for projects and programs specifically aimed at teen readers.

As always, part of Teen Read Week involves the unveiling of the Teens' Top Ten, a list of favorite books selected by and for teens. This year, all of the Teens' Top Ten were written by women and the list included well-known novels such as Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson and If I Stay by Gayle Forman. According to YALSA, more than 8,000 teens voted for the top ten list.

For more information about Teen Read Week, please visit YALSA's website.

October Literacy News

As we continue to work on our plans for the 20th anniversary and prepare for both the Boston Book Festival and the 7th Annual Take It to the Max, here's a brief look at a few of the literacy and education related news items for October:

• October is National Bullying Prevention Month. Education.com has numerous resources for parents, teachers and educators, while middle-grade and YA author Mitali Perkins has compiled a list of MG and YA novels that specifically tackle the subject of bullying. 
• If you plan on attending the Boston Book Festival on October 16th, consider participating in One City, One Story. An initiative of the BBF, One City, One Story is encouraging Boston and Massachusetts readers to come together to read a short story by a well-known Boston author, culminating in a large-scale group discussion at the BBF. Organizers chose Tom Perrotta's "The Smile on Happy Chang's Face" as this year's selection. BBF is even giving away free copies - to find out more, visit their website.
• For teachers and parents/guardians looking for ways to encourage readers, there's a new resource available: Roger Hutton and Margaret Parravano, editor in chief and executive editor, respectively at the Horn Book Guide, have recently published A Family of Readers: A Book Lover's Guide to Children's and Young Adult Literature. Divided into sections by age, it offers essays from notable authors and many suggested book titles, both for families to read together and for older children to read on their own. 
• Nominations are now being accepted for the 2010 Children's and Young Adult Blogger's Literary Awards (CYBILs). Anyone can nominate a book in one of 12 categories, including middle-grade fiction, young adult fiction, science-fiction and fantasy, graphic novels and non-fiction. Nominations will be accepted until October 15th. Finalists will be announced in January 2011, with the winners named in February 2011. 
• Students with a flair for writing have a chance to see their original stories appear on Mrs. P's Story Time website, a site dedicate to children's literacy. The writing contest is open to students age 4-13 and will be accepting submissions until October 15th. Winning stories will be read aloud by Mrs. P herself and the winning students will receive a bound and illustrated copy of their story. For more details, please visit the website.