{"id":41466,"date":"2022-07-15T23:03:50","date_gmt":"2022-07-16T03:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=41466"},"modified":"2023-07-10T21:50:30","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T01:50:30","slug":"ala-annual-conference-day-two-authors-for-freedom-to-read-and-newbery-100-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=41466","title":{"rendered":"ALA Annual Conference Day Two – Authors for Freedom to Read and Newbery 100 Celebration!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I spent most of the Saturday of ALA Annual Conference in the exhibits, having a wonderful time. I got books signed by Nancy Pearl, Christina Soontornvat, Gail Jarrow, L. M. Elliott, and I’m sure several more people. I went to a lunch hosted by Scholastic Press where they gave us a nice tote bag filled with five books and had the five authors speak — so of course now I very much want to read all five books. They also gave some swag related to the books like these lovely pink glasses!<\/p>\n

I picked up lots more free advance reader copies in the exhibits, and had to make a trip to my car in the middle of the day so I could reload. Here’s how my pile looked after Saturday:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As you can see, restraint had gone out the window!<\/p>\n

I went to a talk by David Levithan with some teen DC Public Library interns talking about Freedom to Read. Here are some notes from him and the teens he was interviewing:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As of 2020, David Levithan was the 8th most banned author in America. Book bannings feel different now — it’s a national movement to ban books.<\/p>\n

Book banning always does more harm than good. <\/p>\n

Kids will still find out about the issue. But books give a fuller picture.<\/p>\n

Once teens get in the library, there’s always a chance they’ll pick up a book.<\/p>\n

How do you ban someone talking about their life story?<\/p>\n

Story isn’t a competitive thing. Movies and books don’t compete with each other.<\/p>\n

David Levithan taps into the universality of teen experience.<\/p>\n

He started in publishing as the editor of the Babysitter’s Club series — and he still edits the Babysitter’s Club series.<\/p>\n

Books don’t get banned as much if you actually have to read them to know there’s LGBTQ content. His books, such as Two Boys Kissing<\/em>, obviously have LGBTQ content.<\/p>\n

They’re trying to prey upon parents who are scared, to get people to run away from public education.<\/p>\n

Our literature has to be representative. Reading a story with emotions make LGBTQ kids feel they belong. The power of recognition.<\/p>\n

There isn’t an ounce of truth in the mud-slinging. He’s not writing to push buttons, but being truthful will push buttons.<\/p>\n

His new book, Answers in the Pages<\/em>, is about book challenges. (I did get a copy signed by him later!)<\/p>\n

The authors are in it together. The publishers don’t walk away, they double down.<\/p>\n

Now there are more books about LGBTQ Joy, not just trauma.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

After that inspiring session, I had more time in the Exhibit Hall. Besides picking up free books, I also talked with some vendor representatives our library purchases from and had the fun of mentioning that I’m the new Youth Materials Selector for my library system.<\/p>\n

And the day ended with a celebration of 100 years of the Newbery Medal!<\/p>\n

Besides that being very cool all by itself, I was looking for the room along with Megan Whalen Turner, one of my favorite authors, who won Newbery Honor with The Thief<\/a><\/em> in 1997. We helped each other find the room (She found the right hall, and I found the right door) and sat together.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The celebration was fun stuff — a film showing titles, with quotes from authors, a presentation of trivia, and a competition of authors vs. librarians of knowing detailed facts about their award-winning books. I’d read all the books featured, but hardly knew any answers — these were *very* obscure details!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After the formal program, many Newbery authors were doing giveaways and signings. I got an ARC from Meg Medina — along with a hug! She was the winner of the Newbery Medal the year I was on the committee. She has written the third and final book about Merci Su\u00e1rez, and I was delighted to get a signed copy.<\/p>\n

I went home “early” that day (leaving DC around 6 pm), but with a full heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spent most of the Saturday of ALA Annual Conference in the exhibits, having a wonderful time. I got books signed by Nancy Pearl, Christina Soontornvat, Gail Jarrow, L. M. Elliott, and I’m sure several more people. I went to a lunch hosted by Scholastic Press where they gave us a nice tote bag filled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[416,415,207],"class_list":["post-41466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conf-corner","tag-ala-annual-conference","tag-alaac22","tag-conference-corner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41466"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41558,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41466\/revisions\/41558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}