Across the country, April 19th through the 25th, libraries are celebrating National Library Week. Our students will celebrate the week with this year’s theme - “Find Your Joy!” by exploring the joy of reading with special activities and learning about the Caldecott and Newbery Medal Awards for children’s books sponsored by the American Library Association. Students will also “find their joy” in the book they choose to check out from the library.
Kindergarten through 3rd grades, will be read Caldecott Medal Books that include: Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes, The Hello Goodbye Window by Norton Juster, The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton, and The Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom. Since our students know that the Caldecott Medal is awarded for its illustrations, they will pay particular attention to the drawings on each page and their smiles exhibited just how much they enjoyed their story. Activities for each story and “find your joy activities topped off their time in the library.
Fourth Grade students took the challenge of both the Caldecott and Newbery Medals and are looking forward to designing their own book medals next library class. Then they will nominate books they feel should win an award and vote on a winner.
Fifth through eighth grades discussed the criteria for a book to be nominated for the Newbery Medal; “the book must be a contribution to American literature for children, the author must be an American citizen or reside in the United States, the book needs to be published by an American publisher in the United States in English during the preceding year. There are no limitations as to the character of the book considered except that it be an original work.” Afterwards, each student was given a list of all 104 Newbery winning books to look over and were asked to place a check or highlight books they have read and circle those they have heard of but not read. As they looked the list over, many students were surprised at the number of Newbery books they had actually read, and the amount of Newbery books that are available in our library.
Remember, libraries protect the right to read, think, and explore without censorship, standing as champions of intellectual freedom and free expression.