The Big Day!

Today is the day that the Youth Media Awards will be announced. I look forward to this day every year, but this year the excitement level is up. The Mock Caldecott group is fueling my enthusiasm with their own.


If you are interested in following them this morning the ALA's Youth Media Awards page will stream coverage for a limited number of viewers. I hope to get my computer turned on early enough to be one of those viewers. You can also get information about the winners by following on twitter. The hashtag is #alayma.


Our group will be meeting to hear the results, deconstruct the experience and evaluate.


Looking forward to a day of excitement and illumination.

Newbery Course with KT Horning

I haven't been blogging in the past six weeks. I just finished an online course through ALSC. The course, The Newbery Medal: Past, Present and Future, is led by the indomitable KT Horning. So instead of posting to my blog, I've been reading like crazy and posting to the course discussions.

I have wanted to take this class since I first heard about it. Several times I saw it listed and wanted to sign up so badly I could taste it. Each time the timing was unthinkable. This time I was not feeling much time on my hands. By all reckoning I was as busy as I ever have been. This time when I saw the course offering I thought “If not now, when?” So I signed up and had my mind expanded.

The cast of characters taking the course was rich and varied. The course is well planned out, the content is thoughtful and the experience has been really enlightening for me. Some of my long held beliefs have been shattered and new understanding is awakening in me. I am much richer for the experience. I would recommend this course to anyone with an interest in the Newbery Medal. I understand that the course will be offered again in the summer.

Between reading David Weinberger’s book in January and taking this course this month, my intellect has been stretched in new ways. It will take the rest of the year to digest and implement what I have learned. Meanwhile, I have a stack of books which have been waiting for me to get to them while I've been reading Newberys.