Sanderson Library News- February 2025
The 2025 Youth Media Awards took place on Monday, January 27th. These annual awards are given to authors and illustrators every year by the American Library Association. The most familiar ALA awards are the Newbery Award for outstanding children’s literature and the Caldecott Award for outstanding illustrations, but there are many others! You can check out the full list of winners and honorees here (and add them to your family’s reading list!).
In the Sanderson library, younger grades took part in a mock Caldecott and older grades took on a mock Sibert (The Sibert Award is for the most outstanding children’s nonfiction book). After reading a few “contenders” for this year’s awards, classes voted for their favorite. Younger grades chose The Yellow Bus, by Loren Long, while older grades voted for Life After Whale, the Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall by Lynn Brunelle and Jason Chin. The actual Caldecott winner was Chooch Helped by Andrea L. Rogers, and the Sibert Winner was (to the chagrin of the upper grades) Life After Whale by Lynn Brunelle and illustrated by Jason Chin!
One of my favorite parts of the week is when preschool visits the library. For kids this age, the library is literally a magical place, full of wonder, surprise, and discovery. They are also up for absolutely anything. Pretend I’m a hibernating bear? Yes, please. Make my best grumpy face like Jim Panzee in Grumpy Monkey? No problem. Parachute our stuffed “reading buddies” into the air while making a giant pretend-sneeze like the bear in Jan Brett’s The Mitten? Yes! Preschoolers delight in this kind of uninhibited play 100%, because it is how they learn best.
Each week, I hide an item in a “magical bag” that is hanging on my read-aloud chair and I write a preschooler’s name on the adjacent whiteboard. When a preschooler discovers their name (akin to winning the lottery), they get to come to the front of the circle and reveal the item from the bag. The item is always something that provides a clue to what the read-aloud will be, and they love to guess. Preschoolers thrive on ritual, and the magical bag has set a precedent that books are special and full of the unexpected.
Sometime in the last couple of years, preschoolers started their own ritual of surprise with me during browse and borrow. When a student has found their book, they line up to check it out at the circulation desk, hiding it out of my sight. With a twinkle in their eye, they make me guess the book they’ve picked. I offer three guesses to each student before they make the big reveal, and I am always wrong (which they love). In this way, I have gotten to know the tastes and personalities of each student, which in turn helps me to find books for them. The books from this grant project will provide a much-needed update for our library’s picture book section. This grant will inspire new read-aloud activities, increase circulation, and will greatly help me to carry out my mission to inspire a love of reading in students of all ages.
