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Page 12 • Cognotes 2014 Midwinter Highlights

2014 Amelia Bloomer List Highlights Feminist Books for Young Readers

The Amelia Bloomer Project, a product of the ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table's (SRRT) Feminist Taskforce, announced the 2014 Amelia Bloomer List at ALA's Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia.

The bibliography consists of well-written and illustrated books with significant feminist content, intended for young readers from birth to 18 years old. This year's list includes titles published between July 1, 2012, and December 31, 2013.

Named for Amelia Bloomer, a pioneering 19th century newspaper editor, feminist thinker, public speaker, and suffragist, the list features books about girls and women that spur the imagination while confronting traditional female stereotypes.

The bibliography is intended to aid children and teens in selecting high-quality books released over the past 18 months. It may be used for a recommended reading list for youth and those who interact with them and as a collection development or reader's advisory tool for interested librarians. The top 10 titles of the 2014 Amelia Bloomer List include:

Cummins, Julie. Flying Solo: How Ruth Elder Soared into America's Heart. Illustrated by Malene R. Laug-esen. Roaring Brook Press (978-1-5964-3509-4) Kindergarten-2nd grade.

Gevinson, Tavi (Ed.). Rookie Yearbook Two. Drawn & Quarterly (978-1-7704-6148-2) 7th grade-up.

Global Fund for Children. Global Baby Girls. Charlesbridge Publishing (978-1-5808-9439-5) Preschool.

Markel, Michelle. Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909. Illustrated by Melissa Sweet. Balzer + Bray (978-0-0618-0442-7). Kindergarten-4th grade.

Molloy, Aimee. However Long the Night: Molly Melching's Journey to Help Millions of African Women and Girls Triumph. HarperOne (978-0-0621-3276-5) 10th grade-up.

Mullenbach, Cheryl. Double Victory: How African American Women Broke Race and Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II. Chicago Review Press (978-1-5697-6808-2) 9th grade-up.

Povich, Lynn. The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace. PublicAffairs (978-1-6103-9173-3) 10th grade-up.

Schnall, Marianne. What Will It Take to Make a Woman President? Seal Press (978-1-5800-5496-6) 10th-12th grade.

Wishinsky, Frieda. Profiles: Freedom Heroines. Scholastic (978-0-5454-2518-6) 4th-6th grade.

Yousafzai, Malala with Christina Lamb. / am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. Little, Brown and Company (978-0-3163-2240-9) 8th-12th grade.

To view the complete annotated list, please visit the Amelia Bloomer Project blog, http://ameliabloomer.wordpress.com. SRRTs main website is hosted at http://libr.org/SRRT

Judy Blume Named Honorary Chair, National Library Week 2014

Judy Blume has been named the 2014 Honorary Chair of National Library Week, April 13-19, 2014.

This year, National Library Week will be celebrated with the theme “Lives change @ your library.”

As honorary chair, Blume will appear in print public service announcements (PSAs) promoting National Library Week. The PSAs, developed by the American Library Association's Campaign for America's Libraries, will be placed in magazines and online throughout the spring. ALA will also offer free customization of the PSAs for libraries.

Adults as well as children will recognize such Judy Blume titles as: Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret; Blubber; Just as Long as We're Together, and the five-book series about the irrepressible Fudge. She has also written three novels for adults: Summer Sisters; Smart Women; and Wifey, all of them New York Times bestsellers. More than 80 million copies of her books have been sold, and her work has been translated into 31 languages.

Blume is a longtime advocate of intellectual freedom. Finding herself at the center of an organized book banning campaign in the 1980s, she began to reach out to other writers, as well as teachers and librarians, who were under fire. Since then, she has worked tirelessly with the National Coalition Against Censorship and the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom to protect the freedom to read. She is the editor of Places I Never Meant To Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers, and is currently writing a novel.

Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits attendees fill the floor for the Exhibits Opening Reception on January 24.

2014 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature Winners Selected

The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), an affiliate of the American Library Association, has selected the winners of the 2014 Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature (APAAL). The awards promote Asian/Pacific American culture and heritage and are given based on literary and artistic merit.

The awards are given in five categories, with Winner and Honor books selected in each category. The winners of the 2014 awards include:

The Picture Book Winner is Red Kite, Blue Kite by Ji-li Jiang. Picture Book Honor was awarded to Barbed Wire Baseball by Marissa Moss, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu.

For Children's Literature, the Winner is The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata. The Vine Basket by Josanne La Valley was selected as the Honor recipient.

The Young Adult Literature Winner is Jet Black and the Ninja Wind by Leza Lowitz and Shogo Oketani. Young Adult Literature Honor was given to Gadget Girl: The Art of Being Invisible by Suzanne Kamata.

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki was selected as the Adult Fiction Winner. The Gods of Heavenly Punishment by Jennifer Cody Epstein is the Adult Fiction Honor title.

The Adult Nonfiction Winner is Citizens of Asian America: Democracy and Race during the Cold War by Cindy I-Fen Cheng, published by New York University Press. The Adult Nonfiction Honor Book is Garden of the World: Asian Immigrants and the Making of Agriculture in California's Santa Clara Valley by Cecilia M. Tsu.

The winners will each receive an award plaque at the APALA Award Ceremony on Saturday, June 29, 2014, during the ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas.

Free Content Available to Librarians on atyourlibrary.org ®

Librarians are encouraged to use and repurpose the articles on ALA's public awareness website, www.atyourlibrary.org, to highlight the resources available every day at libraries.

The mission of the atyourlibrary.org ® is to encourage people to connect with their library and librarians. Atyourlibrary.org ® accomplishes this by providing users with information and recommended resources that everyone can take advantage of at their local libraries. Content on the site targets teens, parents, and kids, seniors, job seekers, and many others.

The website is also home to the “You belong @ your library” story collection database. Stories found within the database are contributed by library users.

Librarians are encouraged to search the database for compelling stories to help raise awareness about the value of libraries with new audiences. Librarians can also use the database to further engage current supporters by asking them to share their own stories.

Information on atyourlibrary.org ® is available under a Creative Commons license that allows libraries to repurpose content in either an online or offline format. Content should be credited to atyourlibrary.org ®.

The website was launched with funding from Carnegie Corporation of New York, with additional support provided by Disney Book Group.

Atyourlibrary.org ® is part of the Campaign for America's Libraries, ALA's public awareness campaign that promotes the value of libraries and librarians. The Campaign is made possible by ALA's Library Champions, corporations, and foundations.