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Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist

And the ALA Book Award Winners Are….

The ALA (American Library Association) Book Award Winners were announced on Monday, February 2nd at 8:00 AM.  The announcement took place as part of the ALA Youth Media Awards, which were presented at the ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibition in Chicago, IL.  Youth Media Awards recipients are determined by committees of librarians and other experts in literature and media.  Here are five of the 30+ book awards that were presented:

The Crossover  John Newbery Medal
  The Crossover
  by Kwame Alexander
published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

 

 

The Adventures of Beekle - The Unimaginary Friend  Randolph Caldecott Medal
  The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend
  by Dan Santat
published by Little, Brown and Company (a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.)

 

 

I'll Give You The Sun  Michael L. Printz Award
  I’ll Give You the Sun
  by Jandy Nelson
published by Dial Books (an imprint of Penguin Group USA, a Penguin Random House Company)

 

 

Brown Girl Dreaming  Coretta Scott King Book Award – Author
  Brown Girl Dreaming
  by Jacqueline Woodson
published by Nancy Paulsen Books (an imprint of Penguin Group [USA] LLC.)

 

 


Firebird  Coretta Scott King Book Award – Illustrator
  Firebird
  illustrated by Christopher Myers
written by Misty Copeland
published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons (an imprint of Penguin Group [USA] LLC.)

 

For more information on the ALA Book Awards, check out Joyce Valenza’s post on the School Library Journal website (In case you missed the hoopla live. . .).  Her post includes links to a list of all the 2015 winners, a webcast of the awards, and many other resources related to young adult books.

See also: Booklist: YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults, a part of the 2015 ALA Book Awards.

General, Public

7 Lucky Benefits of Libraries

We all have a reason to love libraries – the smell of the books, the quietness of the library, the organization of the stacks. . .  In her post, Jess Simpson of Bustle give us 7 Things Only Kids Who Practically Grew Up in a Library Can Understand.  One of the points?  Everyone benefits when knowledge is free and easy!  The public library provides a world of knowledge on nearly every subject you can think of – and it’s free for anyone and everyone.  Be sure to check out the other six on the list!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Recommended App: Photo Editor by Aviary

Photo Editor by AviaryRecently, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) came out with their 25 Best Apps for Teaching & Learning for 2014.  The apps were chosen because they foster innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration.

One of these apps is Photo Editor by Aviary.  It offers stickers and frames to add to photos as well as touch-up tools and filters.  AASL calls it, “a simple and easy introduction to photo editing.”

The free app is available on iOS and Android.  It is recommended for all grades K-12. Check out their video showing how the app works:

For more apps, check out our 2014-2015 Recommended App archive!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

YouTube’s New Beta Test

YouTube logoWe’ve all seen GIFs, read about them, maybe even tried our hand at them.  If you’re interested in creating GIFs (or if you’ve tried and it didn’t go so well), YouTube might be your new best friend!  The website is Beta-testing a service that allows users to make GIFs from their videos.  For more info, check out Gizmodo’s post by Chris Mills.

http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/cheering_minions.gif

Source: reactiongifs.com
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

The Minnesota Book Awards Finalists have been announced!

MNBookAwardsOn Saturday, January 31st, the finalists for the 27th Annual Minnesota Book Awards were announced.  4 books in each of the 8 categories were announced, for a total of 32 books.  Winners will be announced at the Minnesota Book Awards Gala on Saturday, April 18th.  To see the list of finalists and get more information about the Minnesota Book Awards Gala, click here.

For more information about other upcoming library events, take a look at our Event Listing.