Kate Fitzpatrick, a 2024 CLEL Bell Awards Committee Member, talks about two titles she’s been using and loving in her storytimes. These are titles that were suggested for the practice of PLAY for the 2024 CLEL Bell Award. Enjoy! Kate Fitzpatrick (she/her) Kate Fitzpatrick is a Bilingual Children’s and Teens’ Librarian for Longmont Public Library. …
By Alison Loewen, Librarian at Mead Public Library in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and member of 2024 CLEL Bell Awards Selection Committee I recently attended the annual American Library Association conference in Chicago. The event is a whirlwind of educational presentations and an exhibit hall filled with authors and illustrators, product vendors, universities, publishers, and others sharing …
by Karen Walker, Kids and Families Core Service Librarian, Jefferson County Public Library, Colorado, member of the 2024 CLEL Bell Awards committee “Have any of you been camping? ¿Alguien ha ido a acampar?” That was the question Rodney the Rat with his little backpack asked the kids at storytimes in May at one of my …
For the first time, we’ve expanded our committee to include 17 members, 9 returning and 8 new members. We are so excited to welcome our new members and start work as a committee. Before our work begins, we wanted to introduce all our committee members and include some of their very impressive resumes. Melanie Borski-Howard …
by Alex McCall / Douglas County Libraries It is easy to convince a librarian that speaking, talking, and reading to children from birth is a vital component of early literacy. From day one, babies’ brains develop neural pathways based on their caregivers’ words, intonations, and gestures that lay the foundations for them to read later …
Notes from the Member Meetup by Kelly Allan, CLEL Steering Subcommittee Chair At November’s Member Meetup, attendees talked about some of their favorite storytime reads published in 2022. We also discussed trends we noticed in picture books this year such as the continuation of themes of diversity, consent, and environmental justice. Our meeting attendees’ 2022 …
April is National Poetry Month and the perfect time to remember author and photographer, April Pulley Sayre. Although she never self-identified as a poet, her lyrical rhymes and rhythms partnered with stunning nature photography have always been on my list of go-to picture books when I want to share poetry with young children. And there …
The CLEL Bell Picture Book Awards are an annual recognition of five high-quality picture books that provide excellent support of early literacy skills for young children in each of five categories: read, write, sing, talk, and play. Eligible books were published or distributed in the United States between November 16, 2020 and November 15, 2021. …
¡Saludos a todos! When chatting with our awesome intern Liz about libros en español, it came up that I am currently selecting the Picture books in Spanish (E Fic and E Non Fic) for Jefferson County Public Library. She wondered if I could share a blog about my experience thus far. ¡Por supuesto! I have …
By Amanda Romero, Librarian, New Americans Project Ten percent of Coloradans, and 16% of Denver residents, are foreign-born (American Community Survey). Over one-third (36%) of Denver’s children are immigrants or have at least one immigrant parent (Kids Count Data Center). And 130,000 people in the Denver metro area, a full 37% of Denver’s immigrants, are …
