Meet the 2024 CLEL Bell Awards Committee

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 …

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Favorite 2022 Books for Storytime

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 …

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Remembering April Pulley Sayre

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 …

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2022 CLEL Bell Award Winners!

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. …

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Immigrant Voices in Picture Books

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 …

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Let’s Talk About Nonfiction

By Jamie H. More wonderful picture books for readaloud come out every month, so many it’s hard to keep up–and that’s in addition to beloved works from decades past. Even so, limiting yourself to the picture book section when choosing storytime books or recommending titles to little customers would be a serious error. Include nonfiction: …

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