ALAN v24n2 - THE MEMBERSHIP CONNECTION

Volume 24, Number 2
Winter 1997


THE MEMBERSHIP CONNECTION

Chris Crowe

Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah

ALAN Election Results

Sissi Carroll, Chair of the ALAN election committee and Ted Hipple, Executive Secretary of ALAN, have announced the results of this year's election. President-elect: Lois Stover, St. Mary's College of Maryland. Board of Directors: Rita Karr, Sykesville (Maryland) Middle School; Terry Ley, Auburn University; and Suzanne Reid, Emory and Henry College (Virginia).

Who's Where in ALAN

Recent ALAN membership information shows that more than two-thirds of all ALAN members reside in the eastern US (I determined "eastern" as the states east of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas). ALAN members reside in all 50 states and in the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico. About 3% of the total ALAN membership live in Canada, and a handful of members are sprinkled in various exotic locations around the world.

The top 10 (actually 11 because of a tie) ALAN states are, in order, New York, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Illinois, Michigan, Connecticut, California, with Pennsylvania and Colorado tied for 10th. The states with the fewest number of ALAN members are, in descending order, Wyoming, North Dakota, Arkansas, Vermont, Mississippi, and Delaware.

1996 National Book Award for Young People's Literature

Victor Martinez received the 1996 National Book Award for Young People's Literature for his novel, Parrot in the Oven: mi vida (HarperCollins/Joanna Cotler Books) Martinez was honored and awarded $10,000 in ceremonies in November. This is the first winner in the newly created category.

Walter Dean Myers Wins the 1996 Anne V. Zarrow Award

Last August in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Walter Dean Myers was presented the 1996 Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature for his contributions to the field of literature for children and young adults. The award is sponsored by the Tulsa Library Trust. Previous honorees include Lois Lowry, Katherine Paterson, and Madeleine L'Engle.

New Editor at Book Links

July O'Malley was recently named the new editor of Book Links . O'Malley comes to Book Links from H.W. Wilson Company.

Change at Scholastic

The 10 year-old publishing program formerly known as Scholastic Hardcover has changed its name to Scholastic Press. "Our new name and colophon reflect our commitment to publishing hand-crafted books that contribute to literature for children," says Brenda Bowen, editorial director of Scholastic Press.

Censorship Volume

ALAN member Alleen Pace Nilsen recently served as guest editor of a special double issue on "Censorship in Children's and Adolescent Literature" for Para-Doxa: Studies in World Literary Genres . The volume contains more than 25 articles by scholars from around the world discussing the perspectives of censorship. Familiar names in the issue include Nilsen, Ken Donelson, Millicent Lenz, and Ursula K. LeGuin. The volume may be purchased for $20 by writing to Para-Doxa , PO Box 2237, Vashon, WA 98070. Nilsen may be contacted via e-mail at alleen.nilsen@asu.edu.

1996 Edgar Awards

Best YA Mystery:

  • Prophecy Rock by Rob Macgregor
Other Nominees:
  • Spying on Miss Muller by Eve Bunting
  • In the Middle of the Night by Robert Cormier
  • Angel's Gate by Gary Crew
  • Spirit Seeker by Joan Lowery Nixon
Best Juvenile Mystery:
  • Looking for Jamie Bridger by Nancy Springer
Other Nominees:
  • The 13th Floor by Sid Fleischman
  • Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix
  • Marvelous Marvin and the Pioneer Ghost by Bonnie Pryor
  • The Bones in the Cliff by James Stevenson
The Top Ten American Library Association's 1996 Best Books for Young Adults
  • Damned Strong Love , Lutz Van Dijk
  • Farm Team , Will Weaver
  • From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun , Jacqueline Woodson
  • In Search of Color Everywhere: A Collection of African-American Poetry , E. Ethelbert Miller
  • Ironman , Chris Crutcher
  • Middle Passage , Tom Feelings
  • Othello: A Novel , Julius Lester
  • Road Home , Ellen White
  • Thwonk , Joan Bauer
  • Tomorrow, When the War Began , John Marsden
  • The Watsons Go to Birmingham , Christopher Curtis
The complete list of ALA's Best Books for Young Adults, 1996 is available online at http://www.ala.org/alaorg/yalsa/alhp/message.html. It lists nonfiction and fiction.

Publishers Weekly 's Best Children's Books of 1996

The November 4, 1996, issue of Publishers Weekly announced its list of the Children's Best Books of 1996:

Fiction

  • Sees Behind Trees , Michael Dorris
  • A Girl Named Disaster , Nancy Farmer
  • The Cuckoo's Child , Suzanne Freeman
  • The Music of Dolphins , Karen Hesse
  • The Long Season of Rain , Helen Kim
  • Parrot in the Oven: mi vida , Victor Martinez
  • Zel , Donna Jo Napoli
  • Shiloh Season , Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
  • Jip, His Story , Katherine Paterson
  • The Golden Compass , Philip Pullman
  • Dangerous Skies , Suzanne Fisher Staples
  • Bad Girls , Cynthia Voigt
  • Belle Prater's Boy , Ruth White
International Reading Association's Young Adults' Choices for 1996

In a program coordinated by Literature for Adolescents Committee of the IRA, students in grades 7-12 from five regions in the U.S. read and voted on their favorite new books. Titles include fiction and nonfiction.

  • The Burning Time , Carol Matas
  • California Blue , David Klass
  • Cattail Moon , Jean Thesman
  • Come in from the Cold , Marsha Qualey
  • Crazy Weekend , Gary Soto
  • Deadly Deception , Betsy Haynes
  • Driver's Ed , Caroline Cooney
  • Fat Chance , LeslĂ©a Newman
  • Hannah in Between , Colby Rodowsky
  • Heartbreak and Roses: Real Life Stories of Troubled Love , Janet Bode and Stan Mack
  • In the Land of Giants: My Life in Basketball , Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues and David Levine
  • Into the Life of the Unicorns , Bruce Colville
  • It's Nothing to a Mountain , Sid Hite
  • Kerry, a Teenage Mother , Maggi Aitkens
  • Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade against Child Labor , Russell Freedman
  • Martin the Warrior , Brian Jacques
  • The Mennyms , Sylvia Waugh
  • Michael Jordan: My Life above the Rim , Robert Lipsyte
  • Missing the Piano , Adam Rapp
  • My Brother Has AIDS , Deborah Davis
  • Night of Fear , Peg Kehret
  • Phoenix Rising , Karen Hesse
  • Rama: A Legend , Jamake Highwater
  • The Shark Callers , Eric Campbell
  • Steal Away Home , Lois Ruby
  • Tell Them We Remember: The Story of the Holocaust , Susan D. Bachrach
  • Twice Taken , Susan Beth Pfeffer
  • Unconditional Surrender: U.S. Grant and the Civil War , Albert Marrin
  • Virginia's General: Robert E. Lee and the Civil War , Albert Marrin
  • Zoo Book: The Evolution of Wildlife Conservation Centers , Linda Koebner
Conference Announcements

The 17th Annual Children's Literature Conference at Northern Illinois University, "Venturing Forth with Humor and Hope," DeKalb, Illinois, March 14-15, 1997. Featured speakers include Paula Danziger, Lois Ehlert, Susan Lowell, Jamie Gilson, and Susan Pearson. For information, contact Jeanette Heinisch, College of Education External Programs, NIU, DeKalb, IL 60115. Phone: (815) 753-6926. Fax: (815) 753-9702. E-mail: JHeinisch@niu.edu

Modern Critical Approaches to Children's Literature, Nashville, Tennessee, April 10-12, 1997. Keynote speakers: Lois Kuznets and Perry Nodelman. For information contact Ellen Donovan by writing to PO Box 70, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN 37132, calling (615) 898-2653, or via e-mail edonovan@mtsu.edu.

The 10th BYU Symposium on Books for Young Readers, Provo, Utah, July 18-19, 1997. Featured speakers include Amy Cohn, Jean Fritz, Lois Lowry, Allen Say, Alice Schertle, and Barbara Williams. For more information contact the conference organizers by writing to 348 Harman Building, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602-1532, calling (801) 378-2568, or faxing (801) 378-3949.

Recent Books by ALAN Members

John Bushman and Kay Parks Bushman . Using Young Adult Literature in the English Classroom , 2nd edition (Merrill)

Ken Donelson and Alleen Pace Nilsen . Literature for Today's Young Adults , 5th edition (Longman)

Lois Stover . Young Adult Literature: The Heart of the Middle School Curriculum (Heinemann)