Award Books Display

Each month, in my Media Center, I feature a different award winning book.  The library itself is very small, and display space is at a premium.  So I’ve taken what we teachers refer to as butcher paper, and I’ve shifted some shelves of books around in my Biography shelving unit, to make a small, three-shelf display area for these award-winning books.  I try to pair each award with a monthly theme, when possible.  For example, right now I have the Pura Belpre Award winners displayed, and this coincides with Hispanic Heritage Month (running from September 15-October 15).  Other award books that spend a month on my display include:

Michael L. Printz Award	For books that exemplify literary excellence in YA literature.
John Newbery Medal	For the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
Schneider Family Book Award	Honors books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.
Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal	For the most distinguished informational book
Mildred L. Batchelder Award	For a children's book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country, and subsequently translated into English and published in the United States.
Laura Ingalls Wilder Award	Honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.
Alex Awards	Given (annually) to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.
William C. Morris YA Debut Award	Honors a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens and celebrating impressive new voices in young adult literature.

*Note:  All award descriptions are taken from the American Library Association, at www.ala.org/awardsgrants

When a class comes to the library for checkout, I always promote these books to the students.  I usually start by saying, “Are you a winner?  Then you should be reading award-winning literature!”  My display includes (and I always mention) the description of why the award is given.  I give book talks on some of the titles.  Some teachers have even gotten on board with this initiative, giving extra credit for reading one of the award titles.  I’ve also run contests on the books.  For example, last year I did a contest with the Coretta Scott King Award books and told the students that anyone who checked out one of the books and passed its Reading Counts quiz would be invited to a pizza party.  I had about a dozen students do this, and the most memorable was a Caucasian sixth grade boy who gushed on about how awesome the book he read was.  The book had two female protagonists, one African-American, and the other White.  It was Jacqueline Woodson’s I Hadn’tMeant to Tell You This.  This just reinforced, to me, the importance of not only exposing kids to multicultural literature, but also encouraging them to read and discuss it.  

My current Pura Belpre Award Book Display