The Center for Teaching through Children’s Books is dedicated to excellence in teaching with quality literature for children and adolescents.
ALA Booklist Editors’ Choice and Book Links Lasting Connections
Each year the editorial boards of the American Library Association’s Book Links and Booklist magazines each present a list of recommended picture books, novels, informational books, poetry, and collected stories. The Booklist Editors’ Choice list focuses on books combining popular appeal with literary excellence whereas the Book Links Lasting Connection List is created specifically with classroom use in mind. This February the Center will host the annual Booklist and Book Links Editors’ Revue.
USBBY Outstanding International Books
The United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) selects an annual list of Outstanding International Books for children and young adults, which is published each year in the February issue of School Library Journal and as a print bookmark. The Outstanding International Books (OIB) committee is charged with selecting international books that are deemed most outstanding of those published during the calendar year. For the purposes of this honor list, the term "international book" is used to describe a book published in the United States that originated or was first published in a country other than the U.S. The Center for Teaching through Children Books is the Secretariat office for USBBY.
IBBY Honour List
The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Honour List is a biennial selection of outstanding, recently published books, honoring writers, illustrators and translators from IBBY member countries. The titles are selected by the National Sections which can nominate one book for each of the three categories.
Hans Christian Andersen Award Nominees
The Hans Christian Andersen Awards are presented every two years by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) to an author and an illustrator whose complete works have made an important and lasting contribution to children’s literature. Dossiers and books of recent nominees from nearly 70 countries are on exhibit.
SCBWI-IL Local Authors and Illustrators
The Center showcases the talent of local authors and illustrators. In partnership with the Illinois Chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI-IL), we maintain a display of works created by Illinois authors and illustrators.
ALA/ALSC Growing Up Around the World: Books as Passports to Global Understanding for Children in the United States
The Growing Up Around the World collection is a project of the International Relations Committee of the Association for Library Service to Children. The purpose of this collection is to make available to American children, books that accurately depict contemporary life in other countries. The project includes bibliographies representing five regions: Africa; the Americas; Asia and the Middle East; Australia and New Zealand; and Europe.
ILA Children’s and Young Adult’s Book Awards
The International Literacy Association’s Children’s and Young Adult’s Book Awards are given for an author’s first or second published book written for children or young adults (ages birth to 17 years). Awards are given for fiction and nonfiction in each of three categories: primary, intermediate, and young adult.
National Book Awards for Young People’s Literature
The National Book Awards are given by the National Book Foundation with the goal of enhancing the public's awareness of exceptional books written by fellow Americans, and to increase the popularity of reading in general.
Peter Sís
Peter Sís is an award-winning author and illustrator from the Czech Republic. His works are known for embodying themes of imagination and identity. In this exhibit, we showcase the multitude of languages in which his books have been published. The Center partnered with the Consulates of the Czech Republic and Mexico to create a program culminating in the distribution of the Spanish edition of Peter Sís’s book, Madlenka, to school children at Orozco Fine Arts & Sciences School in the Pilsen area. Peter designed the logos used by Center for Teaching through Children's Books.