Child Book

Child Book Council

Last Updated Oct 5, 2008 03:22 AM

The Children's Book Council (CBC) is a nonprofit trade association whose membership consists of U.S. publishers and packagers of trade books for children and young adults, and producers of related literacy materials. The CBC promotes the use and enjoyment of children's trade books and related materials and disseminates information about trade book publishing; the Council is also the official sponsor of Young People's Poetry Week and Children's Book Week. The Council works with its members and educational organizations and professionals to bring books and young people together and to encourage literacy, primarily through the creation of strong, quality collections in libraries, classrooms, and bookstores. A central part of The Children's Book Council's efforts to increase awareness of literacy issues is Children's Book Week, celebrated in schools, libraries, bookstores, and homes across the country each November. In 1919, at the urging of Franklin K. Mathiews, Librarian of the Boy Scouts of America, Book Week was introduced to focus attention on the need for quality children's books and the importance of childhood literacy. In 1944-1945, Frederick Melcher, then Editor of Publishers Weekly, entrusted the responsibility for Book Week to the newly established Association of Children's Book Editors. As this group expanded Book Week activities, it also evolved into what is now known as The Children's Book Council.

Young People's Poetry Week, an annual event begun in 1999, highlights poetry for children and young adults and encourages everyone to celebrate poetry by reading, enjoying, and writing it. The CBC sponsors Young People's Poetry Week each April and collaborates on promotional efforts with the Academy of American Poets, sponsors of National Poetry Month.

Over the past fifty years, the CBC's work has expanded to include programming pertinent to all professionals working with children and children's books. The Council has fostered productive relationships with other national organizations, including co-sponsoring several bibliographic projects of use to booksellers, teachers, librarians, and parents. The CBC also sponsors and co-sponsors educational programs for children's literature professionals.

From its earliest days, the CBC has had a good working relationship with librarians who shared a belief that trade books must be a part of children's lives. This relationship continues today through the work of the American Library Association (ALA)-CBC Joint Committee, including programs for librarians at the semiannual ALA conventions. The CBC has also maintained a formal committee with the American Booksellers Association (ABA) for over two decades. This group presents half-day programs for booksellers immediately preceding the annual BookExpo America. It also assembles a sizeable exhibit and catalog, Children's Books Mean Business, highlighting recent backlist titles with good bookstore potential. In 2002, the Committee expanded to include representation of the Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC). The newly tripartite committee was named the Children's Booksellers and Publishers Committee.

In the early 1970s, the Council began to work with national education associations to encourage teachers to use trade books in the classroom. This led the creation of educator-selected bibliographic projects with the National Council for the Social Studies, entitled Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, and the National Science Teachers Association, entitled Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12. These annual booklists appear, with selectors' annotations, in the journals of the respective associations.

The Council has worked with the International Reading Association since the early 1970s; the two organizations have explored projects that promote the awareness of the importance of children's trade books, published articles in trade journals, and released the "50 Favorite Paperbacks" pamphlet. In addition, for nearly 30 years, the Council and IRA have co-sponsored the much-admired Children's Choices project. Ten thousand school children—2,000 each from five geographically diverse areas of the U.S.—vote on their favorite books of the past year. Beyond its obvious value to teachers working with children in elementary classrooms and language-arts programs, this list helps parents and booksellers get a fix on new titles to which children have a positive response.

An important relationship dating back to the late 1960s is with the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY), which is the U.S. National Section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY). In addition to developing conferences and programs about international children's literature for presentation at other associations' conventions, USBBY is responsible for administering the selection of the United States' candidates for the biennial Hans Christian Andersen Awards and IBBY Honor List.

Finally, the Council produces materials intended to inform and inspire those working with children. In addition to official Book Week materials, the CBC produces reading-encouragement materials such as posters, t-shirts, and bookmarks. The CBC publishes a semiannual newsletter, CBC Features, which includes articles about a variety of aspects of children's literature and a "Materials Available" section that identifies free or inexpensive promotional materials available from publishers.

The Council also publishes a variety of books of interest to children's literature professionals, including Books Remembered: Nurturing the Budding Writer, the reading memories of over thirty children's book authors and illustrators,and Children's Books: Awards and Prizes, a reference of over 200 major domestic and international awards and prizes. CBC launched Awards & Prizes Online, a searchable, subscriber-only database incorporating the information in Children's Books: Awards and Prizes and expanding it further, in 2003.

The CBC will continue to create new and innovative programming for its members and for professionals working with children, and it will expand awareness of the importance of childhood literacy and children's books. We have created this Web site as an invaluable resource for publishers, teachers, librarians, booksellers, authors, illustrators, and parents.

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