Thursday, January 03, 2008

Jon Scieszka Named First National Ambassador for Young People's Literature

Today's the day that the Library of Congress finally named its inaugural National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. I've been waiting to see who it might be since I first read about it in May.

The new Ambassador is the terrific author Jon Scieszka. My favorite titles of his are — so far — The Stinky Cheese Man, Math Curse, and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. Hilarious. I'm hoping to read his 2007 book Cowboy and Octopus soon.

Here's an excerpt from the Goodman Media press release emailed straight to my inbox a few minutes ago:

"Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has appointed children’s book author Jon Scieszka as the first National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. The position was created to raise national awareness of the importance of young people’s literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education, and the development and betterment of the lives of young people.

“ 'The Library of Congress has long provided free, primary-source educational material for K–12 on the Internet,' ” said Billington. 'The position of National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature is a natural extension of that role. Jon Scieszka will be an articulate emissary, promoting reading and literature among young people, which are important for the health and creativity of our democratic society.'

“ 'Jon Scieszka’s platform will spotlight the diversity and breadth of children’s literature available today and in so doing present a solution to what can be done to change the state of reading in this country,' said Robin Adelson, executive director at Children’s Book Council."

You can read the entire release at the Children's Book Council site.

I think they've made a wonderful choice.

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