Christine Jenkins, GSLIS associate professor, has been appointed to the 2014 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award committee. The Sibert Book Medal, established by the American Library Association's Association of Library Service to Children (ALSC) in 2001, is given annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished informational book(s) for youth (ages 0-14) published in the United States during the preceding year.
"One of the events that has helped push information books to the forefront of books for young readers is what is referred to as the 'Common Core' [the Common Core State Standards or CCSS] of educational standards for twenty-first century learners," said Jenkins. "Students have been reading informational books for as long as they have been reading, but much of their literacy instruction has been focused on reading, understanding, and appreciating fiction. The Common Core for literature and language arts still includes fiction, but nonfiction reading has now been given a prominent place in children's reading and language arts education. Given the increased focus on nonfiction in K-12 classrooms, the Sibert Award's annual recognition of distinguished writing in informational books for young readers will play an increasingly important role in selecting books for classroom reading programs."
Jenkins has previously been a member of the 1990 Caldecott committee and the 2001 Newbery committee. Her research interests include the history of children's literature, the history of youth services librarianship as women's history, historical and contemporary censorship and intellectual freedom, representations of minority-status groups in children's and young adult literature, and reading engagement. At GSLIS she is currently teaching two sections (one on campus, one online) of LIS 404: Literature and Resources for Young Adults.