Registration Extended for Children’s Book Week Event Locations

Children’s Book Council Executive Director Carl Lennertz has announced that the sign up deadline for independent bookstores to become an official event location for the 99th annual Children’s Book Week has been extended to Monday, February 19.

“We’re getting close to our goal of over 400 indies signed up to be Children’s Book Week official event locations; we had 350 last year and would like to surpass that,” Lennertz told Bookselling This Week.

Indie booksellers, Lennertz said, “will be joining with hundreds of libraries and schools who will receive a bunch of the cool new posters illustrated by Jillian Tamaki, book award voting resources (we like the thought of kids voting!), five original new bookmarks, and access to publisher event kits. The biggest benefit of all is a featured place on our online map, and in our national press releases. We’ve extended the sign-up deadline due to Winter Institute 13, weather, and the long, long to-do-list life in a bookstore.”

This year, the week-long event celebrating books for young people and the joy of reading will be held from April 30–May 6. Lennertz encouraged any bookstores with questions about hosting an event during Children’s Book Week to send him an e-mail.

In addition, Every Child a Reader, the nonprofit literacy organization supported by the Children’s Book Council, has announced the 20 finalists for the 11th Annual Children’s & Teen Choice Book Awards, the only national book awards voted on by only kids and teens. Voting officially begins March 1 and will run through May 6.

A list of all finalists, voting ballots, and other resources can be found here.

Every Child a Reader is also accepting proposals until February 19 from libraries, schools, bookstores, and organizations interested in hosting a visit with Jacqueline Woodson, the sixth National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, over the course of her two-year term. Booksellers who are interested in hosting Woodson can visit the designated page on the Every Child a Reader website to submit a proposal. Questions can be sent to Programming and Strategic Partnerships Director Shaina Birkhead.