We are now accepting nominations for open spots on ABA’s Children’s Advisory Council. The Children’s Council serves as a sounding board and advisory council on issues facing the children’s bookselling community and ABA.
Booksellers are invited to nominate themselves or another bookseller.
Nominations are due by 11:59 pm ET on August 20, 2026.
Nominations will be reviewed that week by current Children’s Council members. Five new members, one each from NEIBA, NAIBA, GLIBA, MIBA,and CALIBA will be selected to fill the empty seats.
The Children’s Council serves an important role in ABA’s work. It has also proven to be a pipeline to the ABA Board. Four current ABA Board members have served on the Children’s Council: Cynthia Compton (4 Kids Books & Toys, MacArthur Books), Diane Capriola (Little Shop of Stories), Holly Weinkauf (Red Balloon Bookshop) and Brein Lopez (Children’s Book World).
Children’s Council members provide feedback about ABA programs and services as they are being developed; offer suggestions to help ABA improve programs and services to better serve bookselling communities; help identify and respond to emerging threats and opportunities related to antiracism, equity, representation, and access in the industry; bring concerns of booksellers and bookstore owners to the ABA staff and Board; and generally assist ABA.
The Children’s Council is looking for individuals who represent different diverse identities. ABA is looking to create a committee as a whole that is representative of different types of individual diversity, as well as diversity of region, store size, and format.
A candidate for the Children’s Council committee:
- Is a full-time bookseller or bookstore owner at an ABA member bookstore (any format or model); ideally at least 3 members will be from Children’s Only Stores
- Has not served on the Children’s Council before
- Does not currently serve on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council (DEIC) or the Booksellers Advisory Council (BAC)
- Is able to meet the time obligation (see below) and serve for two years
Nominees will be informed of final decisions by August 25, 2026. The first Children’s Council meeting with new members will take place on November 11, at 4:00 pm ET.
The Children’s Council time commitment varies as outlined below:
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Input and/or participation in ABA’s Winter Institute and Children’s Institute
- This includes offering feedback on programming and/or participating in a panel.
- Occasional attendance at prep or preview sessions for ABA programming with external speakers
- Occasional emails asking for feedback
- Four quarterly 60-minute Zoom meetings
Booksellers are invited to nominate themselves or another bookseller.
For more information about the committee, please reach out to the bookseller committee members collectively or individually, or contact ABA COO Joy Dallanegra-Sanger.