May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture
| May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | body of work in the field of children's literature |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association |
| First awarded | 1970 |
| Official website | http://www.ala.org/alsc/arbuthnot |
The May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture is an annual event sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association. The organization counts selection as the lecturer among its "Book & Media Awards", for selection recognizes a career contribution to children's literature. At the same time, the lecturer "shall prepare a paper considered to be a significant contribution to the field of children's literature", to be delivered as the Arbuthnot Lecture and to be published in the ALSC journal Children & Libraries.
The lecture was established in 1969 to honor the educator May Hill Arbuthnot. Arbuthnot was one creator of "Dick and Jane" readers and she wrote the first three editions of Children and Books (Scott, Foresman 1947, 1957, 1964). When informed of the new honorary lecture in her name, 'she recalled "that long stretch of years when I was dashing from one end of the country to the other, bringing children and books together by way of the spoken word."'
The lecturer may be an "author, critic, librarian, historian, or teacher of children's literature, of any country". The Arbuthnot Lecture Committee selects one from a list of nominations, a process currently completed in January 15 to 18 months before the event. Then institutions apply to be the host: any "library school, department of education in college or university, or a children's library system". Several months later the same committee selects the host institution from the applicants.
Andrea Davis Pinkney delivered the 2014 lecture at the University of Minnesota Libraries, Children's Literature Research Collections, Saturday, May 3, 2014 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (CDT). She was cited in January 2013 for "significant contributions to literature for young people provided through a body of work that brings a deeper understanding of African American heritage". She is the author of more than 20 books and founder of the "first African American children's book imprint at a major publishing company": Jump at the Sun at Hyperion Books for Children, the Disney Book Group (now Disney Publishing Worldwide). She is vice president and editor-at-large, Scholastic Trade Books.
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