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CHICAGO-The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) is offering two online courses this summer: The Newbery Medal: Past, Present and Future, in celebration of the end of the 100th Anniversary of the Newbery Medal, and a brand new course, Reading the Art in Pictures Books. Both classes are asynchronous and begin July 5, 2022.

The Newbery Medal: Past, Present and Future asks: What does it mean when we recommend Newbery Award winners to children in our communities? Should the Newbery seal of approval stand for 100 years? Why is that gold medal often considered the ‘kiss of death’ by kids? How can we help parents and teachers understand what the Newbery Medal is – and is not? Participants in this highly-regarded six-week course will gain a solid grounding in the history of the Newbery Medal and how it has changed over time; an opportunity to read, discuss and consider past and present Newbery winners with colleagues; a change to talk with former Newbery Committee members and a Newbery author, and suggestions for programming using Newbery-winning books. This course is offered as the final eCourse of ALSC’s year-long .

The course instructor is KT Horning, retired Director of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin -Madison and the author of "From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing Children’s Books." She has taught numerous courses for ALSC over the years, including classes on the Newbery and Caldecott Awards.

Reading the Art in Picture Books is a four-week course that takes a deep dive into all aspects of a picture book, including the art and its relationship to the text of the story. In the course, participants will develop visual literacy skills and learn to evaluate picture books by describing artistic elements, media, style and design. This is an excellent course for those preparing to review picture books, serve on book award committees, or better evaluate picture book collections.

The course instructors are Heidi Hammond, associate professor in the MLIS program at St. Catherine University, and Gail Nordstrom, public library consultant for Viking Library System. Together, Heidi and Gail coauthored Reading the Art in Caldecott Award Books: A Guide to Illustrations and presented an incredibly popular program on picture book art at ALSC’s A Celebration of Illustration! virtual day conference in the spring of 2021.

The Association for Library Service to Children is the world’s largest organization dedicated to the support and enhancement of library service to children. ALSC’s network includes more than 4,000 children’s and youth librarians, children’s literature experts, publishers, education and library school faculty members, and other adults dedicated to creating a better future for children through libraries. For more information about ALSC, please visit .