Former Ambassador Jon Scieszka
Born in Flint, Michigan, Jon Scieszka earned a Bachelor's degree from Albion College and a Master of Fine Arts degree in fiction from Columbia University. He held a number of teaching positions in the first through eighth grades before taking a year off to develop ideas for children's books.
Scieszka is the author of many bestselling children's titles, including The Stinky Cheese Man, which won a Caldecott Honor medal, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, which has sold over three million copies and been translated into 14 languages, and the Time Warp Trio, a chapter book series.
His most recent projects are the Trucktown series for the preschool/kindergarten set and Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Almost True Stories of Growing Up Scieszka for all ages.
Scieszka is the founder of Guys Read , a nonprofit literacy organization.
Jon Scieszka’s Platform As National Ambassador
My mission as Ambassador is to get kids excited about reading. Recent surveys and statistics show kids reading less, and getting worse at it. My experiences as an elementary school teacher, a children’s book writer, and the founder of a literacy initiative for boys called GUYS READ, have all taught me that kids will read if they are motivated to want to read.
So here are a few tips to motivate kids:
- Expand your definition of reading beyond fiction and novels. Lots of kids love to read non-fiction, humor, comic strips, magazines, illustrated stories, audio recordings, and websites. It’s all reading. It’s all a good way to become a reader.
- Let kids choose reading that interests them. It may not be the reading you like, but making the choice is important to kids.
- Be a good reading role model. Talk to your kids about how you choose what you read. Share your reading likes and dislikes. Let kids see you reading.
- Try not to demonize TV, computer games, and new technologies. These media do compete for kids’ time, but they are not the “bad guy.” Help kids become media literate. Show them how different media tell stories in different ways.
- Think global. Act local. There are all kinds of good people and worthy groups working to help kids read. Teachers, librarians, and booksellers are a wonderful resource. Ask them for book recommendations. Join a local literacy group.
There is no one book that is right for all kids. But there are all kinds of crazy, interesting, and amazing books out there. It’s our job to help kids find that book that will inspire them to want to become readers.
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National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Selection Committee 2008-2009
Leonard Marcus is one of the most trusted critics in the field. His incisive book reviews are featured regularly in Parenting magazine and he has been a Parenting contributing editor since 1988, in which capacity he has directed the magazine's annual Best Books of the Year Awards since their inception. He has been a frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review, Washington Post Book World, The Horn Book, and Publishers Weekly, among other publications, and is a three-time judge of The New York Times’ Best Illustrated Books of the Year prize. He is a standing member of The Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award committee and was a judge of the 1996 National Book Awards.
Hazel Rochman was born and raised in South Africa, where she worked as a journalist. She was a librarian at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and then from 1984 an editor at ALA Booklist, where she is now a contributing editor, reviewing books for children and young adults. Her reviews have also appeared in The New York Times Book Review and other journals. Her book Against Borders: Promoting Books for a Multicultural World won the G. K. Hall Award for Library Literature. She has served on numerous book committees, and chaired the National Book Award committee for young people's literature. She was selected to give the 2000 Arbuthnot Lecture.
Maria Salvadore was the Coordinator of Children's Service for the DC Public Library until 2000. Since then she has worked as a specialist and consultant in children's literature and family literacy. Her work for numerous local and national organizations includes the Kennedy Center Education Department, Reading Is Fundamental, BPS Ready To Learn Service, WETA's Reading Rockets, Turning The Page, In2Books, DC Early Childhood Education Collaborative, the Phillips Collection and the Catholic Charities Parenting Program. She holds Master's degrees in Education and Library Science.
Henrietta M. Smith is Professor Emeritus, School of Library and Information Science, University of South Florida, Tampa. Formerly retired, she continues to teach the youth-oriented courses in the library school's East Coast program. Service to ALA includes membership on Newbery, Caldecott, Batchelder, Carnegie, and Notable Film committees, and chair of the Wilder committee. She is a reviewer for Horn Book Guide, and with Ginny Moore Kruse has contributed articles to Book Links. Smith has served as chair of the Coretta Scott King Task Force and has been a member of the Award jury. She also has edited each edition of The Coretta Scott King Awards Book: From Vision to Reality.
Jewell Stoddard was co-owner of the Cheshire Cat Book Store, which opened in 1977 as one of the first children's bookstores in the country. Since closing the store in 1999, she has been director of children's services at Politics & Prose, an independent bookstore in Washington, D.C. She has served on the Caldecott and Boston-Globe Horn Book Award committees, and consults with schools, libraries, and museums about children's books. Jewell chaired the 2002 Award committee for The Washington Post-Children's Book Guild Award for Nonfiction.
