Tips and Info from DPI's Jan16, 2025 Youth Services Newsletter

Jeni Schomber's DPI Youth Services Weekly Reminders and Resources is chockfull of great resources. If you are a WI youth library staffer and you don't receive this weekly missive in your email inbox, please contact Jeni (jennifer.schomber@dpi.wi.gov) to be placed on the list! 

Here are some highlights from the January 16, 2025 edition:

TeachingBooks Webinar

TeachingBooks is presenting a webinar on Wednesday, January 29, at 12:00 p.m. on using TeachingBooks at the Public Library.  Register at TeachingBooks.net/TBPLWebinar

Calling All Young Authors and Illustrators!

Kate Klise (author) and M. Sarah Klise (illustrator) were thrilled to receive an Outstanding Achievement in Children’s Literature Award from the Wisconsin Library Association for their picture book, How Mr. Silver Stole the Show. To celebrate, the Klise sisters are offering free, 60-minute creative writing and drawing Zoom workshops to Wisconsin public libraries in March for children ages 7 and older. During each workshop, Kate and Sarah will tell the tale of how they discovered the true story of a stray kitten who wandered into a fancy St. Louis hotel in 1947, two days before a pedigreed cat show, and then walked away a winner. Kate will also share her top tips for creative writing while Sarah demonstrates her favorite drawing techniques. Participants will then have a chance to write and illustrate their own story with the Klise sisters’ guidance and encouragement.

Kate Klise (right) and her sister Sarah Klise (left) began
making books together as children. No wonder they
love sharing their best writing
 and drawing tips with creative kids today. 

The free Zoom workshops will be offered on: 

     Workshop A: 

     Saturday, March 1         11 am- noon 

     

     Workshop B: 

      Saturday, March 8t       3 - 4:00 pm

The workshops are free, but space is limited. To register or to learn more about Kate and Sarah Klise’s summer online classes, contact kateklise@gmail.com

CSLP Summer Reading Champion Announcement

• We are thrilled to announce that Katherine Applegate, Newbery Medalist and #1 New York Times-bestselling author, is our 2025 Summer Reading Champion!

• Register for the 2025 Summer Reading Kickoff featuring Katherine Applegate on Wednesday March 5 at 1 p.m.

• Register here to attend live (limit 3,000 participants). If you cannot attend live and would like to receive a link to the recording, complete this form.

Grant Opportunity Talk Story: Sharing Stories, Sharing Culture

• This family literacy initiative connects Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander (AANHPI), and American Indigenous or Alaskan Native (AIAN) communities across generations. The Talk Story micro-grant celebrates and explores AANHPI and AIAN stories through books, oral traditions, and cultural arts to provide interactive and enriching experiences for all ages. This grant provides financial support to libraries and community organizations who are motivated to promote intergenerational literacy through programming, services, and collections. 
• The Grant Information and Application fields can be accessed on the APALA website: apalaweb.org/talkstorytogether/grant/  and the AILA website: ailanet.org.
• To submit your proposal, please use the online form (CORRECTED LINK): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc_qMvwxUX3LLWhCMPGY3jG1_SWNsrnfo2ZFKOWg8vCx_uTfw/viewform 
• Deadline March 15, 2025
• Grant Amount: $500

Have a great weekend!

Announcing the 2022 Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award Winners!

*drum roll, please!* 

Awarded to the most distinguished work in children’s and young adult literature written and/or illustrated by a Wisconsin book creator. The Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award is made possible by the Worzalla Publishing Company, Stevens Point, through a grant to the WLA Foundation.

Pahua and the Soul Stealer by Lori M. Lee

Pahua, an eleven-year-old Hmong American girl, is shy, a bit awkward, and mostly friendless. With her mother always busy with work and her father out of the picture, Pahua gets lost in her imagination, daydreaming adventures with her little brother Matt and her sassy cat Miv, a cat who just happens to be a spirit. In fact, there are a lot of spirits populating Pahua’s world—and only she can seem to see them.

After school one day, Pahua encounters a lonely spirit who turns suddenly vengeful, possessing Matt and leaving him comatose. What does this spirit want with her and her family? Is it possible Pahua isn’t quite the ordinary girl everyone thinks she is? With the help of Miv and Zhong, a young shaman in training, Pahua must find the courage to save her brother’s soul, even if it means plunging into a dangerous otherworld of demons and despair.

Lori M. Lee’s Pahua and the Soul Stealer, another page-turning volume in the “Rick Riordan Presents “series, draws its inspiration from Hmong oral tradition, weaving ancient magic with the relatable concerns of an everyday middle schooler. Overflowing with both humor and heart—and enough creepy vibes to keep you reading at night with the lights on—this middle-grade fantasy novel has the makings of a modern classic.

About the Author: 

Born in the mountains of Laos, Lori M. Lee moved to Oshkosh, Wisconsin when she was three years old. Before arriving in the United States, she temporarily lived in Thailand as a refugee until a Wisconsin family sponsored her family. Lee began writing in grade school, and her first unpublished novel is 300 handwritten pages long. Lee would eventually graduate from University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a creative writing degree.  

As a Hmong author, Lee aspires to write books reflective of her heritage. Her middle-grade debut, Pahua and the Soul Stealer, a Rick Riordan Imprint, combines elements of Southeast Asian mythology and fantasy with Hmong Shamanism. Lee strives to create entertaining books where her readers can find escape and refuge while advocating for more Asian diaspora in the publishing world. Pahua and the Dragon Secret is expected to be published in fall 2023. 

In addition, Lee is an author of six young adult books and several short stories. She is a self-proclaimed unicorn aficionado, caps lock writer, and enjoys marathoning television shows. Lee still lives in Wisconsin with her husband, kids, and a shih-tzu.

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Notable Wisconsin Author: Deborah Underwood

For her incredible body of work in children’s literature, Deborah Underwood was selected as the 2022 Wisconsin Notable Children’s Author. After spending her early childhood in Madison, WI, Deborah Underwood grew up in Walla Walla, Washington. When she was little, she wanted to be an astronomer. Then she wanted to be a singer. Then she wanted to be a writer.

Ms. Underwood lived in Wisconsin as a small child while her father worked on his PhD in mathematics. After college she became a street musician and then worked in an accounting office typing memos and when the accountants weren’t looking she was writing screenplays.

She then decided to write children’s books. She has authored 28 nonfiction titles. She helped co-write Whoopi Goldberg’s Sugar Plum Ballerinas series, and has 28 picture books to her credit including Outside In a 2021 Caldecott Honor book, which was also a CBAC Honor winner. The CBAC also honored her work Reading Beauty in 2020.

She currently resides in northern California where her cat Bella assists her with writing and has taken credit for the Here Comes Cat series.

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Outstanding Books of the Year

Noteworthy honor titles are selected for Outstanding Achievement in children’s literature, written and/or illustrated by Wisconsin book creators. 

American Betiya by Anuradha D. Rajurkar
Rhino & Dino in: Juice! by Erin Kant Barnard
Butterfly for a King: Saving Hawaiʻi's Kamehameha Butterflies by Cindy Trumbore and Susan L. Roth
Dear Librarian by Lydia M. Sigwarth
We Want Snow: A Wintry Chant by Jamie A. Swenson
Meena Lost and Found by Karla Manternach
Indestructible Object by Mary McCoy
The Fishermen, the Horse, and the Sea by Barbara M. Joosse, illustrated by Renee Graef
The Traveling Camera: Lewis Hine and the Fight to End Child Labor by Alexandra S. D. Hinrichs
365 Days to Alaska by Cathy Carr

The Wisconsin Children's Book Award Winners have been announced!

 

Ten Ways to Hear Snow written by Cathy Camper and illustrated by
Kenard Pak wins 2021 Burr/Worzalla Award

Picture book Ten Ways to Hear Snow, written by Cathy Camper, illustrated by Kenard Pak, and published by Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Books USA, has won the esteemed 2021 Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award. The Children’s Book Award Committee of the Wisconsin Library Association’s Youth Services Section annually presents the Burr/Worzalla Award to the most distinguished work in children’s and young adult literature written and/or illustrated by a Wisconsin book creator. Ten Ways to Hear Snow is a stunning addition to the picture book genre from Camper, who was born in Wisconsin.

A snowy day, a trip to Grandma’s, time spent cooking with one another, and space to pause and discover the world around you come together in this perfect book for reading and sharing on a cozy winter day.

One winter morning, Lina wakes up to silence. It’s the sound of snow — the kind that looks soft and glows bright in the winter sun. But as she walks to her grandmother’s house to help make the family recipe for warak enab, she continues to listen. As Lina walks past snowmen and across icy sidewalks, she discovers ten ways to pay attention to what might have otherwise gone unnoticed. With stunning illustrations by Kenard Pak and thoughtful representation of a modern Arab American family from Cathy Camper, Ten Ways to Hear Snow is a layered exploration of mindfulness, empathy, and what we realize when the world gets quiet.  (book description from cathycamper.com)

For her incredible body of work in children’s literature,
Wisconsin resident Pat Zietlow Miller was selected as the
2021 Wisconsin Notable Children’s Author. 

Miller has written a variety of stories for children with relatable characters and engaging, inclusive storylines. She has received much acclaim for her writing, including starred reviews, honors, and awards for her works. The Children’s Book Award Committee is delighted to present this award to such an inspiring and dedicated storyteller.

Ten noteworthy honor titles have also been selected for Outstanding Achievement in children’s literature, written and/or illustrated by Wisconsin book creators:

• Alone in the Woods written by Rebecca Behrens
• American Immigration: Our History, Our Stories written by Kathleen Krull
• Doodleville written and illustrated by Chad Sell
• Everything’s Not Fine written by Sarah Carlson
• Feast of Peas written by Kashmira Sheth
• Never Fear, Meena’s Here! written by Karla Manternach
• Nina Soni, Sister Fixer written by Kashmira Sheth
• Outside In written by Deborah Underwood
• Robobaby written and illustrated by David Wiesner
• Skunk and Badger written by Amy Timberlake

The Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award is made possible by the Worzalla Publishing Company, Stevens Point, through a grant to the WLA Foundation.

For more information about the Children’s Book Awards Committee, visit http://wla.wisconsinlibraries.org/yss/childrens-books-awards-committee.

Spring Releases by Wisconsin Authors and Illustrators

The Wisconsin chapter of the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) sent us a list of Spring Releases by Wisconsin Authors and Illustrators.  Here's a partial list--wouldn't this be a fun book display?  If you are looking for more Wisconsin authors to feature, check out past winners and outstanding books recognized by YSS's own Wisconsin Children's Book Award Committee!  You can also find a directory of Wisconsin book creators on the Cooperative Children's Book Center's website.

Young Readers

Boom!  Boom!  Boom!  (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) by Jamie A. Swenson,

pictures by David Walker. ISBN-10: 0374308683 13: 978-0374308681

Open This Little Book (Chronicle Books) by Jesse Klausmeier,

pictures by Suzy Lee ISBN-10: 0811867838 13: 978-0811867832

Squirrel’s Fun Day (Candlewick Press) by Lisa Moser,

pictures by Valerie Gorbachev ISBN-13: 978-0763657260

Ten Lucky Leprechuans (Cartwheel) Kathryn Heling & Deborah Hembrook,

pictures by Jay Johnson ISBN: 10:0545436486 13:978-0545436489

Tiger in My Soup (Peachtree Publishers) Kashmira Sheth,

pictures by Jeffrey Ebbeler ISBN-10:1561456969 13:978-1561456963

MIDDLE GRADE AND YOUNG ADULT

Animal Icons:  Armadillos, Buffaloes, Bald Eagles, Coyotes, Gray Wolves, and

Grizzly Bears (ABDO) by Sheila Llanas ISBN: (Lib) 978-1-61783-566-7

Father Groppi:  Marching for Civil Rights (Wisconsin Historical Society Press)

by Stuart Stotts ISBN: 978-1-87020-575-0

The Sin Eater’s Confession (Carolrhoda Lab-YA) by Ilsa J. Bick  ISBN: 978-0-7613-5687-5

Traitor in the Shipyard: A Caroline Mystery (American Girl) by Kathleen Ernst

ISBN-10: 1609580842

Walt Whitman, Great American Author Series (ABDO) Sheila Griffin Llanas

ISBN (Lib) 978-1-16783-720-3 ISBN PB: 978-1-61783-770-8

Write a Poem Step by Step: A Simple, Logical Plan You Can Follow to Create Your Own Poems (Earlybird Press) by JoAnn Early Macken ISBN: 9780985765002

Spring is really coming--you can tell because of the announcement of spring book releases!