Dear USBBY members,

USBBY has started 2021 with much excitement.  We are thrilled about our new partnership with Teaching Books.  Nick Glass, founder of TeachingBooks and a longtime USBBY member, is sharing a complimentary personal license with each USBBY member.  This benefit has a monetary value of $125. TeachingBooks will display annotations of international children’s and young adult books on its website, written by USBBY members.  You should have received information about participating in this wonderful opportunity.  If you did not, please contact Christina Moorehead at: [email protected]

We hope you will join us on March 6, 2021 for the OPENING ACT of our postponed IBBY Regional Conference.  Our OPENING ACT event will be dedicated to exploring two amazing books: Ashley Bryan's Infinite Hope in the morning session (10:30 am - 12:00 pm EST) featuring award winning narrator Dion Graham, and Ruta Sepetys' The Fountains of Silence in the afternoon session (2:30 - 4:00 pm EST) featuring Ruta Sepetys.  The modest registration fee for this event will support USBBY's twinning partners, the IBBY national sections in Haiti, Lebanon, El Salvador, and Palestine and other IBBY Children in Crisis projects.  You can register at:  https://www.usbby.org/14th-regional-opening-act.html

We look forward to meeting in person March 4-6, 2022 at Vanderbilt University in Nashville for the  14th IBBY Regional Conference.  The call for proposals for presentations and poster sessions will be available soon.

If you were unable to attend the American Library Association’s virtual Midwinter Conference and see the launch of our fabulous 2021 Outstanding International Books list, the video is available on the front page of the USBBY website.  You will also find the bookmark and other information related to the list at:  https://www.usbby.org/outstanding-international-books-list.html

USBBY is so proud to be the sponsor of this year’s International Children’s Book Day on April 2, 2021.  We encourage you to plan celebrations—virtual, in-person or hybrid.  The beautiful poster , created by Roger Mello with an inspirational message by Margarita Engle, and brochure are available for download at:  https://www.usbby.org/international-childrens-book-day.html

We hope you are staying safe and healthy as we approach one year of living with this global pandemic in the United States.  We wish you and your loved ones all the best.

Warmest wishes,

Evelyn “Evie” Freeman, Ph.D.
USBBY President

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ATTENTION USBBY MEMBERS: Through an incredibly generous offer from the founder and executive director of TeachingBooks™ - and devoted USBBY member - Nick Glass,  USBBY members can now enjoy a free subscription to TeachingBooks.net! Fill out this form to redeem your affiliate subscription.

In addition, TeachingBooks.net has an entire category related to USBBY's Outstanding International Books List, going back to 2006!  The category contains almost 5,000 resources, including over 200 readings, almost 300 associated videos, almost 400 relevant lesson plans, and a fascinating, insightful list analysis report.

Please also see official press release here:

By the way, think you might want to conribute annotations for the OIB books on TeachingBooks.net? Please contact USBBY President, Evie Freeman, to express your interest.

Speaking of exemplary international books, USBBY congratulates the OIB 2021 selection committee for their dedicated and thoughtful work in selecting this truly outstanding representation of what the publishing world had to offer the U.S. market this past year, as well as the authors, illustrators, publishers, and book promoters who created and distributed those works. 

Committee chair Anamaría Anderson says, "I want to thank everyone involved, including publishers and their reps, and especially our committee members, for their commitment to this project during an extraordinarily challenging year!" 

Watch the full ALA Midwinter OIB announcement and presentation HERE.

CLICK HERE access the bookmark and presentation available for download from USBBY's OIB page. (Remember, to click on the titles to order from Amazon or IndieBound straight from the page. For each such purchase, funds go to USBBY!)

CLICK HERE to access the School Library Journal article, including annotations of each OIB book by all commiittee members, and a thought-provoking introduction to the list by Anderson, who describes how this particular collection speaks to a global community of readers and brings that world home to each reader individually.

 Speaking of bringing the global community of readers home to individuals, USBBY is SO GRATEFUL to Regional Conference 2022 organizers Ellen Myrick and Ann Neely for arranging this extraordinary appetizer and opportunity, "Opening Act." 
​Click HERE or on either Opening Act image in this article to register ASAP!

Per Ellen Myrick:
As we began to plan the next IBBY Regional conference to be held in Nashville, we decided to have an “All-Conference Read.” We selected Ruta Sepetys’ latest novel, The Fountains of Silence, a wonderful story set in Spain during Franco’s reign. We began planning for Ruta, who lives in Music City, to lead us in a discussion of her book in a program moderated by Nicole Robinson-Hamilton of Ingram Content Group.

​Then we wondered “Why wait until March 4-6, 2022?”  Why not have an opening act for the conference? So, we are delighted that we will now hold the conference’s opening act on March 6, 2021. Not only will be discussing The Fountains of Silence on that Saturday afternoon, we will also pay homage to our 2022 theme of “The Music of Words” with a morning session dedicated to Ashley Bryan’s Infinite Hope, with an illustrious panel headlined by award-winning narrator Dion Graham. Educator and respected critic Dean Schneider and Audio Publishing Association’s Executive Director Michele Cobb will round out the illustrious panel.

To keep the conversation around hope and releasing silenced voices following the Opening Act, the next issue of BRIDGES (May 2021) features a piece on the extraordinary efforts of the Institut Ramon Llull, and its work in helping to publish Catalan authors and illustrators in multiple languages and countries around the world.

Want a sneak peak? CLICK HERE to read "The Ten Commandments of Catalan Children's and Young Adult Literature."