Monday, January 28, 2019

2019 American Library Association Youth Media Awards


Pictured above are just a few of the winners of various American Library Association Youth Media Awards for 2019, announced this morning.  Check out the link above for a list of all the winners.  Watch for many of these titles to be added to the Tarleton Libraries' collections!

Clockwise from upper left: 

  • Merci Suarez Changes Gears, winner of the John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature;
  • Hello Lighthouse, winner of the Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children;
  • Rescue & Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship, winner of the Schneider Family Book Award for young children (ages 0-10), for "embodying an artistic expression of the disability experience," and
  • The Fox on the Swing, winner of the Mildred L. Batchelder Award for an outstanding children’s book originally published in a language other than English in a country other than the United States (it was originally published in Lithuanian as Laime Yra Lape).


Monday, January 21, 2019

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Martin Luther King Jr. 1964
Nobel Foundation [Public domain]
via Wikimedia Commons
Martin Luther King Jr. Day (also known as MLK Day) is a federal holiday commemorating the life and works of Martin Luther King Jr. It is held on the 3rd Monday of January each year, which falls on or near King's birthday of January 15th. 

The push to make this a national holiday was contentious. The first bill was introduced in the US House of Representatives in 1968, just four days after King's assassination. However, it was not brought up for a full vote of the House until 1979, where it lost by 5 votes. The bill finally became law in 1983, and the first MLK Day was celebrated in 1986. 

Tarleton's Dick Smith Library has a wealth of resources by and about Martin Luther King Jr. such as these titles: 


King at the March on Washington in 1963,
where he gave his famous "I Have a Dream Speech."
 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons


The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. 
The Radical King
A Lasting Prophetic Legacy
Waking from the Dream
Misremembering Dr. King
Selma to Saigon
Extremist for Love
The Speech
The King Years
Martin's Dream
The Awful Grace of God
Behind the Dream
Hellhound on His Trail

The Trumpet of Conscience
Where Do We Go from Here?