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Jan. 23, 2006
Larra Clark

Coretta Scott King Book Award Committee Announces Fourth Annual Review Book Donation Grant Winners

The Coretta Scott King (CSK) Book Award Committee is pleased to announce that the Reading Connection in Arlington, Virginia and ReadBoston in Boston, Massachusetts are the recipients of the 2006 CSK Review Book Donation Grant. The Donation Grant was established to find a home for the books that the American Library Association (ALA) receives each year to be considered for the CSK Author and Illustrator Awards each year, and to provide exposure to winning authors, illustrators, and books. The awards are administered by ALA's Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT).

The Reading Connection's winning application, submitted by Program Director Judy Hijikata, noted that the books would be used in shelters where read-aloud programs are implemented. The Reading Connection's programs target children and families who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and in 2005 reached 855 children. Their mission fits will with one of the primary goals of the CSK Review Book Donation Grant, which seeks to award books to nontraditional institutions that provide both educational and custodial services to children and their families.

ReadBoston also serves children and families in its community's homeless shelters. The program reaches approximately 340 families and 570 children in 29 shelters throughout Boston. Their literacy programs reach children in school, after school, during summer vacation, and before they are old enough to attend school, and provides training to families and caregivers on reading to children. The winning application was submitted by Executive Director Theresa Lynn.

The CSK Review Books Donation Grant aims to help build collections and bring books into the lives of children in latchkey, preschool programs, faith-based reading projects, homeless shelters, charter schools and underfunded libraries. An enduring message of the CSK Task Force's Public Awareness Campaign is that books and reading can only add value to children's lives if books are present in their lives along with opportunities to read and be read to. The Review Books Donation Grant addresses these objectives.

See the Coretta Scott King Book Award Web site for information and applications. Applications for the 2007 CSK Review Books Donation Grant will be accepted until December 1, 2006.