ALSC and YALSA to Merge

ALSC and YALSA, the ALA’s two youth services divisions, plan to merge in 2026.

Both divisions originally grew out of the Association of Young People's Librarians and have been separate divisions since 1957. You can read about the planned reunification of these divisions on the ALSC/YALSA Reunification FAQ page and this article in School Library Journal, and on the ALSC blog.

Whether you are an ALA member and a member of YALSA and/or ALSC, or none of the above, these two national bodies supporting children’s and teen library services have individually provided copious resources and leadership. Updates on the merger will be posted here over coming months.

Video of Color Our World Decorations

Enjoy the video of Decor and More Photos from the CSLP Programming Facebook page.  Blackwater Regional Library appears on the third slide.

Follow the CSLP Programming page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/cslp.planning

Katherine Applegate Color Our World Writing Contest
Do you know budding writers ages 8-12?  Encourage them to participate in the Katherine Applegate Color Our World Writing Contest sponsored by CSLP and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. 

All details, rules, and other important info are available here for sharing with young storytellers and their parents and caregivers.  Entries are open through July 31.

Katherine Applegate Color Our World Writing Contest
Do you know budding writers ages 8-12?  Encourage them to participate in the Katherine Applegate Color Our World Writing Contest sponsored by CSLP and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. 

All details, rules, and other important info are available here for sharing with young storytellers and their parents and caregivers.  Entries are open through July 31.

Brain-Building Through Play: Activities for Infants, Toddlers, and Children

Some of the most important interactions caregivers have with young children happen through play.  By engaging in playful serve and return with a child, we can help build stronger connections in the brain and set the foundation for children’s future learning, behavior, and health.  Play can take many different forms, as seen by this caregiver making the young child laugh with brief, silly actions.  Looking for more ideas? Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child created these handouts with playful, age-appropriate activities for children, from newborns to adolescents, that are easy to do anywhere, created with support from The LEGO Foundation: https://bit.ly/3PvRRSf

YALSA Teens' Top 10 is a "teen choice" list, where teens nominate and choose their favorite books of the previous year!  Nominators are members of teen book groups in fifteen school and public libraries around the country.  Readers ages twelve to eighteen then vote online for the top 10. Learn more here. 

The 2025 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards were announced on June 23. Honoring excellence in children’s and young adult literature, winners are selected annually in three categories: picture book, fiction, and nonfiction.

This year’s Picture Book winner is I Know How to Draw an Owl by Hilary Horder Hippely, illus. by Matt James (Holiday House/Neal Porter). Two Picture Book honor titles were named: Nose to Nose by Thyra Heder (Abrams) and My Daddy Is a Cowboy by Stephanie Seales, illus. by C. G. Esperanza (Abrams).

The Fiction Award winner is Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay (Penguin/Kokila). The two honor titles are Oasis by Guojing (Macmillan/Godwin) and Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White (Peachtree Teen).

The Nonfiction Award winner is Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown by Candace Fleming (Random/Anne Schwartz). Two Nonfiction honor books were selected: Uprooted: A Memoir About What Happens When Your Family Moves Back by Ruth Chan (Roaring Brook) and Up, Up, Ever Up!: Junko Tabei: A Life in the Mountains by Anita Yasuda, illus. by Yuko Shimizu (HarperCollins/Clarion).

To be eligible for the award, books must have been published in the United States between June 1, 2024, and May 31, 2025.