The American Library Association's 2021 Midwinter Meeting is a virtual event this year, due to the pandemic. The first online event was a governance meeting on Tuesday, January 19th and its last meeting (I'm looking at the online schedule) is another governance meeting on Wednesday, January 27th.
In between -- on Monday at 8:00 AM Central Time -- is the Youth Media Awards. You can watch if you want to at their live stream to see them announce names and titles of books selected for distinction. When I saw the illustrations that Michaela Goade did for Carole Lindstrom's We Are Water Protectors, I thought 2020 might be the year that we would all celebrate a Native artist winning the Caldecott. Tune in, and we'll see! The book is receiving a lot of attention outside of ALA. Across the country, people do Mock Caldecott events. Last week, The Horn Book announced that in their 2021 Calling Caldecott Mock Vote, We Are Water Protectors won the top award. And, We Are Water Protectors won the 2021 Jane Addams Children's Book Award. I'm hopeful that we'll hear Goade's name on Monday morning.
Every other year, the American Indian Library Association (AILA) announces winners of its Youth Literature Awards. Last year's winner will be recognized in a ceremony that you can watch on Monday evening at 7:00 Central Time, on YouTube. The biannual ceremony is usually held at an ALA gathering but this year, we can all watch it, so--tune in!
