ATTN: Youth Services

The 2021 & 2022 Choose to Read Ohio program cycle officially kicks off this month with the release of readers’ toolkits for the 2021 & 2022 CTRO booklist, which features 20 notable titles for all ages and reading levels. As with each CTRO program cycle, the booklist includes five books each for young children, middle grades, teens, and adults, and encompasses fiction and nonfiction and a variety of geographic and cultural interests. Ohio librarians, teachers, and other book experts help to select the biennial CTRO booklist. They consider quality and reader appeal, but also how well each book lends itself to group discussion and to school activities and library programs.
 
To support and encourage book discussion groups, library programs, and other activities to bring readers together around books, the CTRO Advisory Council creates a readers’ toolkit for each CTRO book. Each toolkit includes an author biography, discussion questions, extension activities, and resources to engage curiosity and explore themes in depth. Toolkits for all 115 books previously selected to CTRO since its inception in 2009 are available for free download on the CTRO website. Toolkits for the 2021 & 2022 books are being added as they are completed. Toolkits for the following books are now available:
 
Clackety Track: Poems About Trains by Skila Brown, illustrated by Jamey Christoph*
Leila in Saffron by Rukhsanna Guidroz, illustrated by Dinara Mirtalipova*
The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read by Rita Lorraine Hubbard, illustrated by Oge Mora*
Mosquitoland by David Arnold
The Gone Away Place by Christopher Barzak
When the Stars Lead to You by Ronni Davis
Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds
Designing Victory: A Memoir: The Architect Who Dared, Dreamed, and Achieved International Acclaim by Robert P. Madison* with Carlo Wolff*
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger*, Steven Scott*, and Harmony Becker*
 
Choose to Read Ohio (CTRO) spotlights Ohio authors and illustrators and promotes reading across Ohio. Started in 2009 by the State Library of Ohio and the Ohioana Library, CTRO celebrates the bounty and diversity of published literature by Ohioans and invites Ohioans of all ages to read and enjoy books together.
 
Please contact Janet Ingraham Dwyer at jdwyer@library.ohio.gov with any questions about Choose to Read Ohio.


 NEWS from USBBY ABOUT GLOBAL BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
 
This message comes to you from the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY), a national section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY).  We invite you to become familiar with these organizations and consider joining in order to promote, support, and learn more about international literature for young readers. 
 
2020 Outstanding International Books 
 
It's award season, and the Outstanding International Books for 2020 were just announced! Check out this post with beautiful covers of the selected titles, a link to a printable bookmark, and a world map of where this year's honorees are from (the map is my favorite part!)
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1cBuntIvRtmdseItl97ledMrxBHLCHAxI&ll=-3.81666561775622e-14%2C31.469633250000015&z=1

2021 USBBY Outstanding International Books - Google My Maps
The annual list of USBBY Outstanding International Books is sponsored by the United States Board on Books for Young People. All books on this list were published or released in 2020 and chosen by a committee of USBBY members. Country names in parentheses indicate where a book was first or simultaneously published; additionally, information after a slash indicates when the setting of a title definitively differs from its country of origin. For more information, visit www.usbby.org.
www.google.com

Partnership with Teaching Books:  USBBY and TeachingBooks have entered into a new partnership.  Members of USBBY will be eligible for a personal license for TeachingBooks, a $125 benefit.  Information can be found on the USBBY website: usbby.org
 
Helpful Resources:    TeachingBooks.net has a wide range of valuable resources.  USBBY’s Outstanding International Books list has its own page on TeachingBooks.net.  This page can be accessed free by going to:  https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?wid=112