Watch the award ceremony

Every year hundreds of children's librarians pack an auditorium in whatever city is holding the ALA conference to hear which books have won the Newbery and Caldecott medals. In olden days, after the announcement was made, people would rush off to find a phone booth to call back to their library and give the great news. Recently, of course, there's been so such scramble for communications. Interested people can watch the awards on the website or follow them on twitter by going to the handy link that ALSC has posted for the awards ceremony. Being librarians, the committee has chosen an early hour--7:45 AM EST--on Monday, Jan. 18 to announce the awards. How many people on the West Coast will be up at 4:45 to pay attention? It doesn't really matter. Whether you are on time or late, it's worth clicking on and finding out which lucky authors and publishers will be celebrating. The awards will bring thousands of new sales to the prizewinning books and hours of pleasure to child readers.