Shame on American television networks who don’t believe that the winners of the most prestigious children’s book awards in the U.S. are newsworthy. This is the second year that the major networks have declined to carry segments with the Caldecott or Newbery Award winners despite ALA’s media staff’s outreach efforts. No wonder reading is on the decline. Kids are being told in all sorts of subtle and not so subtle ways that books, even award-winning books, don’t have value.
Now if every one of you who does value kid’s books and reading were to write to the major television networks to tell them otherwise, there is no telling what might happen…
Sheryl McFarlane 