Jon Scieszka is Named America’s First Children’s Laureate

How does it feel to be the first National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature? “I’m flabbergasted,” says the award-winning author Jon Scieszka, who was officially given the title yesterday at the Mulberry Branch of the New York Public Library. “I’m honored that people would think of me, especially since I had a book with ‘stinky’ in the title.”

Funny, charismatic, dynamic, and passionate were all qualities that the Children’s Book Council (CBC) and the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book www.loc.gov/loc/cfbookwere looking for when choosing its American equivalent of the U.K.’s Children’s Laureate—and Scieszka practically topped the list of the entire five-member selection committee, says Robin Adelson, the CBC’s executive director.

“Jon is someone who can talk to a room full of kids and make them giggle, he can talk to a room full of parents and have them hanging on every word, and he can talk to a room full of educators and have them taking notes,” says Adelson, stressing the importance of a spokesperson who can reach diverse audiences.

The post, a two-year term, was created to raise national awareness of the importance of young people’s literature in literacy, education, and the enrichment of children’s lives. And as creator of Guys Read, a Web-based literacy program to get boys interested in books, Scieszka already came to the table with an agenda.

“My plan is to really help people identify kids who are reluctant readers and provide concrete things for them to do,” says Scieszka. “People don’t realize the great stuff we have out there. We just have to find a way to get it to them.”

Known for his collaboration with illustrator Lane Smith, Scieszka’s The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (1992) received the 1994 Rhode Island Children’s Book Award. Other noteworthy titles include The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (1999), and Math Curse (1995, all Viking).

Growing up with five brothers in Flint, MI, Scieszka says he loved to read. That’s why he’s willing to find time in his busy schedule to serve as a role model to kids, he says. The author’s next book, Knucklehead (Penguin), an autobiography about his childhood, is scheduled to come out next year. He’s also about to release Trucktown (S & S), a new book series for the preschooler-to-kindergarten set.

The criteria for ambassador included a candidate’s contribution to young people’s literature and an ability to relate to children. “We had the easy part,” says Maria Salvadore, a selection committee member and an adjunct professor in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. “It was a relief not to have to make the final decision.”

James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, chose Scieszka based on the recommendation of a five-member selection committee made up of Salvadore; children’s book historian Leonard Marcus; Booklist editor Hazel Rochman; Henrietta M. Smith, professor emeritus at the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Florida; and Jewell Stoddard, director of the children’s department at the Washington, DC-based bookstore Politics & Prose.

“This role has the potential to put a face on literacy in the United States,” says Salvadore. “[He’s] going to set an important tone and tenor.”