Oprah Adds Kids' Titles to Her Book Club
By Jennifer Pinkowski -- School Library Journal, 8/6/2008 2:00:00 PM
Oprah's Book Club is about to expand—now it will include recommendations for kids books via a list compiled by the American Library Association's children services division.
The 100-book list is mostly composed of titles published in the last two years, with about 25 percent classics, categorized by age group: birth to two, three to five, six to nine, 10 to 12, and 12 and up. The titles that made the list have yet to be released.Oprah's team approached ALA this spring. "We were gratified they came to librarians to do so," Diane Foote, executive director at the ALA's Association for Library Service to Children, told Publisher's Weekly.
The Association of Library Services to Children (ALSC) has created similar lists for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Reading is Fundamental and Child magazine, among others.
Reportedly, the list was supposed to go live on Oprah.com on August 1, but as if today it’s still unpublished. Instead, a message says to look for "recommended books for every age group" at the end of the week.
For dozens of authors, being featured in Oprah's Book Club has been a ticket to best-seller status. It remains to be seen whether the ALSC-prepared list will have a similar impact on children's books.
