2017 Children’s Book Week Plans Expanded

On Tuesday, Every Child a Reader, a nonprofit literacy organization dedicated to inspiring reading by kids and teens, announced an increased number of events and supporting resources for the 2017 celebration of Children’s Book Week, from May 1-7, 2017. In its 98th year, Children’s Book Week will feature events at bookstores, libraries, and schools around the country, reformatted book awards, new websites, original materials and artwork, and more.

“Children’s Book Week is one of the cornerstones of Every Child a Reader’s literacy work, and we are pulling out all the stops for the biggest and best Children’s Book Week yet,” said Shaina Birkhead, programming and strategic partnerships director for the Children’s Book Council (CBC) and Every Child a Reader. “Our goal is to more than triple the number of library, school, and bookstore Book Week event participants nationwide.”

Promotional efforts will include an extensive trade media push, complemented by publisher outreach, social media and e-mail notifications, and a presence at the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting and the American Booksellers Association’s 2017 Winter Institute.

Starting in January, bookstores, libraries, and schools will be able to register online for Children’s Book Week. The streamlined process will ask registrants to choose whether to hold a Book Week story time, activity hour, or author event — or a combination of celebrations. All locations will receive a quantity of the official 2017 Book Week poster, illustrated by Christian Robinson.

Event locations will also be asked to host voting for the Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards, which for the first time will extend through the final day of Children’s Book Week, this year, May 7. In 2017, the award winners will be announced in conjunction with the ABC Children’s Group/American Booksellers for Free Expression art auction on May 31 at BookExpo. Also for the first time, two honor books will be chosen along with the medalist in each category.

By February 1, an all-new website featuring downloadable event and voting kits, press release templates, and exclusive new bookmarks by four prominent children’s book illustrators will be available. Also in the works are two Every Child a Reader original booklets — a Spanish-English first words coloring book and a graphic novel based on Book Week’s 2017 theme: One World, Many Stories.

“We’re going to energize the entire children’s book world this spring, thanks to the enthusiastic support of teachers, parents, librarians, booksellers, authors, illustrators, CBC committees, publishing employees, the media, other literacy groups — and kids and teens! — for this wonderful annual tradition known as Children’s Book Week,” said CBC and Every Child a Reader Executive Director Carl Lennertz.