ABA, CBC Partner for Silent Art Auction to Benefit ABFE and Every Child a Reader

Featuring the Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards

The ABC Children’s Group at ABA and the Children’s Book Council (CBC) are partnering to bring back the popular Silent Art Auction and the Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards Announcement in a joint program to take place on May 31, 2017, from 5:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., at the Javits Center South Concourse in New York City, as part of BookExpo. The event will benefit American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE) and Every Child a Reader.

National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Gene Luen Yang will serve as honorary chair of the event and will announce the winners of the Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards, the only national book awards program where the winning titles are selected by young readers.

This year’s Silent Art Auction program will also celebrate the 75th anniversary of Random House’s Little Golden Books imprint, which began in 1942. The auction will feature a special selection of works celebrating the Little Golden Books legacy as part of a year-long marketing and publicity campaign kicking off in February 2017.

“Now, more than ever, events supporting free speech and literacy are vital,” said Joy Dallanegra-Sanger, senior program director for the American Booksellers Association. “ABA is pleased to be part of bringing back both beloved events to BookExpo, where the entire industry gathers.”

Shaina Birkhead, programming and strategic partnerships director for the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader, said she is delighted “to be working closely with our friends at ABA, ABC, and ABFE on such interconnected and essential causes: free speech, great art, and children’s literacy.”

Solicitation of artwork for the auction will begin in early January; for more information, publishers and illustrators should contact Susannah Richards, professor and children’s literature advocate.

Voting for the Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards will be open from March 1 to May 7.

In honor of Little Golden Books’ 75th anniversary, Random House will be reissuing a selection of Golden Books from the 1950s, including Pets for Peter, Cars and Trucks by Richard Scarry and The Paper Doll Wedding Book. It will also be publishing a never-before-seen Margaret Wise Brown story and a new edition of The Golden Legacy by Leonard Marcus. 

For more information about the Silent Art Auction and the Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards Announcement program at BookExpo, contact ABA Senior Program Officer Joy Dallanegra-Sanger or CBC/Every Child a Reader Publicity and Digital Content Coordinator Emma Kantor.