BTW News Briefs

Jon Scieszka Named National Ambassador for Young People's Literature

The Library of Congress has named Jon Scieszka (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Viking) as the first National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. The appointment is for a two-year term. As National Ambassador, Scieszka will encourage the appreciation of young people's literature throughout the U.S. through both personal and media appearances.

"Jon Scieszka will be an articulate emissary, promoting reading and literature among young people, which are important for the health and creativity of our democratic society," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington.

The National Ambassador program is being administered by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, the Children's Book Council (CBC), and the CBC Foundation. Funding is provided by Cheerios (lead sponsor), Penguin Young Readers Group, Scholastic Inc., HarperCollins Children's Books, Random House Children's Books, Houghton Mifflin Company, Macmillan Publishers, Harcourt Children's Books, Holiday House, Charlesbridge, National Geographic Children's Books, Candlewick Press, and Marshall Cavendish Publishers.

Scieszka, a Brooklyn resident, will receive a $50,000 stipend for his two-year run.

A committee of children's literature experts nominated Scieszka for the new post, which was then approved by Billington. Jewell Stoddard, director of children's services at Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C., was on the selection committee and told the Washington Post that Scieszka was a good choice, both because he is already "on a mission to promote reading among young boys" and because "he's a wonderful speaker and lots of fun."

ABFFE Announces Book of the Month for January

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) has chosen Anthony Lewis' Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment (Basic Books) as the ABFFE Book of the Month for January. Lewis, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and columnist, provides both a history of the growth of free speech and an analysis of its consequences for American politics and society.

"For more than 50 years, Anthony Lewis has been one of this country's most eloquent defenders of civil liberties," ABFFE President Chris Finan said. "His new book is an important contribution to our understanding of free speech."

As a young reporter, Lewis won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of stories exposing the injustices of the federal loyalty program during the McCarthy period. In 1957, he began covering the U.S. Supreme Court for the New York Times and six years later won a second Pulitzer for helping Americans grasp the significance of a series of Supreme Court decisions that dramatically expanded the scope of civil liberties. He became a columnist for the Times in 1969 and frequently used his column to focus attention on abuses of civil liberties. He retired in 2001 but continues to write for the Times, the New York Review of Books and other publications. He is author of a bestseller, Gideon's Trumpet, the story of the 1963 Supreme Court case that declared that indigent defendants have a constitutional right to legal representation.

NACSCORP Names Vice President of Sales & Marketing

Sean O'Donnell has been named vice president of sales and marketing for NACSCORP, the warehousing and wholesale distribution arm of the National Association of College Stores (NACS). O'Donnell will be responsible for the sales, customer service, and marketing departments.

O'Donnell was most recently senior vice president of marketing at Martin Designs Corporation, where he led the product development, marketing, and sales of fashion, stationery, and children's educational products across numerous retail channels. Prior to that, he spent 14 years with American Greetings Corporation in various sales management roles.

O'Donnell replaces Jon Bibo, who has taken a position at Follett Higher Education Group.