The Children’s Book Guild of Washington, DC
2022 Children’s Book Guild
Youth Literacy Awards
For the last eight years, the Children’s Book Guild has awarded grants to schools to purchase books for their libraries, media centers, or classrooms.
In 2022, we chose four schools: Simon Elementary and Truesdell Elementary in Washington, D.C., Springhill Lake Elementary in Greenbelt, and St. Francis International School in Silver Spring.
We are grateful to Guild members Caroline Brewer, Edie Ching, Amy Hansen, and Guild friend Valerie Tripp for their recommendations.
Thank you to the librarians from these schools for making the book selections: Nikita Campbell, Carrie Gardner, Eboni Henry, and Carolyn Johnson. We are so glad several could join us at the 2022 Nonfiction Award Luncheon in May.
Eboni Henry (Truesdell Elementary, D.C.), Carolyn Johnson (St. Francis International School, Silver Spring), Nikita Campbell (Simon Elementary, D.C.)
Many thanks to the Guild for making these grants possible, to First Book for graciously facilitating the book purchases, and to librarians and teachers who share their love of books with Metro-area children—providing support in troubled times and the greatest gifts of all: stories that touch your heart or make you laugh.
The Children’s Book Guild members also agreed to add $500 to this year’s Youth Literacy Awards to benefit Afghan refugee children. Hoopoe Books and its Share Literacy nonprofit arm donated 75 paperback bilingual books (English-Dari or English-Pashto) to this Guild project and 158 titles were purchased from First Book, for a total of 237 books. These are being divided among four organizations housing Afghan refugee families:
Do Kind Works summer program in Montgomery County
Guru Gobind Singh Foundation in Rockville
Homes Not Borders in Prince George’s County
Lutheran Social Services in the National Capital Area
Any of these organizations welcome additional donations of books or money – and Share Literacy is often seeking organizations which can use its bilingual books.
Youth Literacy Award chair Kem Sawyer with books for Afghan refugee children