Illinois State University’s annual Lois Lenski Children’s Literature Lecture will feature Dr. Sara L. Schwebel of the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, speaking on “The Newbery’s First Century: The Canon, The Legacy, The Impetus for Change.” Her presentation will be at 7 p.m. Monday, March 27, in Stevenson Hall, room 101.
This presentation is open to the public, including the ISU community. Those attending the event are encouraged to wear masks.
Schwebel will discuss the history of books that have earned the John Newbery Medal. Often known as the Newbery, the American Library Association annually awards the medal to an author with the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children put forth by an American publisher. The Newbery Medal was first awarded in 1922. The 2023 recipient of Newbery Medal is Amina Lugman-Dawson for her historical fiction Freewater (2022).
Schwebel is the co-editor of Dust Off the Gold Medal: Rediscovering Children’s Literature at the Newbery Centennial (2022). She is also the author of Child-Sized History: Fictions in U.S. Classrooms (2011) and Island of the Blue Dolphins: The Complete Reader’s Edition (2016) and is one of the editors of the forthcoming Routledge Introduction to American Children’s Literature.
Schwebel is the director of the Center for Children’s Books at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University in 1998, and then taught in middle schools. She earned a master’s degree in history from Harvard University in 2002 and a Ph.D. in the History of American civilization from Harvard in 2008.
The annual Lois Lenski Children’s Literature Lecture is co-sponsored by Illinois State’s Department of English and Milner Library.
For additional information, contact ISU Professor of English Jan Susina at jcsusina@ilstu.edu.
