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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Marilyn Courtot CLCD Company, LLC (301) 469-2070 1-800-508-5782 marilyn@childrenslit.com October 22, 2004 - Marilyn Courtot, founder of Children's Literature and President of its sister company, the Children's Literature Comprehensive Database, LLC (CLCD), has been selected to be a member of the Subaru/SB&F Key Award committee, and has also been named the chairperson of the selection committee for the 2005 Washington Post-Children's Book Guild Award for Nonfiction. Science Books & Films, (SB&F), the review journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), with funding from Subaru, is sponsoring a lifetime achievement award for outstanding success in science writing. This is the inaugural year of the SB&F Key Award, named after Benjamin Franklin who was a lover of science, books and libraries. It will honor five authors and one illustrator who have made significant contributions to science books for children and young adults. The Key Award honors individuals whose books adhere to high standards of scientific accuracy and whose body of work has stood the test of time. Winners of the initial award will be announced at the AAAS Annual Meeting in February 2005. The Washington Post-Children's Book Guild Award for Nonfiction honors an author or author-illustrator whose body of work has contributed significantly to the quality of nonfiction for children. Any living American author or author-illustrator is eligible. The award was first presented to David Macaulay at a celebratory Children's Book Week luncheon in 1977. The 2005 winner will be announced at the membership meeting of the Children's Book Guild of Washington, DC in March, 2005 and awarded at the annual Children's Book Week luncheon in November, 2005. Ms. Courtot, a librarian, began her company, Children's Literature, to provide brief but substantive reviews of children's books. From this, came the idea for the Children's Literature Comprehensive Database. "When researching an author or author-illustrator's body of work, the CLCD is a valuable tool. With more than 30 review media participating in the database, it is an efficient and reliable way to garner information about books and other media. The inclusion of reviews from prestigious journals such as SB&F have helped place the CLCD at the top of the list of professional resources," states Ms. Courtot. "I am honored to join with members of the science publication community in selecting the winners of the first Key Award." When asked about The Washington Post-Children's Book Guild Award for Nonfiction, Ms. Courtot said, "The standard was set very high right from the start, and the committees throughout the years have met that challenge. I am most fortunate to chair a committee this year that is perceptive and dedicated to continuing the high standards of the Guild. Quality informational books make a critical difference in the lives of children and young adults. Both of these awards highlight the most distinguished of these books by honoring the writers and illustrators. By doing so, we bring them to the attention of librarians, educators and parents who will see they get into the hands of children." About The Children's Literature Comprehensive Database The Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD), is an Internet based acquisition, research, and reference service, offering more than one million MARC records and over 200,000 reviews of children's books, multimedia, audio books, etc. from 33 sources including The ALAN Review, Booklist, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, CCBC Choices, The Five Owls, The Horn Book Guide, Audio Reviews, Inis, KIRKUS Reviews, KLIATT,, Resource Links, Science Books & Films and VOYA. Subscribers can search for specific titles, authors, subjects and see the associated reviews, prepare annotated lists/bibliographies, and locate and download MARC records. CLCD also contains jacket images and has thousands of links to author and illustrator web features. In addition to the review data, the CLCD database has information about thousands of books that have been recognized as having particular merit. There are over 260,000 entries identifying these select books. National, state and international awards back to the first Newbery in 1922. There are over 60 best books lists, plus all state reading lists. The reading measurement parameters of the Accelerated Reader, Degrees of Reading Power, Lexile and Reading Counts have been incorporated into the basic bibliographic record for each evaluated book. The CLCD is on the web at www.childrenslit.com About Children's Literature Children's Literature reviewers read and critically review more than 4,000 books annually. Our mission is to help teachers, librarians, childcare providers and parents make appropriate literary choices for children. Founded in 1993 by Marilyn Courtot, a trained librarian, Children's Literature is an independent review source, not affiliated with any publisher and it accepts no advertising. It does license its reviews to Barnes & Noble, Borders and its sister company CLCD. Each month the Children's Literature web site features interviews with children's book authors and illustrators, and several sets of themed reviews It provide thousands of links to author illustrator sites, publishers, teacher resources, children's literature collections, and upcoming events relating to children's literature. About Science Books & Films Since 1965, Science Books & Films has been the authoritative guide to science resources, bringing librarians and teachers the expert information they need to make the best decisions when choosing science materials for their library, classroom, or institution. Published bimonthly, SB&F is the only critical review journal devoted exclusively to print, audiovisual and electronic resources for use in science, technology and mathematics education at the elementary, middle and secondary levels. SB&F believes that careful evaluation of these resources is vital to a better understanding of science by the next generation. About The Children's Book Guild of Washington, DC The Children's Book Guild of Washington, DC is an association of children's book authors, illustrators, librarians, teachers, editors, publishers, and distributors dedicated to uphold and stimulate high standards of writing and illustrating for children, increase knowledge and use of better books for children in the community, and cooperate with other groups having similar purposes. In addition to sponsoring an annual award luncheon, the Guild provides an on line Speakers Bureau of authors and illustrators available for appearances at school and library functions. The Guild also provides speakers for an all-day celebration on a specific aspect of children's literature at Montgomery College every spring. Further information about the award and the luncheon can be found at the website of the Children's Book Guild of Washington, DC: www.childrensbookguild.org ###
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