Anita Silvey accepts her Ludington Award at the EPA's annual Ludington banquet:

January 20, 2008 - The Educational Paperback Association (EPA) announced today that Anita Silvey is the winner of the 2007 Jeremiah Ludington Award. The Ludington Award, named after EPA's founder, is presented annually to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the paperback book business. Past winners have included Mary Pope Osborne, Marc Brown, Seymour Simon, Tomie dePaola, Richard Peck, Lois Lowry and Paula Danziger. Recipients receive a framed certificate and EPA presents a $2500 check to the charity of their choice.

Anita Silvey will accept the award at the EPA's annual meeting in San Diego, CA this week. She has designated that her donation be given to the James Marshall Fellowship at the University of Connecticut. Marshall Fellowship Grants are intended to encourage use of unique materials in the Northeast Children's Literature Collection (in the Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Libraries, Storrs, CT) and to provide significant financial support to a promising author and/or illustrator at the beginning of their career to assist him or her in the creation of new children's literature.

"On behalf of the Ludington Award committee, we could not be more pleased to present the Ludington Award to Anita Silvey," said Benjamin Conn of Knowledge Industries, Inc. Few people have done more to further the cause of using exciting trade books in schools and libraries than Anita - as editor, publisher, professor and author." Click here to read the award citation given to Anita Silvey.

Anita Silvey is a professor in the Master of Arts in Children's Literature program at Simmons College. She is the former editor-in-chief of the Horn Book Magazine and the publisher of children's books at Houghton Mifflin. One of the country's top experts on literature for young people, she is the author of 500 Great Books for Teens, 100 Best Books for Children, and Children's Books and Their Creators. To find out more about Silvey, visit her website at www.anitasilvey.com.

January 20, 2008 - "Tools for Educational Marketing" is the theme of the annual conference of the Educational Paperback Association (EPA), convening this week in San Diego, CA. Over 200 attendees from EPA's member publisher and wholesalers are expected to attend. On Wednesday evening, Anita Silvey will accept EPA's 29th annual Jeremiah Ludington Award, presented annually to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the paperback book business.

Michael Winerip, former national educational columnist for the New York Times and author of Adam Canfield of the Slash, from Candlewick Press, will be Thursday's lunch speaker. David Shannon, author and illustrator of many highly praised books for children, including Duck on a Bike, A Bad Case of Stripes, The Rain Came Down, and How Georgie Radbourne Saved Baseball, all from Scholastic, will be the featured guest speaker at the Friday banquet.

In addition to the popular one-on-one sessions between wholesalers and publishers, other programming for the week includes "All About Lexile," a presentation by Malbert Smith, President of Meta-Metrics and "All About State Curriculum Standards," by Sandra Schugren, General Manager of Edgate Correlation Services. There will also be a panel discussion with teachers and librarians entitled "What We Want From You." Saturday the meeting will close with the annual EPA business meeting

"How well our schools teach reading and encourage their children to read is such an important mission in our communities these days, and that creates some exciting opportunities for the Educational Paperback Association. The EPA annual meeting is a unique environment where distributors and publishers share their ideas about how we can effectively help educators put children's literature in the hands of their students," said incoming EPA president Neil Jaffe of The Booksource, Inc.

January 14, 2008 - Many of the Educational Paperback Associations's publisher members were recognized at the ALA Youth Media Awards press conference held this morning:

CANDLEWICK PRESS for Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz, Newbery Medal

FARRAR STRAUS & GIROUX for The Wall, written and illustrated by Peter Sis, Sibert Award

HARPER COLLINS for White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean, Printz Award

HENRY HOLT for The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano by Margarita Engle & illustrated by Sean Qualls, Pura Belpre Author Award AND Los Gatos Black on Halloween, illustrated by Yuyi Morales & written by Marisa Montes, Pura Belpre Illustrator Award

HYPERION BOOKS for There Is a Bird on Your Head! by Mo Willems, Theodor Seuss Geisel Award

LIVE OAK MEDIA for Jazz, Odyssey Award *** new award for best children's audio production

SCHOLASTIC for The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, Caldecott Medal AND Elijah of Buxton by Christpher Paul Curtis, Coretta Scott King Author Award

SIMON AND SCHUSTER for Let It Shine by Ashley Bryan, Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award

For more information about these and other awards visit the ALA website.