Submitted by Whatcom County Library System
Every year the Whatcom County Library System Youth Services department recognizes local community educators who have made a real and significant difference in the lives of the young people of Whatcom County with the Golden Apple Award. For 2015, WCLS recognizes two colleagues from Western Washington University (WWU), Nancy Johnson and Sylvia Tag, whose dedication to books and reading, and whose collaboration with their public library partners, has resulted in the sorts of experiences that open kids to stories and reading in unforeseen and indelible ways.
As committed members of the WWU Academic community, Nancy and Sylvia work hard to produce opportunities for their students to engage with the best contemporary literature for children and teens, and the writers and illustrators who produce it. They put on an annual Children’s Literature Conference, now in its thirteenth year, to bring luminaries from the world of children’s and young adult publishing to campus for a day of education and inspiration. They curate Poetry CHaT, a collection of resources, ideas and curricula designed to help educators share their love of poetry with children and teens, a landmark collection unlike any other in the United States. And in this impressive work they go out of their way to include children and teens from across Whatcom County, significantly increasing the impact of these initiatives.
From arranging for authors to speak to kids in libraries, in classrooms, or at the Whatcom County Juvenile Detention, to inviting members of the Whatcom County Library staff to serve on the boards and planning committees for their projects, Nancy and Sylvia have spread the wealth of their efforts to reach all young people. And in those efforts they not only celebrate the literature itself, but inspire young people to be not only consumers, but creators, too, of great literary art.
Awarded at the December meeting of the Whatcom County Library System Board of Trustees meeting.
