Woodbridge, Va. — Blair Christolon, a librarian with the Prince William Public Library System, has been chosen to serve as a member of the 2012 John Newbery Award Committee. The committee is charged with the annual selection of one book as the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
The Newbery Award Committee operates under the direction of the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association. Only fifteen librarians from across the nation are chosen to serve on this prestigious committee, and the book they choose will be on school reading lists for decades to come.
“When I was 10 years old, I liked family stories. I recently found my diary from that time period, and I saw that the most exciting thing I had to write about was what I was reading. I loved ‘Miracles on Maple Hill’ by Virginia Sorensen, the 1957 Newberry Award book because it was a quiet story about a family,” said Christolon.
Christolon works in Materials Management where she selects children’s materials for the entire library system. She brings many years of experience to the Newbery Committee, both as a librarian and as an avid student of children’s literature. A librarian since 1977, she began working for the Prince William Public Library in 1985, first as a part-time reference librarian and then later as a materials specialist.
She enjoys reading teen fiction, but also reads widely in most genres. Her professional reviews of children’s material have appeared in School Library Journal, and she is an active member of the Capitol Choices group, a regional gathering of children’s literature professionals.
-Submitted
