Whoopie! This came in the ye olde email mailbox yesterday:
The Children’s Book Council (CBC) in association with the CBC Foundation, and the Library of Congress’ Center for the Book will announce the inaugural National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, a children’s laureate for the United States, at a celebratory event hosted by the New York Public Library. Upon the announcement, the National Ambassador will reveal his/her platform to an audience that will include school children, who will have the opportunity to interview their new Ambassador.
Appointed for a two-year term, the National Ambassador post was created to raise national awareness of the importance of young people’s literature as it relates to literacy, education, and the development and betterment of children’s lives.
I’m not going ( as I need to stay home and continue my frantic Newbery rereading), but now I see (thanks to Susan Thomsen) that the beans have already been spilled at the New York Times and PW. And it is none other than that incredibly cool guy, Jon Scieszka. Great, great, great news! Congratulations, Jon!
educating alice 
Congrats to John Scieszka. My kids have read many of his books and really enjoyed them.
Trina
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Wow! That is cool. Scieszka is the man. However, I wanted to leave a comment that I just today realized (maybe not a secret to others) – he is a wee bit controversial? Several teachers I have talked to lately don’t just “not care for” his books, but actually quite dispise them!? Has anyone else had this experience? Is it (egads!) a gender thing? The debate at my school over Cowboy and Octopus was unreasonably polarizing.
Just wondering if the first kidlitleaureate should have been someone less controversial? (though I don’t know who that would be?) Rock on, Jon.
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Ah…my guess is some adults are less than thrilled about the very silly, sometimes bathroom-humorish nature of Jon’s books. (Is that why your teachers “despise them”?) But that is exactly where the kids are. Not all by any means, but many. I think he was a totally brilliant choice for this role. The purpose is to get the kids to read not the adults, after all!
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