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FYI,

Posted on behalf of the NJ Center for the Book.

Sharon Rawlins, Youth Services Consultant, NJ State Library

Author Walter Dean Myers will receive t he Rutgers School of Communication and Information Award for Distinguished Literature for Children and Young Adults at a free event open to the public on Wednesday, April 27, 2011, from 2:30 to 4:30 pm at the Rutgers University Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick campus. 

The award ceremony commemorates the tenth anniversary of the New Jersey Center for the Book.  Mr. Myers is considered a towering presence in service to youth who has, through his fiction, nonfiction and poetry, redefined young African American males in literature by opening their confrontation with urban life and their survival with pride and belief in the future.  Mr. Myers is called, “one of today’s most important authors of young adult literature,”  “a giant among children’s and young adult authors,” and “one of the most important writers of children’s books of our age.” 

Mr. Myers' work has earned many accolades.  His first book, “Where Does the Day Go,” was selected by the Council on Interracial Books for its Children's Award.  Other works have also won on seven occasions a place among the American Library Association (ALA) Notable Books for Children and five times among the ALA Best Books for Young Adults.  The Child Study Association of America has twice awarded his fiction the Children’s Book of the Year.  He has six times received the Coretta Scott King Award;  was a Newbery Honor Book recipient twice; and, with his illustrator son Christopher, a Caldecott Honor Book recipient twice. The author was honored with two Lifetime Achievement Awards for the entire body of his work, the first sponsored by School Library Journal, and the second by the Margaret A. Edwards Foundation.

This Event is Free - No Registration Necessary

Free parking is available in the Parking Deck off College Ave. adjacent to the Alexander Library, which is in close proximity to the Zimmerli Museum. Lots 11A, 13, 26 are also available and no parking permit is needed. http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=204021143351397491594.0004a15fd6d92dce569e5&ll=40.499687,-74.445763&spn=0.009007,0.01929&z=16

There is also a possibility that valet parking might be available.

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