Thank You

As we head into the final stretches of 2020 and end of year lists start coming out, our thoughts are with all of you and everyone who has had to reinvent the ways they do things.

We’re thankful for reviewers and listmakers, helping us discover great titles in this unusual year.

We’re thankful for parents and teachers, teaching our new readers in new ways amid trying circumstances.

We’re thankful for postal workers, under new scrutiny in this election year but still getting books to our libraries and homes.

We’re thankful for authors, illustrators, and publishers dealing with cancelled book tours and conferences as they try to share the books they’ve lovingly and thoughtfully created.

We’re thankful for ALA staff and the book award committee members – Geisel and other committees – who are facing manuals with no instructions for not being in person for award discussions or balloting.

We’re thankful for library staff everywhere, reinventing their realities with their usual commitment to public service and flexibility. This has been really hard. We see you.

We’re thankful for library selectors facing shipping delays, buildings that were closed and not receiving deliveries, uncertain future budgets, and all the other challenges this year has brought.

Whether you read one book this year or a hundred. Whether you thrived amid the uncertainty of this year or just survived. We’re thankful for you and the work you’ve done, and the work you will do in the coming year.

Thank you award committees for taking on this work in a year where few of us have any energy to spare. We’ll be cheering you on from a distance in January and can’t wait to see your choices.