So, you’ve just been appointed or voted on to a fabulous ALSC or YALSA book award committee. Congrats! You have many (many, many) hours of reading, evaluating, and discussion ahead of you. It will surely be one of the most educational and joyful experiences of your professional life.
But can you still review titles for SLJ during your term of service? If so, what kinds?
The new guidelines for ALSC and YALSA committees that came out in February 2014 are *much* more strict than in years past. As a general rule, if you are serving on a major book award committee (Newbery, Caldecott, Geisel, Sibert, Belpre, CSK, Morris, Printz, Best Fiction, Best Nonfiction, etc….) than you should not review any titles that are eligible for your award in that publishing year.
For example, if you are serving on the 2015 Printz committee, you cannot publicly review any YA titles that fit the eligibility requirements. If you’d like to review a bunch of picture books and chapter books, though, have at it!
If you haven’t already contacted your editor about committee service, please fill out the form below. If you’d like to take a hiatus from reviewing while on a committee, we are happy to temporarily suspend your assignments. Or if you’d like to keep reviewing, we can adjust the assignments so that you are only receiving titles that are not in conflict with your committee responsibilities.
If you have any questions or concerns about reviewing during your term of service, you should contact your committee chair.