Meet the 2024 CLEL Bell Awards Committee

For the first time, we’ve expanded our committee to include 17 members, 9 returning and 8 new members. We are so excited to welcome our new members and start work as a committee. Before our work begins, we wanted to introduce all our committee members and include some of their very impressive resumes. Melanie Borski-Howard …

Read more

Announcing the 2023 CLEL Bell Award Winners

The CLEL Bell Picture Book Awards are an annual recognition of five high-quality picture books that provide excellent support of early literacy skills for young children in each of five categories: Read, Write, Sing, Talk, and Play. Eligible books were published or distributed in the United States between November 16, 2021 and November 15, 2022. …

Read more

Favorite 2022 Books for Storytime

Notes from the Member Meetup by Kelly Allan, CLEL Steering Subcommittee Chair At November’s Member Meetup, attendees talked about some of their favorite storytime reads published in 2022. We also discussed trends we noticed in picture books this year such as the continuation of themes of diversity, consent, and environmental justice. Our meeting attendees’ 2022 …

Read more

Have You Read These Books?

The CLEL Bell Award Shortlist is here and the selection committee is asking your input to help decide the 2023 CLEL Bell Award winners! The nominated books have been narrowed to a shortlist of five titles from each of the categories: Read, Write, Sing, Talk, and Play. Next, all CLEL members can vote on their …

Read more

2023 CLEL Bell “READ” Nominations pt. 3

The CLEL Bell Book Award committee is wrapping up their nominations and about to meet to create the 2023 Shortlist. At this exciting annual meeting, we look at each practice’s nominations and gush, debate, and celebrate until we are down to five books in each category? Want to be a part of the action next …

Read more

2023 CLEL Bell “SING” Nominations pt. 4

The CLEL Bell Book Award committee is wrapping up their nominations and about to meet to create the 2023 Shortlist. At this exciting annual meeting, we look at each practice’s nominations and gush, debate, and celebrate until we are down to five books in each category? Want to be a part of the action next …

Read more

2023 CLEL Bell “PLAY” Nominations pt. 4

The CLEL Bell Book Award committee is wrapping up their nominations and about to meet to create the 2023 Shortlist. At this exciting annual meeting, we look at each practice’s nominations and gush, debate, and celebrate until we are down to five books in each category? Want to be a part of the action next …

Read more

2023 CLEL Bell “Write” Nominations pt. 4

The CLEL Bell Book Award committee is wrapping up their nominations and about to meet to create the 2023 Shortlist. At this exciting annual meeting, we look at each practice’s nominations and gush, debate, and celebrate until we are down to five books in each category? Want to be a part of the action next …

Read more

2023 CLEL Bell “Talk” Nominations pt. 4

The CLEL Bell Book Award committee is wrapping up their nominations and about to meet to create the 2023 Shortlist. At this exciting annual meeting, we look at each practice’s nominations and gush, debate, and celebrate until we are down to five books in each category? Want to be a part of the action next …

Read more