CLCSC Recap: Children's Book Week at CHLA
Literally Healing book shelves at CHLA
Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) is one of the nation's leading pediatric hospitals. The level of care provided extends far beyond medical and clinical care and reaches all the way to literacy. Through CHLA's Literally Healing program, patients and family members can each receive a free book daily while at the hospital. These books are not just for young patients to enjoy while hospitalized, but also serve as a gift to take home when their stay at CHLA ends. And it is not just a few hundred books that Literally Healing gifts, but rather between 65,000-70,000 books annually!
Most people know Literally Healing for their fun, engaging Reading Room that provides an escape from the hospital setting. Families can enjoy the gifting library there or take part in a weekly Stories Under the Star story time event. Others know the program from their incredible team of volunteers who bring brightly colored Raising A Winning Reader (RAWR) book carts around bedside to surprise and delight patients who can’t leave their rooms. And there are some families who plan their clinic visits around the silly and engaging stories at the Under the Sun event under the playful, soaring palm trees in the lobby.
Literally Healing Reading Room at CHLA
However, once a year, Literally Healing pulls out all the stops to celebrate the national Children's Book Week through a show stopping all-star author / illustrator book fair. It is an event to celebrate all things wonderful about children's literature for hospitalized kids and their families. As part of the longest-running national celebration of books for young people and the joy of reading, over 2,300 schools, libraries, bookstores, and CHLA celebrated Children’s Book Week this year from May 6 to May 12 from coast to coast in all 50 states. This year marked the 105th anniversary of Children’s Book Week; the theme for this year’s celebration is No Rules. Just Read.
On May 9th, multiple CLCSC award winners and board members were in attendance from CHLA’s celebration, including:
Excellence in a Picture Book 2023 award winner Joe Cepeda for Rafa Counts on Papa.
Outstanding Achievement in Social Emotional Literature 2023 award winner Benson Shum for Anzu the Great Kaiju.
Outstanding Picture Book Reflective of World Events 2022 award winner LeUyen Pham for Outside, Inside.
Best Narrative Voice in a Picture Book 2014 award winner Drew Daywalt for Day The Crayons Quit (Sadly, on the day of the event Drew was sick and wasn’t able to attend. The photo is from the 2023 celebration)
CLCSC board member and award winning author Andrea J. Loney
CLCSC board member & Literally Healing Program Manager Kyle Horne
There were over 300 CHLA patients and family members who attended the annual event. They were able to meet team members from Los Angeles Public Library and 15 incredible, award-winning authors and illustrators. They were able to go around to author and illustrator tables to meet them, and get a free book personally signed and illustrated for them.
There were so many patients overjoyed when they realized another one of their favorite authors was right around the corner throughout the CHLA's Stanley Black and Family Healing and Meditation Garden.
We all know the power that books and storytelling can have for children when they are tucked up in their own bed. When stuck in a medical setting, the power of these books can act as a magic carpet to whisk a kid out of the medical walls that surround them and dive them head first into another world, one where they can be whatever character they wish.
CLCSC is proud to highlight our incredible award winners as they use children's literature to provide a smile when most needed.
Children’s Book Week is celebrated program thanks to Every Child a Reader, a charity supported by the Children’s Book Council (CBC).