Turn your Love of Children’s Literature into a Career

Children’s literature is a fun and exciting literature niche. There are just so many books and short stories that can be enjoyed that it could fill any person’s waking hours. What if there was a way that you were able to combine a passion and love for children’s literature with a full time career? There is.

A career in children’s literature is not impossible. In fact, it can be quite easy. All a children’s literature lover would have to do is pursue a degree in a number of chosen fields and the career in children’s literature will follow. People have often found successful careers by pursuing some of the following college degrees.

Children’s Literature Degree. There is a whole college degree devoted to the various children’s literature out there. This can include classics, modern, fantasy/sci-fi, poetry and young adult. A degree in children’s literature can lead to careers as a children’s librarian, children’s book expert, children’s book publicist as well as an expert book reviewer with a focus on children’s literature. A children’s literature degree combined with an English degree can even be used to allow people to write and publish their own children’s books.

Library Management Degree. A library management degree will allow the degree holder to pursue a degree as a librarian or master librarian. Children’s librarians are responsible for choosing books for the children’s section, hosting children’s reading programs and even holding community reading events.

While there are many degrees that will lead you to a career in children’s literature there are few colleges that focus on this type of degree. By using sites like elearners.com you will be able to find a college that fits your needs whether it is online or a physical college location.

Remember even if you are not able to pursue a career right away in this field you will be able to find hundreds of children’s books that you never knew about and can share with your children!

The CYBILS: Children’s Literary Blogger Awards

When it comes to picking the best type of books that are on a children’s book shelf it can be quite a task. There are literally millions of children’s books published every year and that doesn’t even scratch the surface of reprints and reissues of old favorites.

As a parent the sheer volume of books available can be very overwhelming and it can be hard to tell what books you should pick for your child to read. Luckily, there is a group of book bloggers that have helped with that task.

Every year the CYBILS, or Children’s and Young Adult Blogger Literary Studies Group, gets together to form the top picks of the year. The categories are broken up into picture books, chapter books, graphic novels, science fiction and fantasy, non-fiction and fiction. Some of the categories are broken up into middle school and young adult but some are not for example the picture book category is not.

In October the nominations open for anyone to nominate a favorite book that was published at any point in the previous year. These bloggers read through 100s of books and narrow the selection down to anywhere from 4 to 7 books of their choosing for the final selection.

Parents have started to use these final selections as book buying guides so that they know which types of books to buy for their child. Every book is age appropriate and has no objectionable content for children.

The best thing about the CYBILS is that they will often times pick books that wouldn’t normally make the bigger award categories so parents are always getting a new look at different types of reading materials for their children.

If you find that the final selection isn’t long enough for you the Cybils also provides a copy of all the novels nominated for that year so you can look through the 100s that are nominated.

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