Current Activities

Guest Lecturer Wendy Lamb brought to YSU by The Center for Literature for Young Readers! Topic: Censorship and Literature for Young Readers When: Tuesday, October 18, 2005, 4:15-5:15 Where: Kilcawley Center Art Gallery, YSU Open to the Public! Lamb will also speak about Gary Paulsen's The Glass Cafe in Dr. Patricia Hauschildt's Young Adult Literature class, from 2-3:15, in 261 DeBartolo Hall. Feel free to join us. An editor and the Vice President of Random House Children's Trade Book Group, Wendy Lamb has directed her own imprint, Wendy Lamb Books, since 2002. Her authors include Gary Paulsen, Christopher Paul Curtis, Walter Dean Myers, Patricia Reilly Giff, and Donna Jo Napoli. Books she has edited have won such awards as the Newbery Medal, the Coretta Scott King Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Fiction Award, and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. A graduate of Brown University, Lamb also attended the Iowa Writers Workshop. She was the 1999 recipient of the Award for Editorial Achievement in Children's Publishing, given by Literary MarketPlace.

Youngstown State University 2005 English Festival April 20-25, 2005 7th - 9th Grade Titles:   (click titles to learn more about each novel)  Hush by Jacqueline Woodson I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This by Jacqueline Woodson Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry Hoot by Carl Hiaasen The Land by Mildred D. Taylor Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman by Louise Plummer Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelson 10th - 12th Grade Titles: Hush by Jacqueline Woodson The Land by Mildred D. Taylor If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn Heroes by Robert Cormier Mississippi Trial, 1955 by Chris Crowe Wyrd Sisters by Terry Prachett The special guest speaker will be notable author, Jacqueline Woodson who wrote three of the books selected for this year's festival.  Also, the James Houck Lecturer will be English professor, Dr. Megan Isaac.  To find out more about the YSU English Festival and how your school can register online, go to the YSU English Festival homepage.  Books can be purchased at a discount through the Mahoning Valley Distributing Company. To Top

Life, Laughter, and Literature with Jack Gantos At the heart of the Academic Content Standards for the English Literature Arts are standards dealing with Reading Applications for Informational, Technical, and Persuasive Texts as well as Literary Texts.  A joint meeting of LYRE and WROTE (Western Reserve of Ohio Teachers of English) featuring author Jack Gantos explored these standards while treating the audience to one of the most entertaining authors in children's and young adult literature.  The meeting was held on Saturday, September 25, 2004 from 8:00 am - 1:00 pm at the Chestnut Room in YSU's Kilcawley Center.  Featured author Jack Gantos is the author of numerous books for children such as Rotten Ralph, and Back to School for Rotten Ralph; middle grade novels such as Joey Pigza Loses Control, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, and Jack Adrift:  Fourth Grade without a Clue; and young adult autobiography Hole in My Life.  Books were available for purchase at 30% discount courtesy of Mahoning Valley Distributing Agency!  For more information about Jack Gantos and his books, visit http://www.jackgantos.com/.  Plus, there were three focus session featuring: Rotten, Atrocious, Lovable, Prankster, Hysterical:  Rotten Ralph Rides into an Elementary Reading Curriculum Near You!  with Karen Carney and Mary Ann Davis (grades K-4) A Series of Unfortunate Events: Joey Pigza Swallows a Key, Captain Underpants, Harris, Crash, Holes, and just about Everything Else with Allison Baer (grades 5-8) Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir:  Life Stories in the Classroom with Colleen Ruggieri (grades 9-12) To Top

Youngstown State University English Festival The YSU English Festival is a unique annual program reaching out to approximately 3,000 junior and senior high school students from Ohio and Pennsylvania.  Its purpose each year is to:                                              provide an exciting and stimulating setting for enjoyable and worthwhile reading and writing activities support teachers who emphasize reading and writing in the classroom offer models for effective classroom activities involve the whole community in fostering good reading and writing skills recognize and reward distinctive writing introduce students to a  wide variety of superior books of broad interest encourage parents to help their children obtain Festival books, to read the books, and to discuss them with the children bring to the community authors who can help teachers, librarians, and parents stimulate children's interest in reading and writing build through the Festival Booklists a common body of shared reading experiences to help students become lifelong readers. The twenty-sixth annual English Festival will take place March 31 To Top   Reading Matters: Mastering the Art of Teaching While Meeting the Standards          On September 27, 2003, LYRE and WROTE (Western Reserve of Ohio Teachers of English) held Reading Matters: Mastering the Art of Teaching While Meeting the Standards.  The program focused on strategies and titles sure to entice students to become life-long readers.  Jacqueline Woodson and Don Gallo were the featured speakers for the event.  It was held in YSU's Kilcawley Center in the Chestnut Room from 8:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.    To obtain a form to attend the conference, click here.  (Note: hit "Cancel" when the password dialogue box appears.) Woodson is the author of young adult novels Hush, I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This, Miracle's Boys, and picture books Sweet, Sweet Memory, and We Had a Picnic this Sunday Past.  Visit Jacqueline Woodson's website here: http://jacquelinewoodson.com/ Gallo is the editor of numerous anthologies for young adults including No Easy Answers, Ultimate Sports, and On the Fringe.  He is also the creator/author of Authors4Teens, an online service.  Visit it here: http://authors4teens.com/ To Top

Paul Zelinsky On November 8, 2002, four-time Caldecott Award Winner Paul Zelinsky was the keynote speaker at a dinner on the YSU campus for faculty, students and attendees at the Trumbull Literacy Conference, where the guest authors included Zelinsky, Patricia McLaughlin, and Mem Fox.  After a lively interactive presentation on his new moving parts picture book, Knick-Knack Paddywhack, Zelinsky answered questions and signed books.  On November 9, Zelinsky gave two presentations on his work at the Trumbull Literacy Conference for elementary school teachers.   Zelinsky is the re-teller and illustrator of the picture books Rapunzel, Swamp Angel, Rumpelstiltskin, Hansel and Gretel, and The Wheels on the Bus.   Visit Paul Zelinsky's website here:  http://www.paulozelinsky.com/  To Top A Festival of Poetry On NEOEA Day (North East Ohio Education Association), October 12, 2001, the LYRE Center sponsored an all-day poetry workshop for K-8 teachers on the campus of Youngstown State University.  Poetry for Young Readers  X. J. Kennedy,  winner of the 2000 NCTE award for excellence in poetry for children was the keynote speaker.   Poetry Alive!,  a performance poetry group, presented a workshop on staging dramatic presentations of poetry in the classroom as a tool to understanding and enjoying poetry. Workshops on Poetry Writing in the Classroom Workshops were held by these poets.   Philip Brady, professor of creative writing at YSU, has published two collections of poetry, Forged Correspondence and Weal. William Greenway, professor of creative writing at YSU, has published six collections of poetry, the latest of which is Simmer Dim. David Hassler, poetry editor of English Journal, co-editor of Learning by Heart: Contemporary American Poetry about School, and author of the poetry collection Sabishi: Poems from Japan, is an Ohio Poet-in-the-Schools. Steven Reese, author of the poetry collection Enough Light to Steer By and singer/songwriter whose latest CD is The Feast of St. Monday, is professor of creative writing at YSU. To Top