Wonderful news from the January 25 session of the ALA Midwinter Meeting, an annual convocation, held virtually this year, dear to the nation’s library community. One of its most anticipated highlights is the bestowal of numerous prizes and recognition for previous year’s children’s and young adult fiction and nonfiction deemed to be of resonant literary and cultural importance. Chief among them is the Newbery Medal, awarded yearly to “the most distinguished American children’s book.” This year’s Newbery Medal went to WHEN YOU TRAP A TIGER by Tae Keller.

Due to overwhelming demand, Penguin Young Readers will publish a special hardcover edition of “The Hill We Climb,” the poem written and delivered by Amanda Gorman at the inauguration of the 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden.  At age 22, Ms. Gorman is the sixth and youngest poet to deliver a poetry reading at a presidential inauguration.

Having completed the established 95 years of copyright protection granted books registered under the U.S. Copyright Act, as of this January 1, F. Scott Fitzergald’s THE GREAT GATSBY, first published in 1925, has become a public domain literary property, which can be published or reprinted without restriction.