April 18, 2014 (REVISED May 5, 2014) Newbery Winner Lois Lowry, Author of "The Giver," to be Fifth Annual Eskin Presenter

Lois Lowry, author of the Newbery Medal-winning “Number the Stars” and “The Giver,” will be the special guest in the Jonah Solkoff Eskin Memorial Program. She will discuss the making of “The Giver” into a motion picture. Lowry will be joined by Nikki Silver, a producer of the film. The program will also include footage from the film, which stars Meryl Streep, Jeff Bridges and Taylor Swift.

This “Books & Beyond for Young People” event, which is free and open to the public, will be on Monday, May 12, at 10 a.m. in the Montpelier Room, located on the sixth floor of the Library of Congress James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. No tickets are required; however, seating will be very limited.

The Jonah Solkoff Eskin Memorial Fund is supporting this event in recognition of Children’s Book Week, May 12-18. The fund was established to honor the late son of Marcia and Barnet Eskin.

During the program, Lowry and Silver will discuss the history of the book’s transformation to film and the process of adapting a novel to the big screen. Lowry also will sign copies of “The Giver” and other books in the Giver Quartet, which will be available for sale during the event. The discussion is co-hosted by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, the Young Readers Center and the Children’s Book Council.

Lowry is one of the world’s most beloved and versatile authors for children and young adults. She has written more than 40 books, including the popular Anastasia Krupnik series. Lowry has sold millions of books worldwide and has twice received the prestigious Newbery Medal. Other honors include the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Reader’s Medal and the Mark Twain Award. For her contribution as a children's writer, she was a finalist in 2000 (and U.S. nominee again in 2004) for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest recognition available to creators of children's books. In 2007 she received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her contribution to young adult literature. In 2009 and 2012, Lowry appeared at the Library of Congress National Book Festival.

The Children’s Book Council (www.cbcbooks.org External) established Children’s Book Week in 1919 to bring national attention to the importance of young people’s literature. Each year, books for young people are feted with author and illustrator appearances, storytelling, celebrations and other book-related events at schools, libraries, bookstores, museums and homes nationwide. The council is a reading-promotion partner of the Center for the Book and, with the center, co-sponsors the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature program (www.read.gov/cfb/ambassador/).

Children’s Book Week is also when the Library of Congress kicks off its annual summer writing contest, called A Book That Shaped Me. The contest encourages rising 5th and 6th graders to reflect on a book that has made a personal impact on their lives – and to write about it. More details are available at www.loc.gov/bookfest/kids-teachers/booksthatshape/.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs, publications and exhibitions. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov.

The Library’s Center for the Book, established by Congress in 1977 to "stimulate public interest in books and reading," is a national force for reading and literacy promotion. A public-private partnership, it sponsors educational programs that reach readers of all ages through its affiliated state centers, collaborations with nonprofit reading-promotion partners and through the Young Readers Center and the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress. For more information, visit read.gov.

The Children’s Book Council, established in 1945, is the nonprofit trade association of publishers of trade books for children and young adults in the United States. The CBC promotes the use and enjoyment of trade books for young people, most prominently as the official sponsor of Children’s Book Week, the longest-running literacy event in the country. The goal of the Children’s Book Council is to make the reading and enjoyment of books for young people an essential part of America’s educational and social goals, as well as to enhance the public perception of the importance of reading by disseminating information about books for young people and about children’s book publishing. The Children’s Book Council is a major donor to and supporter of Every Child a Reader, a 501(c)(3) literacy nonprofit dedicated to instilling a lifelong love of reading in children.