The Reading the World Award is presented annually at the Reading the World Conference, in San Francisco, California, in recognition of an outstanding contribution to enriching the lives of children and young people through high-quality, multi-cultural literature.

… ... this award has multi-cultural communication at its heart and the winners are all inspirational in their commitment to getting this message to children and young people throughout and beyond their careers.

• The award was established in 1998, the year of the first Reading the World Conference, which is presented by the International and Multicultural Education Department of the University of San Francisco School of Education.
• The first award was presented to Marilyn Nye, who was one of the people instrumental in setting up the Conference.  One of her enduring contributions to multi-cultural awareness and children’s literacy was the founding of the Read-Aloud Volunteer Program.
• Other winners include Francisco Jiminez, author of The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child and La Mariposa; and Milly Lee, who has written about the Chinese-American experience in such books as Earthquake and Nim and the War Effort.
• The Read the World name comes from the writings of Paulo Freire, the great Brazilian educator and philosopher, who encouraged learners to challenge and change the world.
• The Reading the World logo was created by Felipe Davalos, who won the Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Award in 2000.

For more information on the Reading the World Conference, contact Beverly Vaughn Hock, Conference Director or
Barbara Hood, Conference Registrar; or visit the website.