News Briefs

ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN CHILDREN'S VIDEO
With the constant barrage of criticism of children's television programming, it is important to recognize, reward, and disseminate high-quality children's videos, in the hope that their example will be emulated by others. The Association for Library Service to Children of the American Library Association (ALA) has been awarding "The Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Children's Video" since 1991. According to the ALA, the purpose is to honor outstanding video productions for children during the previous year.

The winning producer for 1998 is Tom Davenport, of Davenport Film, for Willa: An American Snow White, 88 min. VHS. $39.95. For more information and a list of previous winners, consult the ALA's Web site.

The ALA has received Corporation grants totaling $1,084,000 since 1989 for a program to encourage educational videocassette use in public libraries, of which this project is a part.

NEW PUBLICATION RESULTING FROM A CORPORATION GRANT
Safe Passage: Making It Through Adolescence in a Risky Society — What Parents, Schools, and Communities Can Do, by Joy G. Dryfoos, published by Oxford University Press in March ($27.50), is the latest of three books by child advocate Dryfoos on the requirements for healthy adolescent development in America today.

American children face daunting obstacles on the path to adulthood — failing schools, dangerous streets, drug abuse, teen pregnancy. Many are growing up alienated from home, school, and society, with no sense of the future. The good news is that schools and communities all over the country are beginning to provide these children with an array of educational, social, and health services that are improving the odds they will become educated, healthy, and productive, caring citizens.

In Safe Passage, Dryfoos provides a thorough analysis of effective programs, focusing on "full-service schools," and discusses how such preventive interventions can be applied in other communities, scaled up, and a matter for state and federal policy. She also details what doesn't work and why.

To order, check your bookstore or write/call Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 (212) 726-6017.