Encouraging high standards of criticism, scholarship, research, and teaching in children’s literature.

The Children’s Literature Association (ChLA) is a non-profit association of scholars, critics, professors, students, librarians, teachers and institutions dedicated to the academic study of literature for children. For our members, children’s literature includes books, films, and other media created for, or adopted by, children and young adults around the world, past, present, and future.

ChLA supports two peer-reviewed scholarly journals published by The Johns Hopkins University Press: Children’s Literature and the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.

Since 1973, the Association has sponsored the annual Children’s Literature Association Conference; conferences have been held throughout the United States, Canada, and France.

The Association recognizes exceptional scholarship in and service to the field of children’s literature by annually selecting recipients for awards promoting international scholarship; honoring undergraduate, graduate, and faculty scholarship; honoring lifetime service to the field; and celebrating works of literature for children of high literary merit.