Marblehead Library Director To Help Pick America's Top Children's Book

MARBLEHEAD, MA — Salem resident Kimberly Probert Grad has been chosen to help select America's top children's picture book as the Director of the Abbot Public Library of Marblehead serves as a member of the 2026 Randolph Caldecott Award Selection Committee.

The committee is in charge of choosing the most distinguished American picture book for children, in English, from those published in the past year.

The Caldecott Committee operates under the direction of the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association.

Grad moved to Massachusetts from Brooklyn, New York in 2021 and helped oversee the $9 million Abbot Library renovation. She now lives in Salem.

She received her Masters in Library Science from Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Science (CUNY) and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the State University of New York, Plattsburgh. During the last 17 years, she has served in leadership roles with ALSC and was a member of the 2022 Newbery Award Selection Committee.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)