Special Photo / Maya Ratchev, far right, a fourth-grader at Warren T. Jackson Elementary School in Buckhead, recently was selected to help present the 2014 Milner Award for Children's Literature to author Rachel Renee Russell, center, and, from left, her daughters, illustrator Nikki Russell and co-author Erin Russell. More than 1,600 school children attended the Milner Award presentation in two programs at Georgia State University's Rialto Center for the Arts in downtown Atlanta. The fact that the winner is selected exclusively by elementary school students in the Fulton County and Atlanta school districts makes the honor unique. Russell, a Virginia resident, is the New York Times best-selling author of the 'Dork Diaries' series. The honor was created in 1982 by the Friends of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System using a gift from Vera Milner, a former Atlanta school teacher. The award was envisioned as a creative way to get young children excited about reading by allowing them to vote for their favorite author and then get the chance to meet the winning author. More than 5 million copies of the books are in print in the United States, and publishing rights have been sold in 32 countries with translation into 28 languages. Nominations are now being taken for the 2015 honoree. Information: www.themilneraward.org
{}