2023 Nominations

NOMINATE A BOOK

 

It's time to start nominating books for the 2022-2023 North Carolina Children's Book Awards!  Nominations are submitted by the children of North Carolina in grades K-6th.  Teachers and librarians may help children enter their nominations, but no teacher or librarian should enter their own favorites.  That's what makes this award so special - the books are nominated by kids and voted on by kids to determine the top two books of the year!  Click on "nominate a book" to get started.

Kids may nominate more than one favorite.

Activities for the 2022 Nominees are ready!

We are excited to present read-alouds, book trailers, book talks and activities for the 2022 North Carolina Children's Book Award Nominees. Voting will begin in March 2022.  

 eBooks and eAudiobooks available through NC Kids digital library.  

2022 Activity Booklet for all Nominees

Picture Book Nominees

Children may vote for their favorite title if they have read at least 5 of the 12 nominees. 

Bad Dog Read-aloud

Bad Dog Activities

 Carl and the Meaning of Life Read-aloud

  Carl and the Meaning of Life Activities

Don't Feed the Coos Read-aloud

Don't Feed the Coos Activities

Eye by Eye Book Talk

Eye by Eye Activities

Eyes That Kiss in the Corners Read-aloud

Eyes That Kiss in the Corner Activities

Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots Read-aloud

Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots

Federico and the Wolf Read-aloud

Federico and the Wolf Activities

Just Ask! Read-aloud

Just Ask! Activities

The Little Red Fort Read-aloud

The Little Red Fort Activities

On Account of the Gum Read-aloud

On Account of the Gum Activities

 

Snail Crossing Read-aloud

Snail Crossing Activities

Swashby and the Sea Read-aloud

Swashby and the Sea Activities

Junior Book Nominees

Children may vote for their favorite title if they have read at least 3 of the 10 nominees.  

eBooks and eAudiobooks available through NC Kids digital library.  

The Friendship War Book Trailer

The Friendship War Activities

Halfway to Harmony Book Talk

Halfway to Harmony Activities

Look Both Ways Book Trailer

Look Both Ways Activities

Mañanaland Author Book Talk

Mañanaland Activities

New Kid Author Book Talk

New Kid Activities

Not If I Can Help It Author Book Talk

Not If I Can Help It Activities

Swish! Read-aloud

Swish! Activities

Twenty-one Steps Book Talk

Twenty-one Steps Activities

When Stars Are Scattered Book Trailer

When Stars Are Scattered Activities

Where the Watermelons Grow Book Trailer

Where the Watermelons Grow Activities

2021 Winners accept awards

Our 2021 winners won't be able to make it to the NCSLMA conference this year, but they have accepted the awards virtually!  Ryan T. Higgins accepts the 2021 North Carolina Children's Picture Book Award for Be Quiet! and Jen Wang accepts the Junior Book Award for Stargazing. (The file was too big to upload so please click on the text to view Jen Wang's video.)

 

 

 

Jen Wang accepts Junior Book award

 

2022 Picture and Junior Book Nominees

We are very pleased to announce the nominees for the 2022 North Carolina Children's Book Awards.  Activities, read-alongs and book trailers will be ready soon!

Annotated Picture Book list
Annotated Junior Book list

Picture Books

Junior Books

Bad Dog Boldt, Mike.  New York : Doubleday Books for Young Readers, 2019. Carl and the Meaning of Life Freedman, Deborah. New York : Viking Books for Young Readers, 2019. Don’t Feed the Coos Stutzman, Jonathan. Illustrated by Heather Fox. New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2020. Eye by Eye: Comparing How Animals See Levine, Sara. Illustrated by T.S. Spookytooth. Minneapolis : Millbrook Press, 2020. Eyes That Kiss in the Corners. Ho, Joanna. Illustrated by Dung Ho.  New York : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2021. Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots. Rex, Michael.   New York : Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2020. Federico and the Wolf Gomez, Rebecca J.. Illustrated by Elisa Chavarri.  Boston ; New York : Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020. Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You Sotomayor, Sonia. Illustrated by Rafael López. New York : Philomel Books, 2019. The Little Red Fort Maier, Brenda. Illustrated by Sonia Sánchez. New York : Scholastic Press, 2018. On Account of the Gum Rex, Adam. San Francisco, California : Chronicle Books, 2020. Snail Crossing Tabor, Corey R.. New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2020. Swashby and the Sea Ferry, Beth. Illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal.   New York : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020.

The Friendship War Clements, Andrew.  New York : Random House, 2019. Halfway to Harmony O'Connor, Barbara.  New York : Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2021. Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks Reynolds, Jason. Illus. Alexander Nabaum. New York : A Caitlyn Dlouhy Book/Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2019. Mañanaland Ryan, Pam Muñoz. New York : Scholastic Press, 2020. New Kid Craft, Jerry.   New York : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2019. Not If I Can Help It Mackler, Carolyn.   New York : Scholastic Press, 2019. Swish: The Slam-dunking, Alley-ooping, High-flying Harlem Globetrotters Slade, Suzanne. Illustrated by Don Tate.   New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2020. Twenty-one Steps: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Gottesfeld, Jeff. Illustrated by Matt Tavares.   Somerville, Massachusetts : Candlewick Press, 2021. When Stars Are Scattered Jamieson, Victoria and Omar Mohamed.  New York : Dial Books for Young Readers, 2020. Where the Watermelons Grow Baldwin, Cindy.  New York : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2018.

2021 Picture Book and Junior Book Winners

We collected almost 50,000 votes this year despite COVID restrictions and we are very happy to announce the winners of the 2021 North Carolina Children's Book Award!

Be Quiet!, written and illustrated by Ryan T. Higgins, is the winner of the picture book category with 12,348 votes.

 

Stargazing, written by Jen Wang, is the winner of the junior book category with 513 votes.

The North Carolina Children's Book Award committee would like to thank all of the children who voted virtually through this website or their school librarians and teachers. To see the voting summary for this year's awards, please go to the 2021 Results and Materials page.

We hope to announce the nominees for the 2022 awards soon!

Voting deadline now April 16

Voting deadline extended to 5 p.m on Friday, April 16.

 Kids - please vote here or contact your school librarian to vote. 

 Librarians - please collect votes from your students and patrons then complete the vote tally form by April 16.

Kids please nominate your favorite books for next year's award! (Go to the Nominate 2022 tab above.)

2021 Voting is Open!

It's time for kids to vote for their favorite books!  Kids may vote online, through their school librarians, or at their public libraries (if they're open and participating.)  The deadline for voting is April 16.

KIDS:

If you have read or listened to at least 5 of the 10 Picture Book Nominees, then vote - HERE.
(If you still need to checkout the nominees, please go to the 2021 Picture Book Voting tab.)

If you have read or listened to at least 3 of the 10 Junior Book Nominees, then vote - HERE.
(If you still need to checkout the nominees, please go to the 2021 Junior Book Voting tab.)

LIBRARIANS:

Please start collecting votes from your students.  Printable ballots are available or you may copy the Google form we are using to collect your students' votes online.  The tally form to collect your vote totals for each title will be available March 1.  Please submit the totals for your school or library only once. The deadline for librarians to submit their vote totals is Friday, April 16.

printable ballots:  picture book list ballots     junior book list ballots    book cover ballots

VOTE NOW printable sign

NEXT YEAR'S AWARDS:

Please remember we are also accepting nominations for next year's awards through April 16.  Kids should use THIS FORM or go to the tab at the top of the page to submit their favorites.