2025 Picture Book and Junior Book Nominees

We are very pleased to announce the nominees for the 2025 North Carolina Children's Book Awards.    In order to vote in March 2025, children should read at least 5 picture book nominees and/or 3 junior book nominees.

Annotated Picture Book list
Annotated Junior Book list

Picture Books

Junior Books

Acorn Was a Little Wild Jen Arena Illustrated by Jessica Gibson Beneath Cori Doerrfeld How Dinosaurs Went Extinct: A Safety Guide Ame Dyckman Illustrated by Jennifer Harney I Cannot Draw a Horse Charise Mericle Harper I Want 100 Dogs Stacy McAnulty Illustrated by Claire Keane Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider Jessica Lanan My Hands Tell a Story Kelly Starling Lyons Illustrated by Tonya Engel Place Hands Here Katie Yamasaki This Story is Not About a Kitten Randall de Sève Illustrated by Carson Ellis A Unicorn, a Dinosaur, and a Shark Walk Into a Book Jonathan Fenske A Very Cranky Book Angela DiTerlizzi Illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi Yoshi, Sea Turtle Genius: a True Story About an Amazing Swimmer Lynne Cox Illustrated by Richard Jones

Air Monica Roe Chunky Yehudi Mercado Finally Seen Kelly Yang The Fire of Stars: the Life and Brilliance of the Woman Who Discovered What Stars are Made Of Kirsten W. Larson Illustrated by Katherine Roy Kaboom! A Volcano Erupts Jessica Kulekjian Illustrated by Zoe Si The Lost Library Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass The Magical Imperfect Chris Baron The Marvellers Dhonielle Clayton Maya and the Robot Eve L. Ewing Illustrated Christine Almeda My Head Has a Bellyache: More Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-ups Chris Harris Illustrated by Andrea Tsurumi Odder Katherine Applegate Shine On, Luz Véliz! Rebecca Balcárcel

2024 Picture Book and Junior Book Winners

We have our winners for the 2024 North Carolina Children's Book Awards.  For the complete results, please visit the 2024 Results and Materials page.

Negative Cat, written and illustrated by Sophie Blackall , is the winner of the picture book category with 11,844 votes.

 Invisible, written by Christina Diaz Gonzalez and illustrated by Gabriela Epstein, is the winner of the junior book category with 900 votes.

We would like to thank all of the children who participated by voting in schools and local public libraries or virtually on this website.  Giving kids a voice in choosing their favorites is what this award is all about so THANK YOU for voting!

The committee will be meeting mid-May to select the nominees for the 2025 Awards.  Check back in again soon!

2024 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 library.

The deadline for voting is April 12, 2024.

Kids read or listen to at least 5 of the Picture Book Nominees, then VOTE - HERE.
(If you still need to read the nominees, please go to the 2024 Picture Book Nominees tab.)

Kids read or listen to at least 3 of the Junior Book Nominees, then VOTE - HERE.
(If you still need to read the nominees, please go to the 2024 Junior Book Nominees tab.)

 

NEXT YEAR'S AWARDS:  Submit your favorites for 2025  

Kids should use THIS FORM.  This is not where kids should vote for this year's award.

Librarians/Teachers:  please submit the votes you collected from your students/patrons using the Librarian Vote Tally Form located on the Librarian/Teacher Resource page

2023 Winners Accept Awards

Vanessa Roeder accepts the 2023 North Carolina Children's Picture Book Award for The Box Turtle. 

Gordon Korman accepts the 2023 North Carolina Children's Junior Book Award for Unplugged. 

Favorites for 2025

 Submit your favorite for 2025

We are collecting the titles of your favorite books published in the past three years for the 2025 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.  (Titles with publication dates of 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024)

Kids may nominate more than one favorite.