2021 Nominees and materials

The following resources are for the 2020-21 North Carolina Children's Book Award. Children voting in the Picture Book category are expected to read at least 5 nominees and children voting in the Junior Book category are expected to read at least 3 of the nominees. 

The Activity Booklet includes read-alouds, book talks, and book trailers as well as engaging activities for children to do at home. Printable ballots and vote tally sheets will be posted before the voting season begins next year.

Complete 2021 Activity Booklet

Please visit the pages for the Picture Book nominees and the Junior Book nominees for easy access to the materials for each title.  The tabs just below the header on the home page will take you to each page.

Annotated Picture Book list
Annotated Junior Book list

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

VOTE NOW printable sign

Picture Books

Junior Books

  •  Be Quiet!
    Higgins, Ryan T..  Los Angeles : Disney-Hyperion, 2017.


  • The Brilliant Deep: Rebuilding the World's Coral Reefs: the story of Ken Nedimyer and the Coral Restoration Foundation
    Messner, Kate. Illustrated by Matthew Forsythe.   San Francisco : Chronicle Books, 2018.


  • The Day You Begin
    Woodson, Jacqueline. Illustrated by Rafael López.  New York : Nancy Paulsen Books, 2018.


  • The Donkey Egg
    Stevens, Janet and Susan Stevens Crummel.  Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019.


  • Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story
    Maillard, Kevin Noble. Illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal.  New York : Roaring Brook Press, 2019.


  • Going Down Home with Daddy
    Lyons, Kelly Starling. Illustrated by Daniel Minter.   Atlanta : Peachtree Publishers, 2019.


  • The Good Egg
    John, Jory. Illustrated by Pete Oswald.  New York : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2019.


  • Hair Love
    Cherry, Matthew A.. Illustrated by Vashti Harrison.  New York : Kokila, 2019.


  • La Princesa and the Pea
    Elya, Susan Middleton. Illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal.  New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2017.


  • Rescue & Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship
    Kensky, Jessica and Patrick Downes. Illustrated by Scott Magoon.   Somerville, Massachusetts : Candlewick Press, 2018.
  • Aru Shah and the End of Time
    Chokshi, Roshani.  Los Angeles : Disney-Hyperion, 2018.


  • Because of the Rabbit
    Lord, Cynthia.  New York : Scholastic Press, 2019.


  • Cape
    Hannigan, Kate.  New York : Alladin, 2019.


  • The Day the Universe Exploded My Head: Poems to Take You Into Space and Back Again
    Wolf, Allan. Illustrated by Anna Raff.  Somerville, Massachusetts : Candlewick Press, 2019.


  • From the Desk of Zoe Washington
    Marks, Janae.   New York : Katherine Tegen Books, 2020.


  • Harbor Me
    Woodson, Jacqueline.   New York : Nancy Paulsen Books, 2018.


  • Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera
    Fleming, Candace. Illustrated by Eric Rohmann.   New York : Neal Porter Books, an imprint of Holiday House, 2020.


  • Prairie Lotus
    Park, Linda Sue.   Boston ; New York : Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020.


  • Stargazing
    Wang, Jen.  New York : FirstSecond, 2019.


  • The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle
    Connor, Leslie.  New York : Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2018.