UPDATE: Watch KidLit TV’s coverage of of the 2015 CBC Children’s Choice Book Awards HERE and enter the giveaway!
This just in: KidLit.TV has partnered with the Children’s Book Council (CBC) on the coverage of their red carpet event the Children’s Choice Book Awards (CCBA)! The KLTV team will be promoting the award event on May 4th co-hosted by Jon Scieszka and Betsy Bird. The all-star roster of presenters includes Jackie Woodson, Brian Selznick, Sophie Blackall, Matt de la Peña, and more. We are excited to be covering the CBC Children’s Choice Book Awards, so check out our Red Carpet video of the event. This amazing event celebrates kids and the literary community for striving to discover what books children enjoy most.
Wondering what the CBC Children’s Choice Book Awards are and how they originated?
As the only national book awards program whose winning titles are selected by children and teens, the Children’s Choice Book Awards is an exciting event for authors, illustrators, educators, book lovers and, most importantly, the voters of the event: kids!
In 1974 the Children’s Choices, a joint project of the International Literacy Association (ILA) and the Children’s Book Council, and teams of ILA-affiliated educators in five geographic regions, had students read and vote for their favorite books. The votes from the five regions (from roughly 12,500 children) were collected and organized. The five titles with the highest number of votes in each category (K-2, 3-4, 5-6) become the finalists for the Children’s Choice Book Awards.
In 2008 the Children’s Book Council and Every Child A Reader launched this program with one steadfast goal in mind: To provide young readers with an opportunity to express their opinions about books, select their favorite books, and to help develop a new-and-improved reading list that will motivate children around the world to read more and foster a love of reading. By 2014 young readers cast over 1.2 million votes online!
Let’s take a look at this year’s CBC Children’s Choice Book Awards committee:
Children’s & Teen Choice Debut Author Committee:
- Jonathan Hunt, County Schools Librarian, San Diego County Office of Education
- Amanda Hurley, Manager, Inkwood Books, Tampa, FL
- Max Rodriguez, Founder, Harlem Book Fair & Westchester Children’s Book Festival; Publisher, QBR The Black Book Review
- John Schumacher, Librarian; Founder, Watch, Connect, Read
- Seira Wilson, Books Editor, Amazon.com
Children’s Choice Illustrator Committee:
- Betsy Bird, Youth Materials Specialist, the New York Public Library; Blogger, A Fuse #8 Production (SLJ)
- Julie Danielson, MLS, Founder, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
- Colby Sharp, Teacher, Parma Elementary, MI; Co-Founder, Nerd Camp
- Tegan Tigani, PNBA President; Bookseller and Children’s Book Buyer for Queen Anne Book Company, Seattle, WA; Editor for nwbooklovers.org
- Bernette Ford, Founder, Color-Bridge Books, LLC; Consulting Editor, Boxer Books, Ltd
This year the Children’s Choices Program supplied over 36,000+ children with newly published children’s and young adult trade books and, as in 1974, had them vote for their favorites. Those children individually selected each finalist for the K-2, 3-4, and 5-6 Book of the Year categories. Teensread.com conducted the Teen Book of the Year whose finalists were chosen by 4,000+ teens. On February 19, 2015, the finalists for the Children’s Choice Book Awards were announced!
The 7 categories from kindergarten to teen books will have one winner who will be decided by young and brilliant readers across the nation. Their votes will be placed online at ccbookawards.com from Tuesday, March 17, 2015 through Sunday, May 3, 2015. If you have kids at home, they can vote, too!
This year brings three new award categories — Children’s Choice Debut Author, Teen Choice Debut Author and Children’s Choice Illustrator. Appointed by Every Child a Reader, two selection committees made up of librarians, educators, booksellers, and children’s literature experts determined the five finalists for each selection.
Who do you think will win this year? Make sure your little bookworm places his/her vote in the following categories:
KidLit TV congratulates the 2015 Children’s Choice Book Awards finalists:
KINDERGARTEN TO SECOND GRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR
- Duck, Duck, Moose! by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, illustrated by Noah Z. Jones (Disney-Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group)
- Eva and Sadie and the Worst Haircut EVER! by Jeff Cohen, illustrated by Ellana Allen (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
- Frances Dean Who Loved to Dance and Dance by Birgitta Sif (Candlewick Press)
- How to Babysit a Grandma by Jean Reagan, illustrated by Lee Wildish (Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House)
- A Pet for Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold (Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic)
THIRD TO FOURTH GRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR
- Claude at the Beach by Alex T. Smith (Peachtree Publishers)
- The Glorkian Warrior Delivers a Pizza by James Kochalka (First Second Books, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group)
- Happy Birthday, Babymouse by Jennifer L. Holm, illustrated by Matt Holm (Random House Books for Young Readers)
- Kali’s Story: An Orphaned Polar Bear Rescue by Jennifer Keats Curtis, illustrated by John Gomes (Arbordale Publishing)
- Sisters by Raina Telgemeier (Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic)
FIFTH TO SIXTH GRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR
- Ice Dogs by Terry Lynn Johnson (HMH Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Book Group)
- Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods by Rick Riordan, illustrated by John Rocco (Disney-Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group)
- Temple Run: Race Through Time to Unlock Secrets of Ancient Worlds by Tracey West (National Geographic Children’s Books)
- The Dumbest Idea Ever! by Jimmy Gownley (Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic)
- The Return of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke (First Second Books, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group)
TEEN BOOK OF THE YEAR
- City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare (Margaret K. McElderry, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing)
- Cress by Marissa Meyer (Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group)
- I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World by Malala Yousafzai, co-written by Patricia McCormick (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group)
- The One by Kiera Cass (HarperTeen)
- We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books)
CHILDREN’S CHOICE DEBUT AUTHOR
- Cece Bell, El Deafo (Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams)
- Natalie Lloyd, A Snicker of Magic (Scholastic Press)
- Katherine Roy, Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting with the Great Whites of California’s Farallon Islands (David Macaulay Studio/Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group)
- Piers Torday, The Last Wild (Viking Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group)
- J.A. White, The Thickety: A Path Begins (Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books)
TEEN CHOICE DEBUT AUTHOR
- Sally Green, Half Bad (Viking Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group)
- Jennifer Mathieu, The Truth About Alice (Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group)
- Don Mitchell, The Freedom Summer Murders (Scholastic Press)
- Jason Reynolds, When I Was the Greatest (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster)
- Leslye Walton,The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender (Candlewick Press)
CHILDREN’S CHOICE ILLUSTRATOR
- Chris Appelhans, Sparky by Jenny Offill (Schwartz & Wade, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books)
- Steve Light, Have You Seen My Dragon? (Candlewick Press)
- Yuyi Morales, with photography by Tim O’Meara, Viva Frida (Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group)
- Christian Robinson, Gaston by Kelly DiPucchio (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing)
- Brian Won, Hooray for Hat! (HMH Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Book Group)
Winners will be announced during the 96th annual Children’s Book Week (May 4-10, 2015). So make sure you place your vote today!
Who do you think will be the grand prizewinner? Let us know your thoughts and stop by for more updates on the Children’s Book Council’s Children’s Choice Book Awards!
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