At this point of the school year, are your Scouts ready to put down F. Scott Fitzgerald and pick up a Frisbee?
Embrace their urge to get outside once school’s out, but don’t let reading take the summer off. And fortunately, there’s help to do just that.
Children’s Book Week, the “national celebration of books and reading for youth,” is celebrating its 93rd year this week. And today, the Children’s Book Council released the winners of its Children’s Choice Book Awards, “the only national child-chosen book awards program.”
I see this season as a chance for young people to fall in love with reading — and not necessarily the kind their teachers assign. So much, though, depends on finding the right book to get them hooked.
So what better place to find books for kids than by asking kids?
Here are the nominees, with the winners in bold:
Kindergarten to Second Grade Book of the Year
Bailey by Harry Bliss (Scholastic)- Dot by Patricia Intriago (Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Macmillan)
- Pirates Don’t Take Baths by John Segal (Philomel/Penguin)
- Three Hens and a Peacock by Lester L. Laminack, illustrated by Henry Cole (Peachtree)
- Zombie in Love by Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by Scott Campbell (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster)
Third and Fourth Grade Book of the Year
Bad Kitty Meets the Baby by Nick Bruel (Roaring Brook/Macmillan)- A Funeral in the Bathroom: And Other School Bathroom Poems by Kalli Dakos, illustrated by Mark Beech (Albert Whitman)
- The Monstrous Book of Monsters by Libby Hamilton, illustrated by Jonny Duddle and Aleksei Bitskoff (Templar/Candlewick)
- Sidekicks by Dan Santat (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)
- Squish #1: Super Amoeba by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm (Random House)
Fifth and Sixth Grade Book of the Year
Bad Island by Doug TenNapel (GRAPHIX/Scholastic)- How to Survive Anything by Rachel Buchholz, illustrated by Chris Philpot (National Geographic)
- Lost & Found by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)
- Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
- Racing in the Rain: My Life as a Dog by Garth Stein (HarperCollins)
Teen Book of the Year
Clockwork Prince: The Infernal Devices, Book Two by Cassandra Clare (Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster)- Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (Little, Brown)
- Divergent by Veronica Roth (Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins)
- Passion: A Fallen Novel by Lauren Kate (Delacorte/Random House)
- Perfect by Ellen Hopkins (Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster)
Author of the Year
Jeff Kinney for Diary of a Wimpy Kid 6: Cabin Fever (Amulet Books/Abrams)- Christopher Paolini for Inheritance (Alfred A. Knopf/Random House)
- James Patterson for Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life (Little, Brown)
- Rick Riordan for The Son of Neptune (The Heroes of Olympus, Book 2) (Disney Hyperion)
- Rachel Renée Russell for Dork Diaries 3: Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster)
Illustrator of the Year
Felicia Bond for If You Give a Dog a Donut (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins)- Eric Carle for The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse (Philomel/Penguin)
- Anna Dewdney for Llama Llama Home With Mama (Viking/Penguin)
- Victoria Kann for Silverlicious (HarperCollins)
- Brian Selznick for Wonderstruck (Scholastic)
Past Years’ Winners
Find more great books for kids by visiting the list of winners from 2011 or winners from 2008 to 2010.
What do you think?
What is your son or daughter’s favorite book? Share your thoughts on how to inspire children and teens to read during the summer! Leave a comment below.
Photo by Flickr user Alex Masters.
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