Time is running out to vote in the Children’s Choice Book Awards! Kids from Kindergarten through Teen have until Monday, April 25 to vote for their favorite books published in 2015. Parents, teachers, librarians, and booksellers can also enter multiple votes gathered from young readers in the group ballot.
The Children’s Choice Book Awards are sponsored by the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader. Winners will be announced during the 97th annual Children’s Book Week (May 2-8, 2016), during which CBLDF and comic book stores around the country will be creating special events celebrating comics and the joy of reading! Here are the finalists in each category; comics and comic-adjacent works are highlighted in red:
KINDERGARTEN TO SECOND GRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR
- Clark the Shark: Afraid of the Dark by Bruce Hale, illustrated by Guy Francis (HarperCollins Children’s)
- The Little Shop of Monsters by R.L. Stine, illustrated by Marc Brown (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Hachette Book Group)
- Sick Simon by Dan Krall (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
- Stick and Stone by Beth Ferry, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld (HMH Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
- To the Sea by Cale Atkinson (Disney-Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group)
THIRD TO FOURTH GRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR
- Escape from the Lizzarks (Nnewts: Book 1) by Doug TenNapel (GRAPHIX, an imprint of Scholastic)
- Fort by Cynthia DeFelice (Farrar Straus Giroux, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group)
- Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras by Duncan Tonatiuh (Abrams Books for Young Readers)
- I’m Trying To Love Spiders by Bethany Barton (Viking Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group)
- Monkey and Elephant and a Secret Birthday Surprise by Carole Lexa Schaefer, illustrated by Galia Bernstein (Candlewick Press)
FIFTH TO SIXTH GRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR
- Backlash by Sarah Darer Littman (Scholastic Press)
- Hilo Book 1: The Boy Who Crashed to Earth by Judd Winick (Random House Books for Young Readers)
- Saved By the Bell by Joelle Sellner, illustrated by Chynna Clugston-Flores and Tim Fish (Roar Comics)
- The Terrible Two by Mac Barnett and Jory John, illustrated by Kevin Cornell (Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams Books)
- Tom Gates: Everything’s Amazing (Sort Of) by Liz Pichon (Candlewick Press)
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
- All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven (Knopf Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books)
- P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
- Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (Harper Teen, an imprint of HarperCollins)
- Winter (The Lunar Chronicles) by Marissa Meyer (Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group)
CHILDREN’S CHOICE DEBUT AUTHOR–Open to all voters in K-6
- Elana K. Arnold for The Question of Miracles (HMH Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
- Ali Benjamin for The Thing About Jellyfish (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Hachette Book Group)
- Alex Gino for George (Scholastic Press)
- Victoria Jamieson for Roller Girl (Dial Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group)
- Kelly Jones for Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer (Knopf Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books)
- Becky Albertalli for Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s)
- Kelly Loy Gilbert for Conviction (Disney-Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group)
- Adam Silvera for More Happy Than Not (Soho Teen)
- Sabaa Tahir for An Ember in the Ashes (Razorbill, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group)
- Tommy Wallach for We All Looked Up (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
CHILDREN’S CHOICE ILLUSTRATOR–Open to all voters
- Kate Beaton for The Princess and the Pony (Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic)
- Mike Curato for Little Elliot, Big Family (Henry Holt & Co., an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group)
- Greg Pizzoli for Tricky Vic: The Impossibly True Story of the Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower (Viking Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group)
- Antoinette Portis for The Red Hat by David Teague (Disney-Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group)
- Taeeun Yoo for Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev (Paula Wiseman Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster)
Help support CBLDF’s important First Amendment work in 2016 by visiting the Rewards Zone, making a donation, or becoming a member of CBLDF!
Contributing Editor Maren Williams is a reference librarian who enjoys free speech and rescue dogs.