Press Release Fun: Time for the Children’s Choice Book Awards

My laptop is on the fritz this week (typing yesterday’s review on an iPad2 = no fun) so it is fortunate that I’ve such a bold and beautiful press release to show you instead. Behold!

CHILDREN’S BOOK COUNCIL ANNOUNCES THE OPENING OF VOTING FOR THE 2012 CHILDREN’S CHOICE BOOK AWARDS
Let the Voting Begin!

NEW YORK, NY, March 14, 2012 – The Children’s Book Council (CBC) in association with Every Child a Reader, hosts the fifth annual Children’s Choice Book Awards Program with the announcement of 30 finalists in six categories, including Author and Illustrator of the Year. The Children’s Choice Book Awards (CCBA) is the only national children’s book awards program where winning titles are selected by young readers of all ages. Last year a record breaking 525,000 children and teens took part in the contest. Young readers are now able to cast their votes for their favorite books, author, and illustrator at bookstores, schools, libraries, and at www.BookWeekOnline.com until May 3, 2012.

“There are some familiar names on this list as well as newcomers,” said Robin Adelson, Executive Director at The Children’s Book Council. “It is exciting to see a wide range and variety of finalists. It will keep us guessing until the end!”

The Children’s Choice Book Award winners will be announced LIVE at the annual Children’s Choice Book Awards Gala on May 7 at Espace in New York City as part of Children’s Book Week (May 7-13, 2012), the oldest national literacy initiative in the United States. The awards presentation will be videotaped and available for viewing by book lovers of all ages on May 8, 2012 at www.BookWeekOnline.com.

In addition, NPR’s All Things Considered will feature one of the winners as its June pick for Backseat Book Club, NPR’s newest feature geared for kids ages 9-14, which invites young
listeners, families, teachers and friends to join NPR in reading and discussing a book each month. NPR will encourage young listeners to vote throughout March and April.

The Children’s Choice Book Award categories and finalists are as follows:

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 Grade to 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 Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the Year Bad Islandby 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)
Perfectby 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)

The finalists for Book of the Year in the Kindergarten to Second Grade, Third Grade to Fourth Grade, and Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade categories are the books that received the highest number of votes in the IRA-CBC Children’s Choices program.. This joint project of the International Reading Association (IRA) and the CBC began in 1975. Teams of IRA-affiliated educators in five geographic regions receive copies of each submitted title to provide to students to read and rate in classrooms across their region. The votes from the five regions (from approximately 12,000 children) are compiled and 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.

The Teen Choice finalists are determined with the help of Teenreads.com (part of The Book Report Network). The website compiles a list of all the books they have reviewed over the year and encourages readers to write in their own picks if they aren’t listed. Teens vote for their favorite book and the top five vote-getters become the finalists for the Teen Choice Book of the Year. This year, over 7,000 teens determined the finalists.

The Author and Illustrator of the Year finalists are selected by the CBC from a review of bestseller lists with an emphasis on Bookscan. Only authors and illustrators associated with books published in the previous calendar year are considered.

About the Children’s Book Council
The Children’s Book Council is the national nonprofit trade association for children’s book publishers. The CBC offers children’s publishers the opportunity to work together on issues of importance to the industry at large, including educational programming, literacy advocacy, and collaborations with other national organizations. Our members span the spectrum from large international houses to smaller independent presses. Membership in the CBC is open to U.S. publishers of children’s trade books, as well as in some cases to industry-affiliated companies. The CBC is proud to partner with other national organizations on co-sponsored reading lists, educational programming, and literacy initiatives. Please visit www.cbcbooks.org for more information.

About Every Child a Reader
Every Child a Reader is a 501(c)(3) literacy organization, the mission of which is to instill a lifelong love of reading in children. We do this by creating, promoting and administering programs that promote the joy of reading. Every Child a Reader administers Children’s Book Week. Together with the Children’s Book Council, Every Child a Reader administers the Children’s Choice Book Awards and together with the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, Every Child a Reader administers the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature program.

Please visit www.ECARfoundation.org for more information.
###
CONTACTS:    Virginia Anagnos, (212) 576-2700 x222, Virginia@goodmanmedia.com Brooke Botsford, (212) 576-2700 x241, Bbotsford@goodmanmedia.com

Filed under: Press Release Fun