Evanston Public Library Names the 2023 Blueberry Award Winners!
One and all, it gives me the deepest of pleasure to announce that the 2023 Blueberry Award winners have at long last been announced.
But what, you may ask, is a Blueberry Award? Why, my friends, it is only the nation’s most prominent award for those children’s books produced in a given year that strengthen kids’ connections with nature and fosters action for the planet. That’s all! And since there is no official award from the American Library Association to fill that void, my library, Evanston Public Library, (and specifically the incomparable Martha Meyer) stepped up instead.
We are so pleased to announce this list. Here’s the official press release to tell you more. It includes a slew of resources for parents (including Best Nature Board Books of 2023, The 2023 Blueberry Educators Resources Booklist and Great Adult Books selected by the 2023 Blueberry Committee) and if you stick around you can see some very cool acceptance videos from a couple of the honorees at the end:
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Blueberry Awards honor excellence in environmental literature for children
EVANSTON, ILL. – The Evanston Public Library has named two books, How to Bird and The Gift of Mnoomin/ Mnoomin Maan’gowing, the joint winners of the third annual Blueberry Awards.
How to Bird by Rasha Hamid introduces birding to children through vivid photographs of children seeking out bird species in urban neighborhoods. The Gift of Mnoomin/Mnoomin Maan’gowing, is a bilingual book by Brittany Luby about mnoomin, the keystone species grain of the upper Great Lakes, richly illustrated by Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley and translated into Ojibwe by Mary Ann Corbiere.
“I’m so excited to be one of the recipients of the 2023 Blueberry Awards. What an honor!” Hamid said. “As a parent and educator, I have spent decades looking for books that reflect the extraordinary diversity of our earth and also that center Black and brown children in urban communities. How to Bird was inspired by the dream that our public greenspaces can be safe and welcoming for everyone, that joyful, mindful activities like birding are available to all of us, wherever we live and whoever we are.”
“I’d like to say miigwetch (thank you) to the Blueberry Award Committee for helping me to raise up and draw attention to this work,” Luby said. “It is my hope that this book reminds readers of their connection to the environment. When we plant a seed, we can provide food and habitat to a diversity of species, plant and animal relatives who in turn nurture us. I hope you also find a sense of intergenerational love and interspecies care through the pages because that is the gift that the elders gave me when they first invited me into the fields, when they introduced me to mnoomin. To them, to my elders, I also say miigwetch.”
The 2023 Blueberry Awards were announced Thursday, March 14, at a live event at the Robert Crown Community Center, attended by Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, Library Director Yolande Wilburn, directors of several local libraries, and staff from the Chicago Botanic Garden and the Morton Arboretum along with a crowd of children’s nature book lovers. Special guest Claudia Martinez, Chicago-based author also made an appearance.
Her picture book, Not a Monster, about the axolotl in Mexico City, was named among this year’s 29 Blueberry Honor Award winners. Four Blueberry Changemaker Awards were also named, celebrating books that support and encourage kids’ actions for the planet.
The eagerly awaited full 2023 Blueberry Awards list can be found at epl.org/2023blueberries. More information about the Blueberry, including past winners, submission criteria, and resources for incorporating Blueberry books into classrooms, is included at epl.org/blueberry.
The honorees of this year’s Blueberry Awards are a diverse crop of new authors and illustrators from around the world as well as some well-known names in children’s literature.
Sy Montgomery, an award winning nature writer, accepted a Blueberry Honor for The Book of Turtles. “(Illustrator) Matt Patterson and I are elated to learn that our book has been honored with a blueberry award!” he said. “I know Evanston, Illinois, well and it is a fabulous place full of smart people!”
This year’s Blueberry winners included authors and illustrators from Israel, Canada, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Brazil, and Ecuador, as well as the United States. Books by indigenous authors, including Patricia Gualinga, indigenous leader in the Ecuadorian Amazon and co-author of Stand as Tall as the Trees: How an Amazonian Community Protected the Rain Forest, won several awards this year.
“When you read our book or when you connect with the Amazon, you are also linked to our struggle,” Gualinga said. “You are closely connected—we share the same home, we are on the same Earth. I invite you to join in the protection of the Amazonian ecosystems and Amazonian biome, to join in its protection from different parts of the world, to join in our struggle.”
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Since its inauguration, the Blueberry Awards have quickly expanded their reach to parents, kids, and educators, spreading this love of and responsibility for the environment in schools, libraries, and nature centers across the United States. Blueberry Committee members will share this year’s favorites with the Natural Start Alliance today, with Early Childhood Investigations Webinars on Tuesday, March 19, and with the Environmental Education Association of Illinois (EEAI) on March 23. And in October, Blueberry Committee members will attend the Northern Illinois Nature Preschool Conference. More details about upcoming Blueberry events for educators is available ay epl.org/blueberry.
“I am so proud of our EPL staff for their initiative in creating this award and in celebrating authors that so beautifully and eloquently illustrate the importance of this critical topic,” EPL Assistant Director Heather Norborg said. “The Evanston Public Library is proud to support innovative programs and services that connect people of all ages to their environment and inspire them to create change, and my hope is that the reach and impact of the Blueberry Awards will continue to expand.”
This year, the Blueberry Committee also provided three extra lists to assist parents and teachers: Best Nature Board Books of 2023, The 2023 Blueberry Educators Resources Booklist and Great Adult Books selected by the 2023 Blueberry Committee.
The Blueberry Committee especially wants to thank Kim Vigue, Executive Director of the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, for her consultation during the selection process.
Educators who are interested in learning more about the Blueberry Awards and how to incorporate Blueberry books into their programming and resources are encouraged to contact Martha Meyer at msmeyer@cityofevanston.org.
Check out all the Blueberry Winners, Honors and Changemakers on our 2023 Blueberry List on our website, epl.org, where you can also find past winners.
Now please enjoy some very cool acceptance videos from these book creators:
Maxwell Eaton III
Brittany Luby
Emma Reynolds
Filed under: Press Release Fun
About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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Judy Weymouth says
HOW TO BIRD is a book you featured on 31 Days 31 Lists. I purchased it for a young birder friend and was very pleased.
Laura Purdie Salas says
Such a meaningful award and an absolutely beautiful list of books. I’m grateful to have an Honor book–There’s nothing better than having librarians/educators share your book with others!