Announcing the 2026 Blueberry Award Winners!

So for five years the Evanston Public Library has released it Blueberry Award winners, and 2026 is no exception. Herein lies the press release for this year’s best books. Beautiful titles one and all, and be sure to scroll to the end to see the acceptance videos from TWENTY-THREE people who won!

See the full list of winners right here.

And you can read a marvelous recap of our big announcement event in the Evanston Roundtable right here as well.

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EVANSTON, ILL. The Evanston Public Library named Black Mambas: The World’s First All-Woman Anti-Poaching Unit, written and photographed by Kelly Crull and published by Millbrook Press, the winner of the fifth annual Blueberry Awards. The Black Mambas won the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Champions of the Earth award in 2015. 

Kelly Crull says, ” I am deeply grateful to the Evanston Public Library and the Blueberry Committee for this award. It is extremely important that we have awards for books that celebrate nature and environmental action. The Black Mambas are conservation heroes. My goal with this book was to step out of the way and allow them to tell their story in their own words. I had the pleasure of researching them, interviewing them, patrolling with them for poachers, and laughing together over pizza. The rangers even saved my life twice—once involving a very large elephant!”

The Evanston Public Library created the Blueberry Awards in 2020 due to a shortage of library awards that exclusively celebrate the best nature books promoting climate stewardship. 

The 2025 Blueberry Awards were announced Friday, March 20, 2026 at a live event at the newly remodeled Evanston Ecology Center. The keynote speaker was Taylor Keahey, a member of the American Library Association’s 2026 Robert F. Sibert Award committee. 

The Blueberry Committee released the eagerly awaited full 2025 Blueberry Awards List, which includes 39 titles for kids 3 – 10+. More information about the Blueberry, including past winners, submission criteria, and resources for librarians and teachers can be found HERE. 

The library also announced the winners of two state-wide programs, the Blueberry Votes for K – 2nd graders and the Preschool Blueberry Votes for  3 – 5 year olds.Younger elementary school students across Illinois chose We Are the Wibbly, A Tadpoles’ Tail by Sarah Tagholm illustrated by Jane McGuinness, published by Bloomsbury Publishing, as the winner. It’s a hilarious look at the frog life cycle, narrated by a prospective frog!

Preschoolers across Illinois selected Downpour: Splish! Splash! Ker-Splash! by Yuko Ohnari illustrated by Koshiro Hata translated from the Japanese by Emily Balistrieri, published by Red Comet Press. The book is about a young boy who enjoys a heavy rain, accompanied only by his umbrella. The book is full of different sounds made by the rain, so preschool teachers had to put on quite a performance  while reading to their students!

Cara Pratt, Evanston’s Sustainability Manager, and Karen Bireta, District 65’s Sustainability Coordinator, both Blueberry Committee members, collaborate to select 2 Blueberry Changemaker Winners: books that best help families make a difference for the earth. They chose Safe Crossing by Kari Percival, published by Chronicle Books, as the picture book winner and Climate is Just the Start by Mikaela Loach published by Bright Matter Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, as the middle grade winner.

Kari Percival says, “Of all the literary distinctions and recognition Safe Crossing has won so far, the Blueberry Changemaker Award is the one most dear to my heart. I wrote Safe Crossing with the goal of sharing my love for citizen science wildlife conservation projects as a way to connect with our neighbors of other species, advocate for the protection of their populations and learn about the need for stewardship of our shared habitats. I am so elated to hear of this award!”

Since its inauguration, the Blueberry Awards have quickly expanded their reach to parents, kids, and educators in schools, libraries, and nature centers across the United States. Blueberry Committee members will share this year’s favorites on a nationwide webinar with the Natural Start Alliance on March 25 at noon CST. Register Here.

Martha Meyer, the Blueberry Awards founder, and Betsy Bird will present on the Blueberry Awards at the 2026 ALA Annual Conference in June. Also, the Illinois Audubon magazine will publish an April article about the best bird books from the Blueberry Awards. Outdoor Illinois Journal, an online publication of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, will print an article about the Blueberry Awards in its May issue.

Educators and librarians interested in learning more about the Blueberry Awards and the Blueberry Votes programs should contact Martha Meyer.

Here now are the acceptance videos:

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And, of course, a big thank you to Martha Meyer for spearheading the Blueberry each and every year. I was just telling her that when ALA picks this up, they should rename it the Martha Meyer Blueberry Award for Nature Appreciation. Has a nice ring to it.

Filed under: Best Books, Best Books of 2025, Press Release Fun