Children's book awards give us a mirror of the culture of a country and the books that children enjoy. This presentation examines major awards for children's books in as many countries as these awards could be determined.

1. COMMONALITIES IN CONTENT OF WINNERS OF
INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARDS
Diversity Challenge Resilience: School Libraries in Action - The 12th Biennial School Library Association
of Queensland, the 39th International Association of School Librarianship Annual Conference,
incorporating the 14th International Forum on Research in School Librarianship,
Brisbane, QLD Australia, 27 September – 1 October 2010.

2. INTRODUCTION

3. CRITERIA FOR EXAMINATION OF BOOKS
Recipient of an international or regional award
(state, province) between 2000-2010.
Inclusion on an international book list such as
the USBBY Outstanding International Books or
the White Ravens
Books were categorized by
Format
Genre

4. ANALYSIS
89 award winning books were chosen for an
initial examination
40 books were chosen for a more in depth
analysis. All of these books were child selected
awards rather than adult selected.

5. WHAT WAS EXAMINED
Type of protagonist (human, animal with human
characteristics, etc.
Age of protagonist
Gender of protagonist (if important to the story)
Theme/Plot (very general)
Philosophy or spiritual beliefs or personal
values
Traditions or customs unique to country

6. AN OVERVIEW OF CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARDS

7. EARLY AWARDS
US—Newbery, 1922
UK—Carnegie, 1937
US—Caldecott, 1938
NZ—Esther Glen Award, 1945
Australia—Book of the Year Awards, 1946
Canada—Book of the Year for Children, 1947
UK—Kate Greenaway, 1946

8. ADULT SELECTED VS. CHILD SELECTED AWARDS
Most national awards are adult selected while
child selected awards tend to be state or
regional awards.

9. CHILD SELECTED AWARDS

10. UNITED STATES AWARDS
Every state except for Mississippi has a state book
award
The Pacific Northwest Young Reader’s Award is the
oldest, first given in 1940. Five states and 2
Canadian provinces participate in this award.
Kansas gave the first single state award in 1952
and Hawaii was second in 1959.
US chapter of IRA also has a yearly Children’s
Choice Reading List with 12,500 students
choosing the list.

11. AWARDS FROM OTHER ENGLISH SPEAKING
COUNTRIES
These awards include, but are not limited to:
Ontario, Canada—Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Award,
1976
Australia—KOALA (Kids Own Australian Literature
Awards, 1981
UK—Read House Children’s Book Award, 1981
Queensland, Australia—BILBY (Books I Love Best
Yearly), 1990

12. WHAT THE AWARDS TELL US ABOUT CHILDREN
AND READING

13. GENRE
In the initial 89 books examined
Realistic fiction—35
Fantasy—26
The remain books, all with fewer than 10
winners, were myth/legend/folktale, science
fiction, historical fiction, mystery, and poetry
Over half of the books were picture books

14. COUNTRIES WHOSE WINNERS WERE EXAMINED
Besides the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and
New Zealand, awards from the following
countries were examined:
Serbia, Slovenia, Ireland, Slovakia, Nicaragua,
Iran, Philippines, Croatia, Kenya, Sri Lanka,
South Africa, France, Scotland, Wales
Several international awards were also
examined.

15. GENERALITIES: AWARDS CHOSEN BY ADULTS

16. WHAT WON
Books that reflect a country’s culture—
especially myth, legend, and folktale
Books about children using their imagination
Books that teach lessons
Picture books with animal characters
Chapter books dealing with serious issues

17. CHILDREN’S CHOICE AWARDS

18. WHAT WAS EXAMINED
Looked at 40 books—20 picture and 20
chapter books. These books were all from
English-speaking countries because I could not
verify the selection procedure for the other
awards.

19. WHAT CHILDREN CHOSE—PICTURE BOOKS
More likely to choose humorous titles
Picture book winners generally had animal
characters with human characteristics.
More picture book characters were male than
female.
Plot and theme frequently dealt with solving
problems and handling emotions.
Culturally neutral

20. WHAT CHILDREN CHOSE—CHAPTER BOOKS
14 books were fantasy
14 books were volumes from series
3 books—Twilight, The Lightning Thief, and Eragon
won awards from at least 2 countries
A number of the winners have been made into
movies
Protagonist most likely to be male
Parents and adults usually absent or ineffectual

21. CONCLUSIONS

22. There is not much overlap in child chosen and
adult chosen winners.
This overlap not only includes titles, but themes
and type of book
Obviously, this initial research barely scraped the
surface of the subject and much more work needs
to be done:
Awards from more countries
Discovery of award criteria
Number of books examined