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Peggy's Pages Blog 

Children's Book Week and the Children's Choice Book Awards

Winners of the Children’s Choice Book Awards Are Announced!

Children’s Book Week 2012
May 7th to 13th

Established in 1919, Children's Book Week is the longest-running literacy initiative in the country.

Children's Book Week originated in the belief that children's books and literacy are life-changers. In 1913, Franklin K. Matthiews, the librarian of the Boy Scouts of America, began touring the country to promote higher standards in children's books. He proposed creating a Children's Book Week, which would be supported by all interested groups: publishers, booksellers, and librarians.

Mathiews enlisted two important allies: Frederic G. Melcher, the visionary editor of Publishers Weekly, and Anne Carroll Moore, the Superintendent of Children's Works at the New York Public Library and a major figure in the library world. With the help of Melcher and Moore, in 1916, the American Booksellers Association and the American Library Association sponsored a Good Book Week with the Boy Scouts of America.

In 1944, the Children’s Book Council was established and assumed responsibility for administering Children's Book Week. In 2008, Children’s Book Week moved from November to May. At that time, administration of Children’s Book Week was transferred to Every Child a Reader, the philanthropic arm of the children’s publishing industry.

Every Child a Reader is dedicated to supporting positive programs and opportunities that help promote the enjoyment of reading among America’s youth with the goal of instilling a lifelong love of reading. Its goals echo those of the CBC, which are to make the reading and enjoyment of children’s books an essential part of America’s educational and social goals and to enhance public perception of the importance of reading.

In 2008, the Children’s Book Council created the Children's Choice Book Awards, the only national book awards program where winning titles are selected by young readers of all ages. Winners of the 2012 Children’s Choice Book Awards are:

K-2nd grade:
THREE HENS AND A PEACOCK
by Lester L. Laminack, illustrated by Henry Cole (Peachtree)

3RD-4TH grade:
BAD KITTY MEETS THE BABY
by Nick Bruel (Roaring Brook/Macmillan)

5th-6th grade:
OK FOR NOW
by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Teen Book of the year:
CLOCKWORK PRINCE: THE INFERNAL DEVICES, BOOK TWO
by Cassandra Clare (Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster)

Author of the Year:
Jeff Kinney
for DIARY OF A WIMPY KID 6: CABIN FEVER (Amulet Books/Abrams)

Illustrator of the Year:
Brian Selznick
for WONDERSTRUCK (Scholastic)

For a list of finalists and more information go to:
http://www.bookweekonline.com/about  Read More 
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