I am part of a committee that welcome nominations for a national Children's book award. The nominations can come from all librarians belonging to the Librarians Association that I'm a member of. We rotate each year and have a children's, YA, and Adult Award. This current year we are going to award a Children's book / author. Can you tell me what you think a guideline to consider the book "Children" and not crossing over to YA or even Juvenile? Are picture books with large / limited words considered Children (yet this leaves out elementary level). Your thoughts are appreciated as in 3 years we again will be doing the award for Children.
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Bev, just for me to understand - Do you consider Children as infancy through 7 year old? Or is there another age perimeter for which this award (Children's Book Award) is geared? OR is this what you are asking?
Please forgive me as I may be a bit slow. I'm really interested in what others will have to say.
By the way, do you care to share a link to previously awarded books/authors - if there is such a link?
I'm looking for book guidelines for beginner readers through 5th grade. Here are the previous winners for the past years. Thanks for your interest.
Here is the whole list of winners to date:
Adult 2006 - Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
Teen/YA 2007 - A Friend at Midnight, Caroline B Cooney
Children 2008 - Sleep in Peace, Ingrid Hess
Adult 2009 - My Father's Paradise, Ariel Sabar
Teen/YA 2010 - Heart of a Shepherd, Rosanne Parry
Children 2011 - Faith, Maya Ajmira,Magda Natassis,& Cynthia Pon
Adult 2012 - An Alter in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor
Teen/YA 2013 - With a Name Like Love, Tess Hilmo
Children 2014 -
Thank you for this list, Bev. I'm going to have fun checking these out.
I hope someone responds to your original question - for your sake, but also for mine as we are redoing our Kids' Collection. I want to see how others figure it all out. What I'm doing so far is subjective. I know its not scientific, but what I do is think about when I read to my kids & to various kids' groups. Here's my self-talk that I do as I'm processing kids' books.
To distinguish between Child Collection (ages Infancy-7) & Junior Collection ( ages 8-12):
I picture myself reading to preschoolers (my children in the past and various other groups I taught). This is after the consideration of book quality & appropriateness for our library is determined.
The Wiggle Factor -
#1 Length - If it's too many words, regardless of pictures, then I put it in the Junior Collection. (I'm developing a special spot for "Picture Books" versus "Chapter Books". Even Adults have "Picture Books" - Coffee Table Books or Gift Books.)
#2 Content Comprehension (Appropriateness & Word Difficulty & Audience) - Will I need to basically translate the whole book for preschoolers? If I think so, then it goes "up" into Junior Collection. Audience~ I think about Readers & Read-Alouds. Who is the audience? The kids reading and/or adults reading to the child(ren).
Don't know if this is even helpful since I'm still figuring this out.
I just want to clarify that we don't have special section for Picture books in the adult or youth collection. I just was referring to the fact that in homes we have picture books that often are displayed on coffee tables.