The North Carolina Children’s Book Award began in 1992. Each year since then, school and public libraries participate in the process of selecting, studying and voting for the next winner! Members of the North Carolina Library Association’s children’s committee select a group of picture books and junior novels from suggestions submitted by North Carolinian school children. The list of books is then given to each school and public library throughout the state. During the course of the year, classroom teachers, media specialists and public librarians in North Carolina encourage children to become familiar with the nominees and vote for their favorite title in two categories: “Picture Book” and “Junior Book”. The award is therefore truly a children’s book award - selected by the children of the state of North Carolina!

Scaredy Squirrel, by Melanie Watt is the winner of the Picture Book category and Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, by Adam Rex is the winner of the Junior Book category.

A grand total of 138,676 votes were cast. We had well over 550 schools to vote and several public library systems reporting as well. Scaredy Squirrel won with 24564 of the 120,796 votes cast in the Picture Book category. Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich won with 2410 of the 17,880 votes cast in the Junior Book category.

The North Carolina Children's Book Award Program is a children's choice award program sponsored by the school and public librarians in North Carolina designed to introduce children to current children's literature and to instill a love of reading

2008-2009 Nominees