Election Season Continues as NH Youth Vote for Best Picture Books

Results are in from the mid-term election, but New Hampshire’s youngest residents are now out in full force, voting for their favorite picture books to see which will win the 2014 Ladybug Picture Book Award.

Designed to promote early literacy, the Ladybug Picture Book Award honors the best in recent children’s picture books. Each year, a committee of children’s librarians from around the state selects 10 picture book titles that will appear on the Ladybug ballot.

Throughout November, New Hampshire children from preschool through third grade cast their ballots at their schools and public libraries. The Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library, coordinator of the program, tallies all the votes which, starting this year, can be submitted electronically.

This year’s Ladybug Picture Book Award nominees are:

• “Count the Monkeys” by Mac Bennett and Kevin Cornell
• “Frazzle Family Finds a Way” by Ann Bonwill and Stephen Gammell
• “Ben Rides On” by Matt Davies
• “How to Train a Train” by Jason Carter Eaton and John Rocco
• “Cowpoke Clyde and Dirty Dawg” by Lori Mortenson and Michael Allen Austin
• “Maya Was Grumpy” by Courtney Pippin-Mathur
• “The Very Inappropriate Word” by Jim Tobin and Dave Coverly
• “Outfoxed” by Mike Twohy
• “If I Built a House” by Chris Van Dusen
• “Baby Bear Counts One” by Ashley Wolff

Voting continues until Dec. 12, and the winner will be announced in late December.

For more information about the Ladybug Picture Book Award, visit ladybug.nhbookcenter.org.

The Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library was founded in 2003 to celebrate and promote reading, books, literacy and the literary heritage of New Hampshire, and to highlight the role that reading and libraries play in enriching the lives of the people of the Granite State. It is the New Hampshire affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

Information on the New Hampshire Center is available at nhbookcenter.org.

Submitted text. Courtesy photo.