Charlotte Zolotow Awards and Honors Announced

The winner of the 2025 Charlotte Zolotow Award is I Know How to Draw an Owl, written by Hilary Horder Hippely, illustrated by Matt James, and published by Neal Porter/ Holiday House in 2024. 

The committee also selected two Honor Books and ten Highly Commended titles. 

Visit the CCBC website for the full list and Charlotte Zolotow Award press release here: Charlotte Zolotow Award - Cooperative Children's Book Center. 

We are planning for an in-person Charlotte Zolotow Award event at the CCBC on Saturday, May 3. The time is yet to be determined. 

Thank you to the members of the 2025 Charlotte Zolotow Award committee: Marissa Gehrke (Community Engagement Librarian, Verona Public Library, Verona, Wisconsin); Nancy Engle (Library Media Technology Specialist, Dr. Virginia Henderson Elementary School, Madison, Wisconsin); Merri Lindgren (Librarian, Cooperative Children's Book Center, UW-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin); and Paula Zipperer (former Director, Eagle's Wing Child Care and Education Programs, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin); 

Madeline Tyner Freimuth, Chair, 2025 Charlotte Zolotow Award Committee

Librarian, Cooperative Children's Book Center, UW-Madison, Madison WI

About the Award
The Charlotte Zolotow Award is given annually to the author of the best picture book text published in the United States in the preceding year. Established in 1998, the award is named to honor the work of Charlotte Zolotow, a distinguished children’s book editor for 38 years with Harper Junior Books, and author of more than 70 picture books, including such classic works as Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present (Harper, 1962) and William’s Doll (Harper, 1972). Ms. Zolotow attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison on a writing scholarship from 1933-36 where she studied with Professor Helen C. White.
Award Administration

The award was established and is administered by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, a children’s literature library of the School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Any picture book for young children (birth through age seven) originally written in English and published by a U.S. or Canadian publisher in 2024 will be eligible for consideration for the 2025 Zolotow Award. The book may be fiction, nonfiction or folklore, as long as it is presented in picture book form for children in the birth through age seven range. Translated books, poetry collections, and easy readers are not eligible.