2024 Charlotte Zolotow Awards Announced

Hot off the presses from the CCBC:

Just Like Grandma, written by Kim Rogers and illustrated by Julie Flett, is the winner of the 2024 Charlotte Zolotow Award for outstanding writing in a picture book. 

The award is given by the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC), a library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Just Like Grandma was edited by Rosemary Brosnan and published in the United States in 2023 by Heartdrum, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Three honor books and ten highly commended titles were also named.

Mutual admiration and respect abound between a contemporary Wichita girl and her talented grandmother, each of whom generously shares her skills with the other in this quietly touching story of family love. “On the steps of a house at the end of the street, / Becca watches / Grandma bead and bead / buckskin moccasins. / More than anything, / Becca wants to be / just like Grandma.” 

Whether her grandma is skillfully stitching, painting at her easel, or dancing Fancy Shawl either at the powwow or “barefoot near the garden,” Becca repeatedly entreats her, “‘Let me try.’” Grandma willingly obliges, and “[t]ogether they bead,” dance, “flutter like the most beautiful butterflies,” and “paint the most spectacular sunrise,” enjoying their shared activity “until the sun dips below the tree line / and Grandpa calls them in” for dinner. 

A delightful reversal to the pattern comes when Grandma joins Becca in shooting hoops on the basketball court. “More than anything, / Grandma wants to be / just like Becca.” After Becca’s successful basketball team tryouts, she and her grandparents enjoy a celebratory pizza out. As the story comes to a close, Becca reflects on the myriad skills that she and Grandma share. “Becca knows that / she is just like Grandma. … And Grandma knows that / she is just like Becca.” The affection between grandmother and granddaughter is palpable in this wonderfully paced and lyrically written story.

2024 Zolotow Award Honor Books:

All the Faces of Me, written by Laura Alary, illustrated by Salini Perera, edited by Ella Russell and Jennifer Stokes, and published by Owlkids Books, 2023, celebrates the range of emotions contained within one child in a story brimming with humor and child appeal. As she studies her grandmother’s set of nesting dolls—“all those tiny people wrapped up in one”—the girl decides to “fix” their uniform smiles with a marker. Nana is not so pleased by this, but the girl explains, “If those dolls were me … they would not all be the same…” They would have layers, different emotions, and even a part that “is still becoming.” After considering, Nana agrees and gives her granddaughter a hug that “is big enough to hold all of me.”

Finding Family: The Duckling Raised by Loons, written by Laura Purdie Salas, illustrated by Alexandria Neonakis, edited by Carol Hinz, and published by Millbrook Press, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group, 2023, chronicles the fascinating, real-life phenomenon of an orphaned mallard duckling being raised by two adult loons in a Wisconsin lake. Awash in engaging details, sensory language, and subtle humor, the narrative is poetic and informative in equal measure. It is also unafraid to acknowledge scientific unknowns. For these three unusual birds, “[t]he future is / a perfect mystery / of possibilities, / like an unhatched egg.”

My Baba’s Garden, written by Jordan Scott, illustrated by Sydney Smith, edited by Neal Porter, and published by Neal Porter Books, an imprint of Holiday House, 2023, recalls the warm relationship between a boy and his singular grandmother. Before and after school the boy joins Baba—who lived through a time when food was scarce—at her home, “a chicken coop beside a highway.” The two do not share a language but express their devotion through actions: Baba, whose “house is crammed with food” she has grown herself, lovingly prepares meals for her grandson; together they collect worms for her expansive garden. When Baba later moves in with him, her grandson thoughtfully returns the tender care she has shown him in this gentle, exquisitely written story.

2024 Zolotow Award Highly Commended titles:

• Dim Sum Palace, written and illustrated by X. Fang (Tundra, 2023).
• Do You Remember?, written and illustrated by Sydney Smith (Neal Porter Books / Holiday House, 2023).
• The Kitten Story: A Mostly True Tale, written by Emily Jenkins and illustrated by Brittany Cicchese (Minerva / Astra, 2023).
• A Letter for Bob, written by Kim Rogers and illustrated by Jonathan Nelson (Heartdrum / HarperCollins, 2023).
• Nell Plants a Tree, written by Anne Wynter and illustrated by Daniel Miyares (Balzer + Bray / HarperCollins, 2023)
• Our Pool, written and illustrated by Lucy Ruth Cummins (Atheneum / Simon & Schuster, 2023). · Papá’s Magical Water-Jug Clock, written by Jesús Trejo and illustrated by Eliza Kinkz (Minerva / Astra, 2023).
• Simon and the Better Bone, written and illustrated by Corey R. Tabor (Balzer + Bray / HarperCollins, 2023)
• Summer Is for Cousins, written by Rajani LaRocca and illustrated by Abhi Alwar (Abrams, 2023). ·
• You Go First, written by Ariel Bernstein and illustrated by Marc Rosenthal (A Paula Wiseman Book / Simon & Schuster, 2023).

Established in 1998, the Charlotte Zolotow Award honors 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 to 1936, where she studied with Professor Helen C. White. Ms. Zolotow died in November, 2013, at the age of 98.

The annual award is given for outstanding writing in a picture book for children in the birth-through-seven age range published in the United States or Canada. This is the twenty-fifth time the award has been given. The 2024 award will be presented at an award ceremony in Madison at a date to be determined.

Members of the 2024 Zolotow Award committee were: Madeline Tyner, chair (Librarian, Cooperative Children’s Book Center, Madison, Wisconsin); Marissa Gehrke (Community Engagement Librarian, Verona Public Library, Verona, Wisconsin); Maegan Heindel (Library Services Coordinator, Madison Metropolitan School District, Madison, Wisconsin); Madeline Oleson (Library Media Technology Specialist, Lapham Elementary School, Madison, Wisconsin); and Paula Zipperer (Director, Eagle’s Wing Child Care and Education Programs, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin).

The Cooperative Children's Book Center is a noncirculating library for adults with a professional, career or academic interest in children's and young adult literature. The Friends of the CCBC, Inc., cosponsor of the award event, is a nonprofit organization offering lectures, book sales and other benefits for members, in addition to supporting the work of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center.

For further information contact: Madeline Tyner Cooperative Children's Book Center 225 N. Mills Street, Room 401 Madison, WI 53706 608-890-0258 madeline.tyner@wisc.edu https://ccbc.education.w