2019 Picture Book Spotlight
Award Winners
Happy Thursday and welcome to Picture Book Spotlight!
Today I have the pleasure of announcing the 2019 Picture Book Spotlight Awards--the top picture books in 2019 nominated by YOU! The books below represent the top ten most frequently nominated books by those who participated in the award process. After tallying everything up, I was jazzed with the results. There are some fantastic choices!--you all have great taste!
We had just around 70 participants and 178 unique picture book nominations! SO MANY AMAZING BOOKS! From those 178 nominations, we did of course have some books receive more than one nomination from multiple people. Thus the top ten emerged.
If you haven't had a chance to pick up a copy of any of these books, please remedy that soon! And read them to a kid. Or two. Or a classroom full!
BECAUSE THEY ROCK.
In addition to the top ten collectively chosen books, I also tossed in my favorite five from 2019 for funsies. These five captured my heart and mind for various reasons and stuck with me throughout the year. Check em' out!
And finally, as a way to celebrate these amazing books and thank you for participating, I have raffled off our participant's names and pulled three winners to receive a picture book manuscript critique by me.
The giveaway raffle winners are...
So looking forward to reading your stories!
Thank you again for participating and helping to champion exceptional picture books. Stay tuned for more author, illustrator, agent, and champion interviews (and giveaways) coming soon...2020 is off and away!
Can U Save the Day
written by Shannon Stocker, illustrated by Tom Disbury
*Nominated 14 times making this book our "First Place Winner"*
Dandy
written by Ame Dyckman, illustrated by Charles Santoso
*Nominated 10 times making this book our "Second Place Winner"*
The Scarecrow
written by Beth Ferry, illustrated by The Fan Brothers
*Nominated 9 times making this book our "Third Place Winner"*
Lubna and Pebble
written by Wendy Meddour, illustrated by Daniel Egnéus
Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom
written by Teresa Robeson, illustrated by Rebecca Huang
Truman
written by Jean Reidy, illustrated by Lucy Ruth Cummins
Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies
written by Megan Lacera, illustrated by Jorge Lacera
Who Wet my Pants?
written by Bob Shea, illustrated by Zachariah OHora
Moldilocks and the Three Scares
written by Lynne Marie, illustrated by David Rodriguez Lorenzo
Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré
written by Anika Aldamuy Denise, illustrated by Paola Escobar
Maybe Tomorrow?
written by Charlotte Agell, illustrated by Ana Ramírez González
Picture Book Spotlight interview coming next week!
The Lost Book
written and illustrated by Margarita Surnaite
When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree
written by Jamie L. B. Deenihan, illustrated by Lorraine Rocha
The Upper Case: Trouble in Capital City
written by Tara Lazar, illustrated by Ross MacDonald
The Good Egg
written by Jory John, illustrated by Pete Oswald
Brian Gehrlein is the evil genius behind this blog and website. He is a human who writes picture books. He also teaches teenagers how to read and write and stuff. Brian thanks you for reading this post. And even this sentence. And this one too. But not this sentence. You should NOT have read that sentence. It was supposed to be a secret. But now the secret is out. How could you? Brian trusted you. And now that trust is broken. Speaking of secrets...Brian is sitting on a fairly big one. It's not quite time to share yet. But soon. Very soon. A matter of days soon. But please don't ask. Because he cannot say. But he wants to. Very badly. Very, very, very, very, very, very badly. Patience...patience. Are you still reading this? Go read a book!
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