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Rhode Island Children's Book Award

 

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Join the RICBA Committee

The Rhode Island Children's Book Award committee is seeking four new members to serve a three year term, 2025-2028. Prospective members should have experience working with youth in grades 3-5 and knowledge of current children's literature.

Please complete the application below by Monday, June 16. Applicants will be notified at the end of June regarding their application status for the term beginning in September 2025 and ending in June 2028. Please feel free to share this application with anyone you think may be interested.

2024 Winner and 2025 Nominees

The 2024 Rhode Island Children's Book Award winner is Killer Underwear Invasion!: How to Spot Fake News, Disinformation & Conspiracy Theories by Elise Gravel! This year 7,160 students from 99 schools and public libraries voted for their favorite 2024 nominee. Check out the Award Winners and Nominees page for more details, including the breakdown of votes and the list of 2025 nominees.

RI Childrens Book Award

About the Annual List of Nominees

The Rhode Island Children’s Book Award Committee, composed of Rhode Island teachers, school librarians, and public librarians, works annually to create a diverse list of nominated books using specific criteria. The committee is intentional in seeking books that affirm marginalized groups and champion stories and characters that reflect the lived experiences of Rhode Island youth as well as the larger world. The committee aims to provide an annual list of nominees that maintains diversity in race, gender, sexuality, family makeup, socioeconomic status, and ability. Nominee lists are thoughtfully curated with an anti-bias lens, to allow all youth to be seen and their voices actively heard. The Rhode Island Children’s Book Award Committee believes representation matters and strives to create mirrors, windows and prisms for all children.
A growing list of resources for addressing book challenges can be found on the RICBA LibGuide.

About

Beginning in 2018, children in grades 3 to 5 have the opportunity to vote on their favorite book from a ballot of 20 selections nominated for the Rhode Island Children’s Book Award by a panel of librarians, reading specialists and teachers. Children vote as part of their class or with their local public library. The award began in 1990 as a joint project of the Rhode Island State Council of the International Reading Association, the Rhode Island Library Association, and the Rhode Island Educational Media Association, under the coordination of the Rhode Island Office of Library and Information Services. Today, the Rhode Island Children's Book Award is co-sponsored by the School Librarians of Rhode Island (SLRI), the Rhode Island Library Association (RILA), and the Rhode Island Center for the Book at the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities (RICFB), and is advised by the Rhode Island Office of Library and Information Services (OLIS).Three public youth services librarians, three members of SLRI, and three members of RICFB are each chosen to each serve three year terms on the committee.

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