Thousands of children have discussed, considered and voted and the 2012 winner of the Irma Black Award is  — What Animals Really Like, written and illustrated by Fiona Robinson

What Animals Really Like Fiona Robinson Retail Price: $15.95 Hardcover: 24 pages Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers – (2011-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 081098976X / 9780810989764

Each year, the Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature (Irma Black Award) is presented to an outstanding book for young children—a book in which text and illustrations are inseparable. The Irma Black Award is a children’s choice award in that children are the final judges of the winning book. This year, over 9,000 children internationally read or heard aloud all four finalists.

The winning book receives a gold seal. The other three finalists are honor books and receive a silver seal, both designed by Maurice Sendak.

The silver award winners are:

YOU WILL BE MY FRIEND! Peter Brown Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 40 pages Publisher: Hachette/LBYR  – (2011-09-05) ISBN / EAN: 0316070300 / 9780316070300

I Want My Hat Back Jon Klassen Retail Price: $15.99 Hardcover: 40 pages Publisher: Candlewick Press – (2011-09-27) ISBN / EAN: 0763655988 / 9780763655983

All the Way to America: The Story of a Big Italian Family and a Little Shovel Dan Yaccarino Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 40 pages Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers – (2011-03-08) ISBN / EAN: 0375866426 / 9780375866425

The award will be presented on May 17^th at an 8:30 am in a ceremony at the Bank Street College of Education, New York, NY.  The keynote speaker this year is Paul O. Zelinsky, an Irma Black Honor winner for Dust Devil, the sequel to Swamp Angel.  Teachers and librarians are invited to attend. RSVP here.

Fiona Robinson’s hilarious picture book What Animals Really Like (Abrams, 2011), which delivers a subtle message about the dangers of stereotyping, is this year’s winner of the Irma S. Black & James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 22nd, 2012 at 5:14 pm and is filed under Awards, Childrens and YA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.