MITTEN AWARD

The Mitten Award recognizes and promotes quality literature for youth in picture book format. First given in 1999 by the Children’s Services Division of the Michigan Library Association, the award is given annually to one children’s book originally published in the United States during the calendar year that has captured the attention of youth librarians throughout the State of Michigan for its ability to communicate through literature to an intended audience. The award selection work group is comprised of Michigan librarians who consider hundreds of children’s books annually to determine a winner. Mitten Award Guidelines (pdf)

2024 Mitten Award

The 2024 Mitten Award Workgroup members devoted 400 hours to reading and evaluating nearly 200 picture books to select the top titles published in 2023 that best meet the criteria as books of especially commendable quality that exhibit venturesome creativity and reflect and encourage children’s interests.

The winner of the 2024 Mitten Award is An American Story by Kwame Alexander, illustrated by Dare Coulter, and published by Little Brown & Co. 

“The members of this workgroup worked diligently to read and review nearly 200 exceptional picture book titles and discussed about 60 of them in depth. Kwame Alexander’s An American Story, published in January 2023, rose to the top at our very first meeting. We were struck by the way the story wove between the past and present, utilizing Dare Coulter’s powerfully expressive mixed-media artwork to make the past feel real and tangible," said Dena Moscheck, Workgroup Chair, Children’s Coordinator, Bay County Library System.

"We hope that highlighting this important title will guide readers, at home as well as in the classroom, to be able to have conversations with their children about the crisis of slavery and institutionalized racism that is as relevant to the stories of Americans in 2024 as it was in the past.”

First given in 1999 by the Children’s Services Division of the Michigan Library Association, the award is given annually to one children’s book originally published in the United States during the calendar year that has captured the attention of youth librarians throughout the State of Michigan. The award selection work group is comprised of Michigan librarians who consider hundreds of children’s books annually to determine a winner.

2024 Mitten Award Top Ten Titles  

• An American Story by Kwame Alexander, illustrated by Dare Coulter
• How To Count to One: And Don't Even Think About Bigger Numbers! by Caspar Salmon, illustrated by Matt Hunt
• Big written and illustrated by Vashti Harrison
• The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish written and illustrated by Chloe Savage
• Mole is Not Alone written and illustrated by Maya Tatsukawa 
• Scroll written and illustrated by Hui Li
• Stickler Loves the World by Lane Smith, illustrated by Lane Smith
• Summer is for Cousins by Rajani Larocca, illustrated by Abhi Alwar
• The Red Jacket written and illustrated by Bob Holt
• I'm Going to Build a Snowman by Jashar Awan, illustrated by Jashar Awan

Mitten Award Seals

Download the Mitten Award seals to use at your library! Winner, Honor Book and Top Ten Title award seals are available for download here: (To download, right-click on the seal and save it as an image.)

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