Evanston Public Library Names 2024 Blueberry Award Winners 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Evanston Public Library names 2024 Blueberry Award Winners!

The Blueberry Awards honor excellence in environmental literature for children.

EVANSTON, ILL. – The Evanston Public Library has named The Great Lakes: our Freshwater Treasure, written by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Jamey Christoph, published by Penguin Random House as the winner of the fourth annual Blueberry Awards.

"Jamey and I are honored and happy that we won the Blueberry Award," says Rosenstock, a longtime Chicagoland resident. "Lake Michigan is home to me."  During book research, Barb spoke to an Indigenous water protector who pointed out that our bodies are 60 - 80% water so, if you've been living near one of the Great Lakes and drinking the water, you ARE the Great Lakes! Jamey Christoph, who lived on the western coast of the state of Michigan while illustrating this book, says, "Thank you, Evanston Public Library, for helping spread the word about our book!"

The Blueberry Awards honor children’s literature that strengthens kids’ connections with nature and fosters action for the planet. The Evanston Public Library created the Blueberry Award in 2020 because there is no other library award that exclusively celebrates the best nature books that promote climate stewardship.  

The 2024 Blueberry Awards were announced Thursday, March 20, at a live event at the Evanston Public Library.  Keynote speakers included Susan Lempke, American Library Association's Sibert Award Chair for 2024 and Director of the Lincolnwood Library, and Marie Cabiyah MD, District 65 Climate Action Team volunteer and co-founder of Climate Education for Illinois (CE4IL) followed by comments from Barb Rosenstock herself!

The Blueberry Committee also released the eagerly awaited full 2024 Blueberry Awards list,, opens a new window including 35 terrific titles. More information about the Blueberry, including past winners, submission criteria, and resources for librarians and teachers can be found HERE. 

The library also announced the winner of the city-wide Blueberry Votes program, created in cooperation with Edie Hertel, school librarian at Walker Elementary School. Kindergarteners and first graders across Evanston voted on their favorite of a smaller selection of 2024 prospective Blueberry Award books. They chose The Pelican Can! by Toni Yuly, published by Little, Brown and Company Books for Young Readers, as the winner. Yuly sent a message to Evanston kids: "This makes me SO happy and I wish I could be there to thank all of you in person and read my book to you! I hope when you read my book you feel like you get to cheer for the mighty pelican and all the amazing things the pelican can do!" (Little known fact: American white pelicans migrate through Illinois each spring, arriving in Mid - March.) 

The winner of the Blueberry Changemaker Award, selected by Cara Pratt and Karen Bireta, is Loop de Loop, Circular Solutions for a Waste Free World by Andrea Curtis. This book was published by Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press and was chosen because it will best help families achieve Evanston's sustainability goals. Andrea says her book "explores the concept of the circular economy in a fun, hopeful way for 6 - 9 year olds...I am deeply honored by the Blueberry Changemaker Award. I come from a part of Canada where wild blueberries grow from cracks in the hard granite of the Canadian shield, and I know that there is nothing better than this hearty, delicious, disease-fighting and hope-instilling fruit!"

The honorees of this year’s Blueberry Awards are a diverse crop of new authors and illustrators from around the world. The 2024 Blueberry winners include authors and illustrators from the United Kingdom, India, Canada, Australia, Norway, the Gitxsan Nation, Brazil, the Netherlands, Japan and the United States.  

Australian author Rebecca Lim of The Mailbox Tree said, "Thank you for this wonderful honor...Kate Gordon and I felt compelled to write this Cli-Fi Middle Grade novel because kids often feel helpless about what they can do to stop climate change. We wanted to show that tiny actions in the present can assist children in the future. Sending best wishes from Australia!"

Brazilian Illustrator Renato Alarcão said, "I'm thrilled and full of gratitude to know that Planting Hope: a Portrait of Photographer Sebastião Salgado has been chosen for the Blueberry prize. What an amazing thing -- a children's literature award for the best books that teach children about environmental issues and tell stories about the importance of loving nature. It is such an honor to have my name on the same book cover as Sebastião Salgado, who is one of my heroes in the visual arts."

Since its inauguration, the Blueberry Awards have quickly expanded their reach to parents, kids, and educators, spreading this love of, and responsibility for, the environment in schools, libraries, and nature centers across the United States. Blueberry Committee members will share this year’s favorites on a nationwide webinar with the Natural Start Alliance on April 3 at 11am CST. The awards were also announced at midnight on March 20 in the nationally renowned A Fuse #8 Production blog at School Library Journal found HERE, by EPL’s Collection Development and Materials Manager Betsy Bird. Past Blueberry Award webinars with Natural Start Alliance are available now at HERE, opens a new window. 

“I am so proud of our EPL staff for their initiative in creating this award and in celebrating authors that so beautifully and eloquently illustrate the importance of this critical topic,” EPL Assistant Director Heather Norborg said. “The Evanston Public Library is proud to support innovative programs and services that connect people of all ages to their environment and inspire them to create change, and my hope is that the reach and impact of the Blueberry Awards will continue to expand.” 

The Blueberry Committee also provided three extra lists to assist parents and teachers: Best Nature Board Books of 2024, opens a new window, The , opens a new window2024 Blueberry Educators Resources Booklist, opens a new window and 2024 , opens a new windowAdult Books recommended by the 2024 Blueberry Committee, opens a new window.

Educators and librarians interested in learning more about the Blueberry Awards, the Blueberry Votes program, and how to incorporate Blueberry books into their programming are encouraged to contact Martha Meyer.

The Blueberry Awards were featured in the March/April issue, opens a new window of American Libraries Magazine; Martha Meyer was also interviewed in School Library Journal's Fuse #8 Blog on March 4, opens a new window, focusing on how to teach hope and counter climate anxiety in kids along with multiple Blueberry Award winning author Patricia Newman. Horn Book Magazine will be covering the Blueberry Awards Announcement Party in their Out Of the Box blog.

In 2024, the Blueberry Awards Committee included Cara Pratt, Evanston's Sustainability Manager, Ethan Johnson, Program Coordinator at the Evanston Ecology Center, Karen Bireta, District 65's Sustainability Coordinator, Biologist Meghan Bohn who is a STEM specialist at Galesburg Public Library, and Hilda Gonzalez, Roycemore School Librarian as well as Evanston Public Library staff headed by Betsy Bird, Collection Development Manager, School Library Journal blogger, and Children's Book Author. The Blueberry Committee especially thanks Kim Vigue, Executive Director of Gichigamiin Indigenous Nations Museum, Evanston IL, for her consultation during the selection process.