Last year, Kindergarteners through 2nd graders in school districts across the country selected one Blueberry Votes Winner from among five prospective 2025 Blueberry books. The Blueberry Committee invites anyone who works with kids in this age range to join the voting for 2026!
What is the Blueberry Award?
Founded in 2020 at Evanston Public Library, the Blueberry Award names the top nature and climate books for kids 3 - 10+, to help fill the eco-literature gap in the American Library Association's annual awards like the Newbery, Caldecott and Sibert Awards. With the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, the Blueberry Committee believes in equipping parents and teachers with the very best books that support kids' love of nature. We're hard at work reading and selecting for the 2026 Blueberry Awards--and we'd love some help from kids!
Here’s how Blueberry Votes works:
- The Blueberry Committee has preselected a list of 5 wonderful titles
- Teachers/librarians register their school by emailing msmeyer@cityofevanston.org.
- Teachers/librarians purchase or go to their local library to check out books.
- Teachers/librarians read each book to their class and the children vote on their favorite book.
- Teachers/librarians fill out the Blueberry Votes form with their name and contact information, school name and the breakdown of each book's number of votes as well as which title received the most votes. Forms must be received fully filled out by January 15, 2027.
Here are the 2026 Blueberry Votes books:
- Frog, A Story of Life on Earth by Isabel Thomas
- How to Hatch: A Gosling’s Guide to Breaking Free by Sara Holly Ackerman
- Weaver and the Web by Chris Baker
- Twelve Daring Grays: A Whale Migration Adventure by Nora Nickum
- When Beavers Move In by Alison Pearce Stevens