A picture book about bears who awaken from their slumber to go sightseeing and a chapter book about a young girl and her once-magical town are the winners in this year’s Georgia Children’s Book Awards, sponsored by the College of Education at UGA.
The annual awards, which were presented recently as part of the Conference on Children’s Literature at the UGA Hotel and Conference Center, gave top honors to Breaking News Bear Alert by David Biedrzycki and A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd.
Winners for each award are chosen from among 20 nominees announced in February 2015 and then voted on by tens of thousands of children from across Georgia. Children in grades kindergarten through fourth grade vote on the winning picture book, while children in grades four through eight vote in the book award category.
Teachers and librarians share the nominated books with students throughout the summer and school year, said Jennifer Graff, an associate professor in the UGA College of Education’s department of language and literacy education and chair of the picture book award committee.
