Books in Irma Black Award
The Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature (Irma Black Award) goes to an outstanding book for young children—a book in which text and illustrations are inseparable, each enhancing and enlarging on the other to produce a singular whole. Children are the final judges of the winning book.
2025
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Book That Almost Rhymed | Omar Abed | Winner | Log In To Like | |
| Meena's Saturday | Kusum Mepani | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| Pedro's Yo-Yos: How a Filipino Immigrant Came to America and Changed the World of Toys | Rob Peñas | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| Claudette Colvin: I Want Freedom Now! | Claudette Colvin | Honor | Log In To Like |
2024
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The King Penguin | Vanessa Roeder | Winner | Log In To Like | |
| The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music | Roberta Flack | Honor | Log In To Like | |
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Summer Is for Cousins | Rajani LaRocca | Honor | Log In To Like |
| Rainbow Shopping | Qing Zhuang | Honor | Log In To Like |
2023
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Bathe the Cat | Alice B. McGinty | Winner | Log In To Like |
| John's Turn | Mac Barnett | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| The World Belonged to Us | Jacqueline Woodson | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| The Best Kind of Mooncake | Pearl Auyeung | Honor | Log In To Like |
2022
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| It Fell from the Sky | Terry Fan | Winner | Log In To Like | |
| From the Tops of the Trees | Kao Kalia Yang | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| The 1619 Project: Born on the Water | Nikole Hannah-Jones | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| When My Cousins Come to Town | Angela Shanté | Honor | Log In To Like |
2021
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cat Dog Dog: The Story of a Blended Family | Nelly Buchet | Winner | Log In To Like | |
| Your Name Is a Song | Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| Nana Akua Goes to School | Tricia Elam Walker | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| Bread for Words: A Frederick Douglass Story | Shana Keller | Honor | Log In To Like |
2020
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Crayon Man: The True Story of the Invention of Crayola Crayons | Natascha Biebow | Winner | Log In To Like | |
| Rocket Says Look Up! | Nathan Bryon | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| The Most Terrible of All | Mượn Thị Văn | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| Hair Love | Matthew A. Cherry | Honor | Log In To Like |
2019
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
We Don't Eat Our Classmates | Ryan T. Higgins | Winner | Log In To Like |
| The Wall in the Middle of the Book | Jon Agee | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| Stumpkin | Lucy Ruth Cummins | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| Sun! One in a Billion | Stevie Lewis | Honor | Log In To Like |
2018
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Ate 9 | Tara Lazar | Winner | Log In To Like | |
| How the Cookie Crumbled: The True (and Not-So-True) Stories of the Invention of the Chocolate Chip Cookie | Gilbert Ford | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| Sparkle Boy | Lesléa Newman | Honor | Log In To Like | |
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After the Fall: How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again | Dan Santat | Honor | Log In To Like |
2017
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
The Night Gardener | Eric Fan | Winner | Log In To Like |
| Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion | Alex T. Smith | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| Quackers | Liz Wong | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| A Hungry Lion, or a Dwindling Assortment of Animals | Lucy Ruth Cummins | Honor | Log In To Like |
2016
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| It's Only Stanley | Jon Agee | Winner | Log In To Like | |
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Red: A Crayon's Story | Michael Hall | Honor | Log In To Like |
| You Can Do It, Bert! | Ole Konnecke | Honor | Log In To Like | |
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Ragweed's Farm Dog Handbook | Anne Vittur Kennedy | Honor | Log In To Like |
2015
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Sam & Dave Dig a Hole | Mac Barnett | Winner | Log In To Like |
| Blizzard | John Rocco | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas | Lynne Cox | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| Shh! We Have a Plan | Chris Haughton | Honor | Log In To Like |
2014
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| That Is NOT a Good Idea! | Mo Willems | Winner | Log In To Like | |
| Are the Dinosaurs Dead, Dad? | Julie Middleton | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| Chick-O-Saurus Rex | Lenore Jennewein | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| The King of Little Things | Bil Lepp | Honor | Log In To Like |
2013
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Mean Mike | Michelle Knudsen | Winner | Log In To Like | |
| The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? | Mo Willems | Honor | Log In To Like | |
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This is Not My Hat | Jon Klassen | Honor | Log In To Like |
| Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs | Mo Willems | Honor | Log In To Like |
2012
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What Animals Really Like | Fiona Robinson | Winner | Log In To Like | |
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I Want My Hat Back | Jon Klassen | Honor | Log In To Like |
| You Will Be My Friend! | Peter Brown | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| All the Way to America: The Story of a Big Italian Family and a Little Shovel | Dan Yaccarino | Honor | Log In To Like |
2011
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How Rocket Learned to Read | Tad Hills | Winner | Log In To Like | |
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A Pig Parade Is a Terrible Idea | Michael Ian Black | Honor | Log In To Like |
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Children Make Terrible Pets | Peter Brown | Honor | Log In To Like |
| Dust Devil | Anne Isaacs | Honor | Log In To Like |
2010
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Robot Zot! | Jon Scieszka | Winner | Log In To Like | |
| Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem | Mac Barnett | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| Sergio Saves the Game | Edel Rodriguez | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| A Penguin Story | Antoinette Portis | Honor | Log In To Like |
2009
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mail Harry to the Moon | Robie H. Harris | Winner | Log In To Like | |
| What to Do about Alice? | Barbara Kerley | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| The Ghost Catcher: A Bengali Folktale | Martha Hamilton | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| Nic Bishop Frogs | Nic Bishop | Honor | Log In To Like |
2008
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Wicked Big Toddlah | Kevin Hawkes | Winner | Log In To Like | |
| Nic Bishop Spiders | Nic Bishop | Honor | Log In To Like | |
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The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County | Janice Harrington | Honor | Log In To Like |
| Some Dog! | Mary Casanova | Honor | Log In To Like | |
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Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale | Carmen Agra Deedy | Honor | Log In To Like |
2007
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Once I Ate a Pie | Patricia MacLachlan | Winner | Log In To Like | |
| Roasted Peanuts | Tim Egan | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| Duck & Goose | Tad Hills | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| Library Lion | Michelle Knudsen | Honor | Log In To Like |
2006
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sammy: The Classroom Guinea Pig | Alix Berenzy | Winner | Log In To Like | |
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Precious and the Boo Hag | Patricia C. McKissack | Honor | Log In To Like |
| Willa and the Wind | Janice M. Del Negro | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| Terrific | Jon Agee | Honor | Log In To Like |
2005
| Book | Author | Award Level | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale | Mo Willems | Winner | Log In To Like |
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Wild About Books | Judy Sierra | Honor | Log In To Like |
| The Firekeeper's Son | Linda Sue Park | Honor | Log In To Like | |
| Henry and the Kite Dragon | Bruce Edward Hall and William Low | Honor | Log In To Like |