How to Submit

This page lists submission information and guidelines for Pennsylvania Center for the Book awards and programs. Programs or awards not listed here are closed to unsolicited submissions.

Please note: All jurors serving Pennsylvania Center for the Book initiatives agree to comply with our Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Statement.

Click a link below to jump to the applicable section:

A Baker’s Dozen | Lee Bennett Hopkins Award | Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize | PA Great Reads from Great Places

 

A Baker's Dozen: The Best Children's Books for Family Literacy

Each year A Baker’s Dozen highlights the best picture books published the previous year per copyright. Publishers and authors are welcomed to submit titles published in the current copyright year to be considered by mailing a copy of each title by December 31 of the current year to:

Attention: Ellysa Stern Cahoy/Baker's Dozen

502 Paterno Library

University Park, PA 16802-1812

Selection Criteria

  1. Recent outstanding trade books whose text and illustrations are particularly suited to the interests and developmental characteristics of children between three and six years of age. Fiction and nonfiction as well as wordless books are considered.

     
  2. Books that are accessible to adults enrolled in family literacy programs, particularly those characterized by:

     
    • Text that is easily approachable because of attributes such as these:
      • use of language that is primarily natural as opposed to literary
      • use of repetitive words and phrases
    • Print that is easy to read because of features such as these:
      • large lettering with ample space between letters and words
      • few sentences per page without many sentences that break to the next page
      • print that appears at about the same place on each page, and generally reads left to right and top to bottom
    • Illustrations that support and extend the text

       
  3. Books that are enjoyable for reading aloud and have appeal to a wide range of families.

 

Lee Bennett Hopkins Award for Children’s Poetry

Each year the Lee Bennett Hopkins Award highlights the most outstanding anthology or single volume of poetry for children by a living American poet or anthologist published in the previous year per copyright. Publishers and authors are welcomed to submit titles published in the current copyright year to be considered by mailing a copy of each title by December 31 of the current year to our award jurors and offices.

Please contact Ellysa Stern Cahoy (ellysa@psu.edu) for mailing instructions and juror names and addresses.

Selection Criteria

Good poetry is imaginative. It deals with emotion and has significance beyond the act of creation. It uses figurative language, yet is compact in thought and expression. Good poetry has an element of beauty and truth which appears unstable outside of the poem. The book which wins the Lee Bennett Hopkins Award for Children’s Poetry must be accessible to children and its presentation must serve the poem or poems in an attractive and appropriate manner.

Published in the previous calendar year per copyright refers to poems newly published in the previous year or previously published poetry collected and published in a newly released anthology. Reissued single volumes or anthologies will be considered for the award if the content and design have been significantly altered from the original publication.

The selected title will comply with the following definitions:

  • Poet: A poet is, in the narrowest sense, a maker of verses. A poet is also imaginative in thought, expressive in language, and graceful in form.
  • Anthologist: An anthologist, although often a poet as well, is a selector and compiler of poems.
  • Poetry: Poetry both predates and transcends the written word. It is the rhythmic expression of imaginative thoughts about our world and its people.
  • Children: Children are 0 through 14 years old.
  • Anthology: An anthology is a collection of poems usually by various authors.
  • Single Author Collection of Poems: A single author volume of poetry or a book length poem is a contained unit, where the poem or collection of poems expresses the thoughts of a single author.

 

Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize

The Lynd Ward Prize recognizes the best graphic novel by a living U.S. or Canadian citizen or resident, fiction or nonfiction, published in the previous year per copyright. Publishers, authors, illustrators, and artists are welcomed to submit titles published in the current copyright year to be considered by mailing one copy of each title, by December 31 of the current year, to each of our five award jurors and one to our offices.

Please contact Ellysa Stern Cahoy (ellysa@psu.edu) for mailing instructions and juror names and addresses.

Selection Criteria

The selection jury will consider work that is:

  • Defined as a graphic novel.

    Definition: A graphic novel is a narrative work of fiction or nonfiction in which the story is conveyed to the reader using images arranged in sequential form such as the traditional comic form. Integrated or incidental text may be incorporated in the work, but a graphic novel is, by definition, a visual work rather than an illustrated text-driven novel. The term suggests a complete self-contained work. Graphic novels are bound using the same materials and methods as printed books and are generally sold in bookstores as well as specialty comic book shops.
  • Created by authors, illustrators, and/or artists who are permanent residents or citizens of the U.S. or Canada.
  • Designed primarily for adults and young adults.

    Books designed primarily for children below 13 years of age—the traditional picture book or picture storybook—are ineligible.
  • Published within the assigned calendar year, January 1 to December 31; however, when a book with a copyright is not available in the year of its copyright (due to publisher delays, for example), the book may be considered the year it is actually available for purchase. No book may be considered more than once.
  • Original in its use of form and/or content.
  • Demonstrates artistic and literary quality, ambition, and/or innovation.
  • An engaging and descriptive narrative, in word choice and/or visually.
  • A collaborative, equitable integration of words and images (when applicable) that results in a sum experience that is superior to its respective components.
  • Impactful to readers.

Please note: Reprinted or reissued works are ineligible; however, a new or a substantial adaption of an original work may be eligible. A new or reissued collection of comic strips would only be considered eligible if the collection contained an overarching story arc.

 

PA Great Reads from Great Places

Every spring, the Pennsylvania Center for the Book selects one children’s title and one adult title for inclusion in the Library of Congress’s Great Reads from Great Places program.   

Nominations from Pennsylvania librarians, teachers, authors, parents, and other members of the public are welcomed!

Our selection criteria include: 

  • Relevance to Pennsylvania (authors, illustrators, topics, etc.) 
  • Excellence in writing, illustration, and other features 
  • Reflection of the diversity of Pennsylvania residents 
  • Appropriateness for statewide promotion (availability, cost, positive reviews, etc.) 
  • Alignment with PACFTB mission and the Great Reads mission 
  • No more than 2 years old 

If you would like to suggest a book for consideration, please write to Ellysa Stern Cahoy, Director, Pennsylvania Center for the Book at ellysa@psu.edu