BUCYRUS — The Bucyrus Public Library has been chosen as one of just 74 schools, school libraries, public libraries and bookstores in the United States to be an official Children’s Book Council Reading location for this fall, marking the second year in a row Bucyrus Public Library was chosen.
The Children’s, Young Adult, Teacher, and Librarian Favorites Award lists — when they are announced in 2025, are big news in the children’s book world from the authors, illustrators and publishers to thousands of teachers, librarians and booksellers coast to coast, as they will use these awards lists as resources in 2025.
Barbara Scott, Children’s Librarian at the Bucyrus Public Library, will be coordinating the project for the library.
She chose to receive the K-Grade 2 book submissions, resulting in close to 600 brand-new books being added to the library’s children’s collection.
Processing of the titles is ongoing as they are received from the publishers.
Books have begun arriving, with boxes being delivered almost daily, sometimes twice a day. All of the books that are being sent were published in 2024.
The program began in 1975 by the International Literacy Association (ILA) which started something called “Classroom Choices,” which was later renamed Children’s Choice.
This was a top-rated list of children’s books rated by children themselves.
Young Adult and Teachers Choices were added in 1986.
The program was halted in 2020 due to COVID-19, and in 2021, the Children’s Book Council asked the ILA if they could take on the program moving forward.
The program was rebranded in 2022 to the Favorites Awards program.
The Children’s Book Council is the nonprofit trade association for children’s book publishers in North America.
The books received will be in a special shelving area in the Children’s Room, along with voting ballots.
Each book has been stickered with a specific number that will be entered on the voting forms along with the title/author, a rating for the book, the child’s grade and name.
If a parent chooses to vote, they can note their vote on the back of the same ballot.
Voting has already begun and will continue until Feb. 6, 2025.
The final Favorites lists will be available in April 2025 on the Children’s Book Council website and a major story in Publisher’s Weekly.
The 2024 Favorites list is available online, and all of these books and those that did not win in this category are available in the children’s library at Bucyrus Public Library.