How does a book become an IRA Children’s and Young Adults’ Book Award winning title? Authors and publishers may nominate books for consideration, and IRA particularly invites publishers to submit eligible titles for consideration.

To be eligible, a book must be the first or second children’s book from the author and first published in English during the past year. Each book submitted is checked for eligibility and classified for consideration in one of the six categories. An average of about 200 eligible books are submitted in award cycles. 

In 2011-12, 14 IRA members served on the awards committee. For initial review, every committee member reads and rates each Primary fiction and nonfiction title, but the committee splits into two panels for the other books, with one focused on Intermediate titles and the other focused on Young Adult.

Committee members carefully review each book to find nominees that can serve as “a reading and literary standard by which a reader can measure other books,” (IRA, 2013). Books are rated on a four-point scale in the initial reviews, and committee members provide comments with their scores. Committee members may also join in electronic discussions of particular books as they read and assess.

At the end of the initial reviewing, scores are aggregated across all readers to determine the top ten to twelve finalist books in each category. The finalists are then read and reviewed by all committee members who rank the titles in order. Committee members examine the groups’ overall rankings and engage in extended discussion about the results, and the particular nature of the award to recognize new promising authors, before finally recommending award winners in each category. These recommendations are submitted to the IRA Board of Directors for final approval. The winners are announced at the IRA Annual Convention and appear in Reading Today.

This article is an addendum to an article from the October/November 2012 issue of Reading Today. IRA members can read the interactive digital version of the magazine here. Nonmembers: join today!

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