I have been to a lot of book award ceremonies in my career, and while the Newbery Awards’ ballroom of cheering people is glorious, and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards back in the day were very fancy, the Blueberry Awards (now in its fourth year) genuinely inspire hope. Last Thursday, March 20, 2025, at 6:30pm at the awards announcement party, displays of the year’s best children’s books on nature and climate were displayed throughout the three stories of the Evanston Public Library with QR codes for the public to come vote on their favorites. There were live critters to see and hear about, videos of authors discussing their books, and a chance to talk with committee members.

Then came the awards. I was invited to give a short speech as the most recent chair of ALSC’s Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal, so that gave me the chance to highlight our winning book, Life After Whale by Lynn Brunelle, illustrated by Jason Chin, which was also one of the thirty-five books honored on the Blueberry list. One of the best things about the Blueberry Awards is that the committee is not just made up of librarians. The next speaker, Dr. Marie Cabiya, spoke about her successful efforts to get climate curriculum into Illinois schools. Other committee members are scientists, who, as award founder Martha Meyer says, pick up on errors in the books that none of the teachers and library workers might have noticed.

This year’s winner was Barb Rosenstock’s The Great Lakes: Our Freshwater Treasure, illustrated by Jamey Christoph, and the author was there to accept her award wearing a T-shirt with an outline of the Great Lakes. She was funny and enthusiastic, and her passion for her book came through as she commented that because humans are made up of so much water, “The Great Lakes are us, and we are the Great Lakes.” She signed a number of books purchased through the local children’s bookstore, Booked.

Loop de Loop, Circular Solutions for a Waste Free World by Andrea Curtis, illustrated by Roozeboos, won the Changemaker Award, in a subsection of the list focused on books aimed at “rallying kids to climate action.” As Martha says, too many of the climate-related books for kids have a tone of, “Won’t you all be sorry when the pandas are gone?” which is not an empowering message. The Blueberry Committee looks carefully for books that are accurate and realistic but also talk about the work being done by individuals and, importantly, by people collectively so that kids understand it’s not all up to them, and it’s not hopeless.

The awards don’t all go to books picked by the committee. Working with the school librarians, Evanston K–first graders voted overwhelmingly for The Pelican Can! by Toni Yuly, for the Blueberry Votes award. One audience member was so excited to see his librarian in front that he ran up and hugged her leg.

As a library director, I am so impressed that the Evanston Public Library has not only created an award (as committee member Betsy Bird said, “Why don’t other libraries do that?”), but they have made other local initiatives like the Evanston Ecology Center, the Evanston Parks, and the Local Food Forum an integral part of their process. It’s getting the library and its beautifully curated selection of books into the community instead of sitting in the library and waiting for people to come to them. I know that they wish for it to become a national award, and it’s a lot for one library to manage. They’re amazing.

Not only did I get to go to the lively awards ceremony, but I also got to have lunch the next day at Prairie Grass Cafe, hosted by two-time Beard Award–winning chef Sarah Stegner. Her restaurant focuses on locally sourced foods, and it was a memorably delicious meal finishing off, of course, with blueberry pie and book talk about some of the Blueberry Awards list.

I asked how they ended up with thirty-five titles, and the whole table burst out laughing. Like any other book awards process, many wonderful books could not remain, and they clearly wished they could have included more. What they have is a lovingly assembled list of mostly picture books, but also some board books, fiction, graphic novels, and longer nonfiction books that will help kids and their adults learn more about the world and how to care for it.

Photos courtesy of Evanston Public Library.