We are excited to announce the first-annual Granite Book Awards! Nominations are now open!
About the Granite Book Awards
The Granite Book Awards are student/teacher/librarian choice awards sponsored by school media centers in Granite School District. Differing from many other literary awards, our primary criterion is simple: we are looking for great, fun books published within the last year that will get a diverse group of students excited about reading. This year the awards will have three categories: Picture Books, Children’s/Middle Grade Fiction (Grades 4-7), and Young Adult Fiction (Grades 8-12). Books will be nominated by students, teachers, library staff, and other members of the Granite School District community. Finalists will be chosen from the nominations by volunteer committees of library staff and teachers. Students will then vote for their favorites from the lists of finalists, thus determining the final winners of the award.
Process and Timeline
Nominations begin April 15, 2012. At the end of May 2012 all nominations to that point will be compiled and the resulting long list sent to all school library staff members in the district for summertime review. The nomination form will remain open through the summer and a final call for nominations will occur in September 2012. In October and November 2012, volunteer committees comprised of interested library staff and teachers for each category will review, read and vote upon the nominations, narrowing them to a shortlist of 10 finalists in each category. Finalist books will be purchased for school libraries and will be used in book promotion. An online voting form and other promotional materials for students and all school community members will be provided, and by the close of February 2013 student voting will end and in March 2013 the winners will be publicized. We will keep track of both individual school winners and district-wide winners in each category. Then the process will begin again with a new nomination period in April 2013.
