Children's choice book awards - 2011 winners

Sponsored by the Childen's Book Council, the Children's Choice Book Awards is the only national awards program where the winners are chosen by the children themselves! The categories range from best K-2 to best illustrator to author of the year. Some of this year's finalist's were:

Teen Choice Book of the Year:

Burned (House of Night, Book 7) by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast (St. Martin's Griffin/Macmillan)

Fang (A Maximum Ride Novel) by James Patterson (Little, Brown)

Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press)

Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy, Book 5) by Richelle Mead (Razorbill/Penguin)

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan (Dutton/Penguin)

Author of the Year:

Cassandra Clare for Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, Book 1) (McElderry/Simon & Schuster)

Suzanne Collins for Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) (Scholastic Press)

Jeff Kinney for Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth (Amulet/Abrams)

Stephenie Meyer for The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (Megan Tingley/Little, Brown)

Rick Riordan for The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, Book 1) (Disney-Hyperion)


Winners were chosen last night during an awards ceremony in NYC and the winners for these categories were:


Best Teen book of the year: 

Will Grayson, Will Grayson 

by John Green and David Levithan

Best Author of the Year: 

Rick Riordan for The Lost Hero

Winners in other categories included:

Johanna Kerby's "Little Pink Pup" for kindergarten to second grade

Jarrett J. Krosoczka's "Lunch Lady and the Summer Camp Shakedown" for third- to fourth-grade 

Rick Riordan's "The Red Pyramid" for best fifth- to sixth-grade 

David Wiesner as best illustrator for "Art & Max." 

My take on the winners: I really enjoyed Will Grayson, Will Grayson, but I'll say that I'm rather surprised it won as it's probably not the most widely read teen book out there. I would have expected Mockingjay to take the prize. I'm not disappointed AT ALL though, and I think it really says something about our teen readers to pick a contemporary over the other choices (all of the other finalists were in the paranormal or dystopian category). As for best author, I'm not really surprised at all that it's Rick Riordan as kids of all ages love his Percy Jackson series. I've read The Lost Hero too and actually liked it more than Percy Jackson!

Finally, congrats to all the winners and finalists!