Center for Children’s Literature

Irma Black Award

The Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature (Irma Black Award) goes to an outstanding book for young children—a book in which text and illustrations are inseparable, each enhancing and enlarging on the other to produce a singular whole. The Irma Black Award is unusual in that children are the final judges of the winning book.

The 2024 Irma Black Award Ceremony

Thousands of children in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and the United Arab Emirates will participate in the voting process in 2024. We will share links to videos from the gold and silver medalists on this page in late May.


2024 Irma S. & James H. Black Award Contenders

King Penguin Irma Black
The King Penguin
summer is for cousins irma black
Summer Is For Cousins

the green piano irma black
The Green Piano
rainbow shopping irma black
Rainbow Shopping
  • The King Penguin by Vanessa Roeder (Dial Books for Young Readers, Penguin Random House)
  • Summer Is For Cousins by Rajani LaRocca, illustrated by Abhi Alwar (Abrams)
  • The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music by Roberta Flack with Tonya Bolden, illustrated by Hayden Goodman (Random House Kids)
  • Rainbow Shopping by Qing Zhuang (Holiday House)
Bathe the Cat Irma Black Gold Medal 2023

2023 Irma Black Award Winner

Bathe the Cat
Author: Alice B. McGinty
Illustrator: David Roberts
Publisher: Chronicle

Honor Books

  • John’s Turn by Mac Barnett; illustrated by Kate Berube (Candlewick)
  • The World Belonged to Us by Jacqueline Woodson; illustrated by Leo Espinosa (Penguin)
  • The Best Kind of Mooncake by Pearl AuYeung (Page Street Kids)