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Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children's Literature

About the Award

Irma Simonton Black was a writer and editor of children's books and a founding member (in the 1930s) of the Bank Street Writers Laboratory, which included such stars of children's literature as Margaret Wise Brown and Maurice Sendak.

The Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, which commemorates Irma's achievements, has been presented annually since 1973 by Bank Street College of Education. (The Award was presented in Irma's name only until 1992, when James Black's name was added in recognition of his ardent support of the Award.) The 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 Award is unusual in that children are the final judges of the winning book. The process is as follows: From the many children's books published each year, an adult group of writers, librarians and educators choose approximately twenty to twenty five books that they consider the best candidates for the Award. These books are then sent (in four sets) to the four 8-9s and 9-10s classrooms at the Bank Street School for Children. Over the course of five weeks the children read and discuss all of the books before selecting four finalists. These four--called the Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Honor Books--are placed in classrooms or libraries in several different schools, in New York and elsewhere. The children in these classrooms read, examine, discuss, and re-read the books over a four week period, before they select the winning book. Twelve schools in five states participate in the selection of the award, with more than 2,500 children voting on the books.

Publishers submit books by sending one copy of each book to:

Kristin Freda
c/o the Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award
610 West 112th Street
New York, NY 10025

Books published during 2010 should be sent to us no later than December 2010. Only one copy of each book to be considered need be submitted. We do not accept unpublished manuscripts.

The award is a scroll (one each for the author and illustrator, if they are different) with the recipient's name and a gold seal designed by Maurice Sendak. The award is presented at a May breakfast ceremony in New York City that is attended by authors, illustrators, publishers, teachers, librarians, and alumni and friends of Bank Street College.

Children's Questions

The older children who select the finalists for the Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award have raised a number of concerns over the years as they have participated in the process of choosing the winning books. These issues raised have been diverse and sometimes surprising. They have led to some interesting group discussions and strategies for finding the answers. Among the questions, as articulated by the children, are:

• Do children as "old" as seven or eight still read picture books?
• How can you find the time to look so many books each week? How can you decide which books you will read yourself and which books you will ask the teacher to read aloud to you. How do you choose which books to read first?
• Why do authors and publishers want their books to win an award?
• What are some of the reasons that the illustrations might not support the tone or mood of the book? Is this especially likely if the author is not the illustrator?
• Is the topic, story or theme of the book one that younger children will understand? Will it be too scary or upsetting for them?
• Can a book be "just" funny and still win an award?
• How do you decide about illustrations, such as whether or not they are "beautiful" or whether or not they go with the tone or mood of the story?
• How do you deal with peer pressure? What do you do if a friend wants you to vote for a particular book, but you prefer another one?

Procedures

The procedures for the Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Book Award are as follows. This award is given to a picture book for children in the first through third grades that best exemplifies excellence of text and illustration. Not only, therefore, must the older children who are selecting the finalists for the award enjoy the story, but they must feel that the illustrations support both the mood and the plot of the story as well. "Pretty pictures" are not enough to make for a winner. The older children must remember also that the final judges will be 7 and 8-year-olds here at Bank Street, and first, second and third graders in several other schools.

A set of four or five books selected by a committee of adult readers is delivered to each 8-9s and 9-10s classroom. During the course of the week the children may read, hear, look at, discuss, etc. these books. Teachers may choose to read some of the longer books to the group. Others the children may choose to examine themselves. At the end of the week, the children receive a ballot on which they select one or two (but no more than two) books that they really feel are excellent. After the voting is completed, a new set of books is presented and the same procedure is followed. There are four sets in all.

The first week of March, the children's librarian, who is the director of the award, meets with each whole class group for about an hour. By that time the process will have narrowed the finalists down to between 10 and 12 books. As a group, the children will review, discuss and compare each of the books, and at the end of the hour they will be asked to vote one last time on the 3 titles they wish to send on to the final judges.

The three (or in case of a close vote, four) top titles are then sent on to each of the cooperating schools or classrooms. Cooperating teachers and librarians receive the following instructions:

• Read the books to your class at the usual read-aloud time. Read only one book at a time. You may want to stretch one of the longer books over more than one day.
• Carry on your usual method of commenting on or reacting to the story. We'd like this to be as natural a part of your day as possible; you don't need to elicit responses if the children don't usually make them, at least the first time around.
• Leave the books where they can be available to the children for looking, poring over, or trying to read.
• Please read the books more than once. After the second reading, you might want to ask questions about the children's feelings about the book, what parts they like or don't like, whether they'd like to have the same experiences the protagonist had, or any questions that might clue you in to their reactions.

At the end of the four week period, and no later that the first week in April, the children in the cooperating classrooms are asked to vote for the book that they feel most deserves the Irma S. and James H. Black book award. They may vote for only one book. Cooperating teachers submit the total number of votes that each book received, the votes are added, and the book with the greatest number of votes is declared the winner.

Bank Street College Library  610 W 112th St. New York, NY 10025
Circulation: 212-875-4455, Reference: 212-875-4456
librarian@bankstreet.edu