Great Stone Face Award 2025-2026

Thank you to those who cast their ballot in during the annual Great Stone Face vote. The winner of the 2025 Great Stone Face Award is... Hoops by Matt Tavares.

Congratulations to this 2025 Great Stone Face Award Winner titled, Hoops. This 2023 debut graphic novel received the greatest number of votes out of the 20 nominees! Congratulations to this Maine author, Matt Tavares.

Be sure to check it out at the McKelvie Intermediate School Library if you have not already read it!

Here is a brief blurb about this GN: A work of fiction inspired by a true story, Matt Tavares's debut graphic novel dramatizes the historic struggle for gender equality in high school sports.

It is 1975 in Indiana, and the Wilkins Regional High School girls' basketball team is in their rookie season. Despite being undefeated, they practice at night in the elementary school and play to empty bleachers. Unlike the boys' team, the Lady Bears have no buses to deliver them to away games and no uniforms, much less a laundry service. They make their own uniforms out of T-shirts and electrical tape. And with help from a committed female coach, they push through to improbable victory after improbable victory. Illustrated in full color, this story about the ongoing battle of women striving for equality in sports rings with honesty, bravery, and heart.

Be sure to visit Destiny Discover to find a Collection containing the previous NH Great Stone Face winners from the past.

Below you will find a brochure containing images and brief descriptions of the 2025-2026 NH Great Stone Face Nominees. Just click on the Great Stone Face image below to view these. Please remember these titles are choice reads. These are not manditated reading selections for students at our school. You may also click HERE to view a Destiny Discover Collection of the current Great Stone Face Nominees at McKelvie Intermediate School.

The Great Stone Face Award is sponsored by the Children's Librarians of New Hampshire (CHILIS) and is given each year to an author whose book receives the most votes from fourth through sixth graders throughout the state. Each year a committee chooses 20 recently published titles, which children then use as a guide for voting. The vote takes place every April during National Library Week, and the winner is announced in May. The purpose of the award is to promote reading enjoyment/recreational reading, to increase awareness of contemporary writing, and to allow children to honor their favorite author. These titles are independent/choice reads. You and your child can select and discuss which, if any titles, you would like them to read.

The criteria to be selected as a nominee for this award is as follows:

Only titles published within 3 years of the current school year are eligible
Titles shall be appropriate for grades 4 to 6
An author may be a resident of any country
More than one title by the same author can be nominated
A title in a series must stand alone
Newbery Award and other award winners can be nominated for the list
Non-fiction titles (informational, biographical, & poetry) can be nominated
A title originally published outside of the United States can be nominated based on its US publication date

FUN FACT!

Please click HERE to find the lyrics to a song dedicated to the Great Stone Face aka the Old Man Of The Mountain.This HERE is the free song. Just click the play button (no video)! Grammy nominated Songwriter Rick Lang and friend Evan Richert recently collaborated to offer a musical tribute to celebrate the legacy of New Hampshire’s “Old Man Of The Mountain". This is what the New Hampshire Great Stone Face Award is named after. The story line of the song was inspired by the novel by author Nathaniel Hawthorne.

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