About the Award

A Maine Children’s Choice Picture Book Project

Welcome to the Chickadee Award. This program is for children in kindergarten through fourth grade throughout the state of Maine. A committee of librarians, teachers and early literacy professionals selected this year’s titles. All books on this year's list were published in 2023.

The Chickadee Award began in 2005 and is named after Maine’s state bird. It is modeled after other successful state children’s choice picture book awards and is intended to complement the Maine Student Book Award program that involves children in grades four through eight.

We had 24,332  children from Maine schools and libraries participate in the 2023-2024 school year. The winning book was One Turtle's Last Straw: The Real-Life Rescue That Sparked a Sea Change by Elisa Boxer and illustrated by Marta  Álvarez Miguéns. 

Our goal is for children to develop an appreciation of outstanding writing and illustration in current children’s picture books through participation in the program. We hope they will become discriminating readers by voting for their favorite book.