North Carolina Children's Book Award

The North Carolina Children's Book Award is sponosored by the Youth Services Section of the North Carolina Library Association. Students can vote for their favorite book from the list of nominees, and librarians can submit total votes from each title March of each year. 

You can find the most up-to-date information about this program on the North Carolina Children's Book Award site. 

NCCBA in WCPSS

Need ideas for ways to integrate this program into your library? See suggestions and examples below. 

Acquire NCCBA titles

Nominated books are typically announced in May for the upcoming year. Watch the North Carolina Children's Book Award site for the announcement. School library vendors like Follett and Mackin will put together state book award lists to make it easy for you to find these titles. 

Many librarians prefer to order these titles over the summer or early in the school year so they can have them to plan lessons and programming. Depending on your plans and budget, it's sometimes helpful to order 2 copies of each title. 

If aren't able to purchase these titles to add to your collection, you can almost always find them at a Wake County Public Library branch. Many of the books also have read alouds available online (produced by the publishing company, the author/illustrator, or a reputable organization that obtained permission to create the read-aloud) or an ebook available in NC Kids Digital Library. 

Read NCCBA nominees with students

NCCBA rules state that students have to read at least 5 of the nominated books to be able to vote. Consider some popular ways that librarians integrate these titles into lessons or programming: 

• Incorporate picture book read-alouds into library lessons. Some books lend themselves to extension activities or fit with curriculum related topics. The NCCBA always published an activity guide with ideas for each title. Library Media Services also publishes a WCPSS-specific annotated book list with ideas for connecting the titles to inquiry, research, technology skills, or curriculum topics. 

  • 2026 NCCBA Activities Guide

  • 2026 WCPSS NCCBA Picture Book Nominees Annotated Book List - You have editing rights to this document; please add your own resources and ideas to the list!

• Frame the NCCBA program as an inquiry unit and connect it to eWISE. Wonder what criteria a book should have to win the North Carolina Children's Book Award. Investigate each book by reading them and engaging in related activities. Synthesize by comparing the books to one another and determining which meets the criteria for winning an award. Express by voting! See this example of a unit plan for more details. 

• If you don't have time to read aloud all titles:

  • Allow younger classes to vote with a show of hands for which title they want to read. Consider grouping shorter titles together and reading 2 books during a class. This way, you make sure they get to read the ones they are most interested in. 

  • Set out the books as centers for older students and allow them to rotate through and read them together in small groups. 

  • Share titles with teachers to use as read alouds. 

Vote!

Students can vote directly on the North Carolina Children's Book Award site when voting opens in March. However, we recommend creating a Google form with the title and cover image of each title for you to use for voting at your school, and then you as the librarian record the votes for your whole school on the NCCBA site. This allows you to have access to the data for your school's voting so you can share results and graphs of the data with students. This can be a great additional lesson after voting is finished!

• Sample voting form for NCCBA picture books - This link will force you to create your own copy of the form. Make any modifications you like, then publish the form and share the response link with students in a Canvas course, QR code, or as a resource link in Destiny Discover.