Bank Street College Children's Library

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

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 participated in the selection of the 2004 award, with over 2500 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 2008 should be sent to us no later than December 12, 2008. 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 We do not accept unpublished manuscripts.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.