MITTEN AWARD

The Mitten Award recognizes and promotes quality literature for youth in picture book format. First given in 1999 by the Children’s Services Division of the Michigan Library Association, the award is given annually to one children’s book originally published in the United States during the calendar year that has captured the attention of youth librarians throughout the State of Michigan for its ability to communicate through literature to an intended audience. The award selection work group is comprised of Michigan librarians who consider hundreds of children’s books annually to determine a winner.

Mitten Award Guidelines (pdf)

Submit a nomination for the 2021 Mitten Award using the online form:

2021 MITTEN Award Nomination Form

Mitten Award Seals

Download the Mitten Award seals to use at your library! Winner, Honor Book and Top Ten Title award seals are available for download here: MLA Mitten Award Seals 2020.pdf

2020 Mitten Award

The winner and honor books will be announced at Spring Institute 2020 during Thursday's Literary Awards Lunch! Can't make it to Spring Institute this year? Make sure to follow us on Facebook and tune in to Facebook Live, Thursday, March 19 at 12:15 when we will live-stream the event!

2020 Mitten Award Top Ten Titles

Bloom Boom!
by April Pulley Sayre

Fly!
by Mark Teague

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story
by Kevin Noble Maillard, Juana Martinez-Neal

Hey, Water!

by Antoinette Portis

The Proudest Blue

by Ibtihaj Muhammad, S.K. Ali, illustrated by Hatem Aly

Truman
by Jean Reidy, illustrated by Lucy Ruth Cummins

The Little Red Stroller
by Joshua Furst, illustrated by Katy Wu

The Roots of Rap: 16 Bars on the 4 Pillars of Hip-Hop
by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Frank Morrison

The Very Impatient Caterpillar
by Ross Burach

Who Wet My Pants?
by Bob Shea, illustrated by Zachariah OHora

2019 Mitten Award

Saline District Library Mitten Display

The 2019 Mitten Award Work Group scrutinized more than 250 picture books to select this year's winning title and honor books. Collectively, work group members devoted nearly 500 hours to reading and evaluating picture books to select the titles that best meet the criteria as books of especially commendable quality that exhibit venturesome creativity and reflect and encourage children’s interest in a unique or innovative fashion.

2019 Mitten Award Winner and Honor Books

The winner of the 2019 Mitten Award is The Rabbit Listened, written and illustrated by Cori Doerrfeld and published by Dial Books for Young Readers.

Honor books include Lovely Beasts: The Surprising Truth, written by Kate Gardner, illustrated by Heidi Smith and published by Balzar + Bray; The Honeybee by Kristin Hall, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault and published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers; We Don’t Eat Our Classmates! written and illustrated by Ryan T. Higgins and published by Disney-Hyperion; and I am a Cat written and illustrated by Galia Bernstein, published by Abrams Books for Young Readers.

2019 Mitten Award Top Ten Titles

The work group read throughout the year to narrow selections to the Top Ten Titles and determine the winning title and honor books. The Mitten Top Ten Titles were announced at Spring Institute 2019. The winning title and honor books were be announced at the 2019 MLA Annual Conference, October 16-18, 2019 in Novi.

2019 Top Ten Titles (In random order)

The Honeybee by Kristin Hall, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault
The Rough Patch by Brian Lies
We Don’t Eat Our Classmates! by Ryan T. Higgins
I am a Cat by Galia Bernstein
Tiger vs. Nightmare by Emily Tetri
The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld
Lovely Beasts: The Surprising Truth by Kate Gardner, illustrated by Heidi Smith
Zola’s Elephant by Randall de Sève, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski
A Big Mooncake for Little Star by Grace Lin
Ocean Meets Sky by The Fan Brothers (Eric and Terry Fan)