The Growing Good Kids-Excellence in Children’s Literature Awards honor the best new children’s books about gardening, nature and the environment. These national awards for children’s literature were created by the American Horticultural Society (AHS) and the Junior Master Gardener Program (JMG program) back in 2005. Since that time, they have been awarded annually.
The awards for 2019 were announced at the National Children & Youth Garden Symposium held this year at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The focus of the 2019 symposium was to provide the next generation with the knowledge and tools to create a sustainable environmental future and finding ways to maintain and grow the gardens and programs that nurture our youth. (Next year’s symposium will take place in Santa Cruz, California in July 2020.)
This year’s winners are:
(1) Seed School, Growing Up Amazing by Joan Holub, illustrated by Sakshi Mangal (Seagrass Press, an imprint of The Quarto Group, Lake Forest, CA 2018);
(2) Errol’s Garden by Gillian Hibbs (Child’s Play, Auburn, Maine, 2018); and
(3) Up In The Leaves, The True Story of the Central Park Treehouses by Shira Boss, illustrated by Jamey Christoph.
The 2019 winners join an impressive list of winners. In 2005 when the awards were first established, the AHS and the JMG program recognized 40 books for children as Growing Good Kids Classics. This initial list included well-known classics in children’s literature such as Christina Bjork’s Linnea in Monet’s Garden, Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Frances Hodgson’s The Secret Garden.
(Frank W. Barrie, 11/2/19)
