The Nutmeg Book Award is Connecticut’s Children’s Choice Book Award. Teams of young readers, librarians, and teachers select 10 books in each age group from hundreds published in the last few years to be the nominees. The age groups are Elementary (grades 2-3), Intermediate (grades 4-6), Middle School (grades 7-8), and High School (grades 9-12). Nominees for the next year are released in May, and multiple copies of each title are available at the library on the designated “Nutmeg Book Award” shelves for each age group. Kids can read as many or as few as they choose and then after a year, in April, they vote on their favorites (this is generally done through their school library; homeschoolers may ask for a voting form at the public library). Children from all over Connecticut vote on their favorites, which are announced in May along with the next year’s nominees. Nutmeg nominees and winners are all quality literature and often appear on suggested reading lists for schools over the summer and throughout the year. Each summer, the children’s department hosts a Nutmeg Book Club here at the library where readers entering grades 4-6 discuss a different one of the newest nominees each week and do related activities.
For more information about the current titles, please visit the Nutmeg Book Award’s official website: https://www.nutmegaward.org/about