The Margaret Wise Brown Board Book Award
Developed and administered by the Children’s Book Committee (CBC), the Margaret Wise Brown Board Book Award honors the legacy of the late award-winning children’s book author and her brilliant contributions to the canon of children’s literature.
The award was created to highlight the impact of high-quality board books on the learning and development of babies and toddlers. Engagement with board books provides stimulation in support of brain development, enhances visual and memorization skills, imparts an understanding of how the world works, bonds infants and toddlers with adults, and is a cornerstone for developing early literacy skills. Board book construction, which enables toddlers to turn the pages themselves, creates independence in a young child as a reader.
Given every two years, this prize was awarded for the first time in Spring 2023 to books published in 2022 and 2021. Please see below for the winners. You can also download a copy of the CBC’s Best Board Books for 2023 for books published in 2022 and 2021. Please send candidates for the award directly to:
The Children’s Book Committee,
Bank Street College of Education,
610 West 112th Street, New York, New York 10025.
Note: we are currently only considering work published in 2024 for our 2023/2024 award.
2023 Award Winners
0-18 months: Give Me a Snickle! by Alisha Sevigny (Orca Book Publishers)
19–36 months: Me and the Family Tree by Carole Boston Weatherford and Ashleigh Corrin (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky)
Video & Virtual Gift Bag
Margaret Wise Brown Board Book Award and Educational Program
Margaret Wise Brown Virtual Gift Bag 2023
News Coverage
- Bank Street Hosts Inaugural Margaret Wise Brown Board Book Award Ceremony and Educational Program
Bank Street College, March 27, 2023 - Bank Street Launches Margaret Wise Brown Board Book Award
Publishers Weekly, March 14, 2023 - Winners of Inaugural Margaret Wise Brown Board Book Award Named
Publishers Weekly, January 26, 2023 - Board Books Get an Award of Their Own
The Horn Book, April 13, 2022
2023 Award Ceremony
Thursday, March 9, 2023 (via Zoom)
6:30 PM – 8:00 PM ET
In partnership with KidLit TV
Introductory Comments
Cynthia Weill, Director, Center for Children’s Literature
Shael Polakow-Suransky, President, Bank Street College
Keynote Presentation
“Board Books in the Pediatric Exam Room: Something to Chew On”
Dr. Perri Klass, National Medical Director, Reach Out and Read
Panel Discussion
“The Ones They Come Back To: What Makes a Best Board Book?”
Moderator: Rachel Payne
Panelists: Antonette Portis, I’m Up!; LeUyen Pham, Whose Knees Are These?; Anne Wynter, One Big Day; Steven Light, Black Bird Yellow Sun; Carole Boston Weatherford, Me and the Family Tree
Acceptance Speeches
Alisha Sevigny, Give Me A Snickle (for 0-18 months)
Carole Boston Weatherford and Ashleigh Corrin, Me and the Family Tree (for 19-36 months)
About Margaret Wise Brown
Margaret Wise Brown attended Bank Street’s Cooperative School for Teachers in the 1930s. She studied under Bank Street founder Lucy Sprague Mitchell, learning new theories on childhood education which emphasized learning by doing. As part of her Bank Street studies, Margaret took a course in writing for preschool students and her skills were further developed as a member of the Bank Street Writers Lab.
Margaret’s most memorable book, Goodnight Moon, published in 1947, is considered a classic gift for young children. Although board books had not yet been developed when Goodnight Moon was first written, the book—with its beautiful rhythmic language—is a key text in nurturing an infant’s connection to books and creating lifelong readers.
Children’s literature historian, author, and critic Leonard S. Marcus, author of Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon, noted: “She virtually invented the picture book for very young children.”
