Board Book/Cloth Book Alphabet/Counting Book Book Arts/Pop-up/Cut-out Activity Book 1 – Games, Arts & Crafts, etc. Activity Book 2 – Educational, Science, History Book with Music/Theatrical Picture Book - Preschool Picture Book - 4-8 Year Old Picture Book - All Ages Juvenile Fiction – Early Reader/1st Chapter books Pre-Teen Fiction – General Pre-Teen Fiction – Fantasy Pre-Teen Fiction – Mystery Pre-Teen Fiction – Historical/Cultural Pre-Teen Fiction – Mature Issues Young Adult Fiction – General Young Adult Fiction – Fantasy/Sci-Fi Young Adult Fiction – Horror/Mystery Young Adult Fiction – Historical/Cultural Young Adult Fiction – Religion/Spirituality Young Adult Fiction – Mature Issues Children’s Poetry Non-Fiction – Picture book Non-Fiction – Young Adult Multicultural – Picture book Multicultural Non-Fiction – Young Adult Religion/Spirituality Holiday Book with Merchandise (plush toy, etc.) Spanish Language - Picture Book Spanish Language - Chapter Book Environmental Issues Health Issues Mind-Body-Spirit/Self-Esteem Reading Skills/Literacy Best First Book – Picture Book Best First Book – Chapter Book Best Illustrator Best Book by Youth Author (under 18) Best Book Series – Fiction Best Book Series – Non-Fiction E1.  Children’s Picture Book E2.  Picture Book – Enhanced & Apps* E3.  Fiction – Pre-Teen E4.  Fiction – Young Adult E5.  Fiction – Enhanced & Apps* E6.  Non-Fiction E7.  Non-Fiction – Enhanced & Apps* E8.  Spanish Language E9.  Best E-Book by Youth (under 18) Enter Now

The 2013 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards are now open!

The Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards contest is designed to honor the year's best children’s books, authors and illustrators. This year’s seventh annual Moonbeam Awards program is open to authors, illustrators, and publishers of children’s books written in English or Spanish and intended for the North American market. All 2012 and 2013 copyrights and books released since November 1, 2011 are eligible.

Click here to receive the 2013 Moonbeam Awards entry form and guidelines by email.

Illustration by 2007 'Best Illustrator'
Award-Winner Becky Kelly from the
book, Heavenly Skies & Lullabies
www.beckykelly.com

Presented by Jenkins Group and Independent Publisher magazine, the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards are designed to bring increased recognition to exemplary children’s books and their creators, and to support childhood literacy and life-long reading. Awards are given in 41 print book and nine e-book categories covering the full range of subjects, styles and age groups that children’s books are written and published in today.

The Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards are presented by publishing services company Jenkins Group, Inc. of Traverse City, Michigan. Jenkins Group has been involved in book packaging, marketing and distribution since 1988, and many of its founders and employees now have children and grandchildren who strongly influence the company culture with their youthful exuberance and love of books.

Writing and publishing books that teach and inspire our children is an extremely important task, and these awards are conducted in appreciation of those efforts. Thank you and best of luck in the Moonbeam Awards!

Click here to receive the 2013 Moonbeam Awards entry form and guidelines (for 2012/2013 copyrights and releases).

The Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards So Far

The inaugural Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards drew a total of 862 entries from authors and publishers in 45 U.S. states, 6 Canadian provinces, and 7 countries overseas. An awards presentation was held in conjunction with the 2007 Children's Humanities Festival in Chicago.

The 2nd annual Moonbeam Awards attracted over 1,000 entries, and the awards ceremony was held in Denver, Colorado, during the American Library Association mid-winter conference. Our 3rd annual awards presentation event took place as part of the West Virginia Book Festival in Charleston, West Virginia.

The fourth Moonbeam Awards were celebrated as part of our Traverse City Children’s Book Festival, launched in 2010 to bring a new literary event to our hometown. We were thrilled to invite the 2010 Moonbeam medalists to Traverse City and give them a spotlight at Michigan’s first children’s book festival, , and happy that 1,000 attendees came out to support children’s books and reading (see photos from the 2010 event here).

The fifth annual awards event was another great success! We again conducted a Junior Book Reviewer contest, awarding prizes for essays and artwork, made a donation to our local literacy council, and featured a young author and cancer survivor whose Make a Wish dream came true when her illustrated poetry book was published just in time for the festival (see photos from the 2011 event here).

The sixth annual awards event was spectacular, as we moved it to the highest possible location here in Traverse City, the Top of the Park, at our host hotel, The Park Place. With its huge windows looking out over the region in all directions, the views were amazing — and so were the heartfelt words spoken by our winning authors, illustrators and publishers in attendance. It was truly a night to remember (see photos here).

All of these contests and book festivals have proved that the cause of promoting childhood literacy knows no boundaries. Our award winners come not only from long-established publishers and university presses, but from small presses, foundations, museums, and self-published entrepreneurs. Creating books that inspire our children to read, to learn, and to dream is an extremely important task, and these awards were conceived to reward those efforts.

Programs