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OTTER Award | Sasquatch Award | Towner Award | WCCPBA
Evergreen Teen Book Award

WLA Book Awards

2023 Award Winners - Announcement Video Playlist

The playlist below features video announcements for the OTTER Award, Sasquatch Award, Towner Award, and WCCPBA. Use the fast-forward and rewind buttons to navigate between the individual announcement videos.

 

2024 Award Voting Timeline

  • Friday, April 28: 2025 nominees announced by this date, at the latest
  • Friday, May 24: Votes due from students for the 2024 Awards
  • Monday, June 3: 2024 Award winners announced!

2024 Book Award Nominee Posters Available!

2024 Book Award posters are available to download and print! Access the 2024 Book Award Nominee Posters. By clicking the link, you will be prompted to log-in with your WLA membership credentials to access the PDF files.


The School Library Division proudly sponsors four awards:


The William C. Towner Award

Informational text for grades 2-6, open nominations, committee selected, student voted.

The Towner Award is named after Bill Towner, longtime Seattle librarian and mentor to dozens of librarians. Bill was an outstanding teacher-librarian who worked with thousands of students from all backgrounds and taught all of them his love of literature. Bill showed us how caring teachers and librarians can make a difference.


LogoThe Sasquatch Award

Novels for grades 4-6, open nominations, committee selected, student voted.

Twelve great books are nominees. But only one will win. Fourth, fifth, and sixth graders can participate in the voting process by reading at least two of the nominees. 



WCCPBA LogoThe Washington Children’s Choice Picture Book Award (WCCPBA)

Picture book award for grades K-3, open nominations, committee selected, student voted.

The Washington Children’s Choice Picture Book Award was started in 1982. All Washington state students in public and private schools, from kindergarten through third grade in Washington State are welcome to vote. Students hear all 20 nominated picture books, read by their library teacher and/or classroom teacher and participate in literature activities for each book.

The OTTER (Our Time To Enjoy Reading) Award

For transitional readers in grades K-5, open nominations, committee selected, student voted. 

The idea for this award was born at nErDCamp Bellingham in February of 2015. The original OTTER co-chairs, Arika Dickens and Monica Hodges, met at the free book table and started chatting about the need for a good list of new transitional chapter books with maybe an award, like the Sasquatch Award, but for younger students. They exchanged Twitter information, piloted the program in their own districts, and applied for the award through WLMA (now WLA School Library Division).

 

The School Library Division proudly supports:

" "The Evergreen Teen Book Award

A readers choice book award voted on by Washington teens in grades 6 through 12 from a list compiled by Washington Young Adult Review Group librarians.