The Towner Award

Congratulations to the 2018 Towner Award Winner: Whoosh! by Chris Barton

Whoosh!: Lonnie Johnson's Super-Soaking Stream of Invention was voted the 2018 Towner Award winner by students in the state of Washington. Whoosh! is also the winner of this year's Educator Award.

Click here for a preview of the 2019 nominees.

Voting for the 2018 Towner Award is now closed.

Voting is for students in grade 2 through 6 in Washington State. Student votes can be submitted by school and public librarians only. In addition, we will recognize an Educators' Choice. This is your chance to share with other educators which book you found most useful in the classroom.

2018 Towner Award Nominees - Text Sets (PDF)

Alpha Bravo Charlie: the Complete Book of Nautical Codes by Sara Gillingham
Animals by the Numbers: a Book of Animal Infographics by Steve Jenkins
Best in Snow by April Pulley Sayre
Circles by David Adler
Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life by Ashley Bryan
The Great Monkey Rescue: Saving the Golden Lion Tamarins by Sandra Markle
I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark by Debbie Levy
Pink is for Blobfish: Discovering the World's Perfectly Pink Animals by Jess Keating
Whoosh!: Lonnie Johnson's Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions by Chris Barton
Will's Words: How William Shakespeare Changed the Way You Talk by Jane Sutcliffe

All 10 Text Sets in one file (PDF)

Join the Towner!

Our enthusiastic committee is looking for a few good members. Click here to apply!

The Washington State Student Award for Informational Text

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.

This award is intended to complement other awards determined by student vote in the state of Washington; the Sasquatch, Washington’s Children Choice Picture Book and Young Readers’ Choice Awards. It is sponsored by the Washington Library Association School Library Division and intended for books enjoyed by students in grades Two through Six.

For the purposes of this award, Informational Text is defined as that which serves chiefly to convey factual information to the reader and may contain biography, narrative and other forms.

Each year a slate of ten books will be selected by a group of librarians from Washington state. This group will include public and school librarians, and members will be selected so as to provide representation for different parts of the state.