Nutmeg Book Award Announces 2015 Winners!

The Nutmeg Steering Committee is excited to announce the 2015 Nutmeg Book Award Winners!

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Dawalt illustrated by Oliver Jeffers is the winner of the first ever Elementary Award.

The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann is the winner of the Intermediate Award

The Raft by S.A. Bodeen is the winner of the Teen Award

Every Day  by David Levithan is the winner of the High School Nutmeg Book Award

Over 28,000 students voted from across the state of Connecticut. The winner for the Teen Award, The Raft, received a majority of the votes with 1283, with the rest of the field each with a strong following.  As usual, the votes for the Intermediate Book Award were a little more spread out but still a clear winner for The Unwanteds. In its first year, the Elementary Award showed strong voting with 8544 total votes, nearly one fourth of the total votes cast.  The Day the Crayons Quit was the clear favorite. The High School level showed a similar number of votes as last year, its inaugural year.  Every Day was the clear winner, although the 5 books were only 10 votes apart from each other.

 The Nutmeg Book Award encourages children to read quality literature and to choose their favorite from a list of ten nominated titles.  Jointly sponsored by the Connecticut Library Association (CLA) and the Connecticut Association of School Librarians (CASL), the Nutmeg Committee is comprised of teen readers, children's librarians and school librarians who are members of our sponsoring organizations. 2015 was the first year the Elementary level was added, so that children in grades 2-12 are now able to vote for their favorite books. Our thanks go to all of the schools and libraries and of course the students who participated in this year's voting!

Elementary Book Award: Total votes – 8544

The Day the Crayons Quit – 3284

Chloe and the Lion – 951

Stay: the true story of Ten Dogs – 842

Sidney and Sydney – 650

Miracle Mud - 574

Zita the Spacegirl – 565

Odd Duck – 557

The Trouble with Chickens – 496

Balloons over Broadway – 368

Frankie Pickle and the Pine Run 3000 – 319

Lulu and the Dog from the Sea – 234

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind – 214

The Secret of the Stone Frog – 171

Happy Like Soccer - 164

Locomotive - 150

Intermediate Book Award
Total votes:  13,411

The Unwanteds – 3517

Spy School – 2780

Shadow – 2051

Walls Within Walls – 1466

Tuesdays at the Castle - 1319

Joshua Dread – 1286

White Fur Flying – 1131

King of the Mound – 1078

Liar and Spy - 953

St Louis Armstrong Beach - 730

Teen Book Award 
Total votes: 6207

The Raft – 1283

One for the Murphys – 992

SeeYou at Harry’s – 810

The Final Four – 668

The False Prince – 632

Guitar Notes – 513

Insignia - 501

Don’t Turn Around – 485

Eye of the Storm – 404

The last Dragonslayer - 249

High School Award
Total votes: 334

Every Day – 69

Boy 21 – 43

The Reapers are the Angels – 40

My Book of Life - 36

The Diviners – 35

Code Name Verity – 32

Out of the Easy - 31

Never Fall Down – 29

Graffiti Moon – 24

The Round House - 3

Marla Martin and Cathy Townsend

2015 Nutmeg Steering Committee Co-Chairpersons