The Prairie Bud & Pasque Children's Book Awards are sponsored by the South Dakota Library Association. Prairie Bud winners are determined by South Dakota kindergarten, first and second grade students. Prairie Pasque winners are determined by South Dakota third, fourth, and fifth grade students. Students are encouraged to read and vote for their one favorite book of the year from the masterlists of fifteen titles. The books receiving the most votes from the students win the awards. A committee of educators and librarians select the books nominated for the awards.

2008 South Dakota Children's Book Award Winners

I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More!, written by Karen Beaumont and illustrated by David Catrow, is the winner of the 2008 Prairie Bud Award.

Ghost’s Grave by Peg Kehret is the winner of the 2008 Prairie Pasque Award.

Sponsored by the South Dakota Library Association, South Dakota Children's Book Awards encourage students in grades K-5 to read and vote for their favorite book of the year. The Prairie Bud Award is designed for students in grades K-2, while the Prairie Pasque Award is for 3-5th graders. Both awards challenge students to read and vote for their favorite book from a list of fifteen nominated titles. Children who read at least five titles from the list for their grade level qualify to vote. Each award is given to the book receiving the most votes from students throughout South Dakota.

87 schools across the state participated in voting for the 2008 Prairie Bud and Prairie Pasque awards. 8815 students in grades K-3 voted for a book nominated for this year's Prairie Bud Award; 2406 fourth, fifth, and sixth graders took part in the Prairie Pasque Award voting.

In order of votes received, the top five Prairie Bud books for 2008 are:

1. I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont
2. Hi, Fly Guy! by Tedd Arnold
3. Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems
4. Dog Who Cried Wolf by Keiko Kasza
5. Elephants Can Paint Too! by Katya Arnold

The top five Prairie Pasque books for 2008, in order of votes received, are:

1. Ghost’s Grave by Peg Kehret
2. Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude by Kevin O’Malley
3. Pick of the Litter by Bill Wallace
4. The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
5. Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time by Lisa Yee

Just a reminder: We will no longer be mailing book lists or ballots for the SD Children’s Book Awards. In the future all information (titles, ballot, voting) will be available online at http://library.sd.gov/forkids/prairie/index.htm (this current page).

Be sure to sign up for the listserves: We are going paperless and you will miss important announcements if you are not signed up. Click here to join the listservs.

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