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Picture Book of the Year Archive

Surrey Schools Picture Book of the Year
Winners and Nominees
2009 - 2025

2025 - Winner to be announced June 2025
Nominees:
  • Garden of Lost Socks by Esi Edugyan
  • Lonely Bird by Ruth Whiting
  • Mole Is Not Alone by Maya Tatsukawa
  • My Baba's Garden by Jordan Scott
  • My Little Thief by Augusten Burroughs
  • Otter Doesn't Know by Andrea Fritz
  • Sari-Sari Summers by Lynnor Bontigao
  • Stickler Loves the World by Lane Smith
  • Too Many Pigs and One Big Bad Wolf by Davide Cali
  • The Umbrella by Beth Ferry
2024 - Knight Owl By Christopher Denise
Nominees:
  • Bathe The Cat By Alice B. Mcginty
  • Chickadee: Criminal Mastermind By Monica Silvie
  • The Comet By Joe Todd-Stanton
  • Just Like Grandma By Kim Rogers
  • Lost By Sam Usher
  • Mina By Matthew Forsythe
  • My Powerful Hair By Carole Lindstrom
  • The Sour Grape By Jory John
  • This Story Is Not About A Kitten By Randall De Sève

2023 - Invasion of the Unicorns by David Biedrzycki
Nominees:

  • Bear is a Bear by Jonathon Stutzman
  • The Fox and the Forest Fire by Danny Popovici
  • Friends are Friends, Forever by Dane Liu
  • Imagine a Wolf: What do you see? by Lucky Platt
  • The Impossible Mountain by David Soman
  • Norman Didn't Do it? by Ryan Higgins
  • The Octopus Escapes by Maile Meloy
  • Room for Everyone by Naaz Khaz
  • Thunder and the Noise Storms by Jeffrey Ansloos

2022 - The Barnabus Project by Terry Fan, Eric Fan, and Devin Fan 
Nominees:

  • Bear and the Moon by Matthew Burgess
  • Bear Came Along by Richard T. Morris
  • Golden Threads by Suzanne Del Rizzo
  • I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott
  • Many Colors of Harpreet Singh by Supriya Kelkar
  • My Day with Gong Gong by Sennah Yee
  • Swashby and the Sea by Beth Ferry
  • This Way, Charlie by Caron Levis
  • Unicorns are the Worst by Alex Willan

2021 - Old Rock (is not boring) by Deb Pilutti (Winner)
Nominees:

  • Hair love bby Matthew Cherry
  • The love letter by Anika Denise
  • Lubna and Pebble by Wendy Meddour
  • One fox: a counting book thriller by Kate Read
  • The scarecrow by Beth Ferry
  • Small in the city by Sydney Smith
  • Snail Crossing by Corey Tabor
  • Thank you, Omu! by Oge Mora
  • Truman by Jean Reidy

2020 - Potato pants by Laurie Keller (Winner)
Nominees:

  • Doll-E 1.0 by Shanda McCloskey
  • Feathers by Phil Cummings
  • Found by Jeff Newman
  • The neighbors by Einat Tsarfati
  • Petra by Marianna Coppo
  • The rabbit listened by Cori Doerrfeld
  • The remember balloons by Jessie Oliveros
  • Smoot by Michelle Cuevas
  • The wall in the middle of the book by Jon Agee

2019 - The Bad Seed by Jory John (Winner)
Nominees:

  • After the fall : how Humpty Dumpty got back up again by Dan Santat
  • Always remember by Cece Meng
  • The antlered ship by Dashka Slater
  • A cat named Swan by Holly Hobbie
  • On a magical do-nothing day by Beatrice Alemagna
  • Shelter by Céline Claire
  • There's a bug on my arm that won't let go by David Mackintosh
  • The thing Lou couldn't do by Ashley Spires
  • The water princess by Susan Verde

2018 - Nope! by Drew Sheneman (Winner)
Nominees:

  • The branch by Mireille Messier
  • The darkest dark by Chris Hadfield
  • The fabulous friend machine by Nick Bland
  • Faraway fox by Jolene Thompson
  • The great AAA-OOO! by Jonny Lambert
  • A hungry lion, or, a dwindling assortment of animals by Lucy Ruth Cummins
  • The Night Gardener by Terry Fan
  • They all saw a cat by Brendan Wenzel
  • Thunder Boy Jr. by Sherman Alexie

2017 - Finding Winnie : the true story of the world's most famous bear by Lindsay Mattick (Winner)
Nominees:

  • If you plant a seed by Kadir Nelson
  • Job wanted by Teresa Bateman
  • Last stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña
  • Like a wolf by Géraldine Elschne
  • Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins
  • Out of the woods : a true story of an unforgettable event by Rebecca Bond
  • Wanted! : Ralfy Rabbit, book burglar by Emily MacKenzie
  • What James said by Liz Rosenberg

2016 - Lion vs. Rabbit by Alex Latimer (Winner)
Nominees:

  • The cat, the dog, Little Red, the exploding eggs, the wolf, and Grandma by Diane Fox
  • Dolphin SOS by Roy Miki
  • Ivan : the remarkable true story of the shopping mall gorilla by Katherine Applegate
  • Mogie : the heart of the house by Kathi Appelt
  • The promise by Nicola Davies
  • Shh! We have a plan by Chris Haughton
  • Shoe dog by Megan McDonald
  • Telephone by Mac Barnett
  • You call that brave? by Lorenz Pauli

2015 - The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt (Winner)
Nominees:

  • The black rabbit by Philippa Leathers
  • Going Places by Peter H. Reynolds
  • The Hermit Crab by Carter Goodrich
  • It's an Orange Aardvark by Michael Hall
  • Lost cat by C. Roger Mader
  • The man with the violin by Karhy Stinson
  • Spike: Ugliest dog in the universe by Debra Frasier
  • That is Not a Good Idea! by Mo Willems
  • Up the Creek by Nicholas Oldland

2014 - Dangerously ever after by Dashka Slater (Winner)
Nominees:

  • Creepy carrots! by Aaron Reynolds
  • Lark by Ashley Spires
  • Lucky ducklings by Eva Moore
  • Nightsong by Ari Berk
  • Ralph tells a story by Abby Hanlon
  • Step gently out by Rick Lieder
  • Stuck by Oliver Jeffers
  • This is not my hat by Jon Klassen
  • Too tall houses by Gianna Marino

2013 - The Jewel Fish of Karnak by Graeme Base (Winner)
Nominees:

  • Earth to Clunk by Pam Smallcomb
  • The First Mosquito by Caroll Simpson
  • Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughton
  • The Magic Brush by Kat Yeh
  • Marshall Armstrong is New to Our School by David Mackintosh
  • The Secret Message by Mina Javaherbin
  • Swirl by Swirl by Joyce Sidman
  • Won-Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku by Lee Wardlaw
  • Stars by Mary Lyn Ray

2012 - Chalk by Bill Thomson (Winner)
Nominees:

  • Big red lollipop by Rukhsana Khan by Cynthia von Buhler
  • City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems
  • Clever Jack Takes the Cake by Candace Fleming
  • Giraffe and Bird by Rebecca Bender
  • Goal! by Mina Javaherbin
  • I Wanna New Room by Karen Kaufman Orloff
  • Immi's Gift by Karin Littlewood
  • Knuffle Bunny Free: an Unexpected Diversion by Mo Willems
  • Wanted, the Perfect Pet by Fiona Robertson

2011 - Wink : the ninja who wanted to be noticed by J.C. Phillipps (Winner)
Nominees

  • But who will bell the cats?
  • The circus ship by Chris Van Dusen
  • The curious garden by Peter Brown
  • Finn throws a fit! by David Elliott
  • The little hummingbird by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
  • Lousy rotten stinkin' grapes by Margie Palatini
  • Otis by Loren Long
  • Sparrow girl by Sara Pennypacker
  • Under the snow by Melissa Stewart

2010 - The pencil by Allan Ahlberg (Winner)
Nominees:

  • Alfred's nose by Vivienne Flesher
  • Bees, snails, & peacock tails by Betsy Franco
  • Hogwood steps out by Howard Mansfield
  • Most loved in all the world by Tonya Cherie Hegamin
  • Posy by Linda Newbery
  • The race of the century by Barry Downard
  • Running shoes by Frederick Lipp
  • Thing-thing by Cary Fagan
  • A visitor for bear by Bonny Becker
2009 - Help me, Mr. Mutt by Janet Stevens (Winner)

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