Want to know what your fellow Hoosiers are reading? “The Indiana Library Federation supports three annual book award programs. The book award programs seek to foster self-selected reading by engaging students and adults in the selection, promotion and recognition of honored books.”
Here are the 2022-2023 selections for the Young Hoosier Book Awards for children in K-8th grade, the Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award for high school students, and the Read Aloud Indiana booklist with titles for children, teens, and adults. Happy Reading!
Young Hoosier Book Awards
Picture Book Winners
By Meika Hashimoto, illustrated by Gillian Reid
While searching for the perfect home, Kitty meets Dragon and the pair form an unlikely friendship, learning to love one another’s differences.
Peanut, Butter, & Crackers: Puppy Problems
By Paige Braddock
Crackers the dog and Butter the cat have a very good life until they meet Peanut, an out of control new puppy.
By Adam Rex
How do you get gum out of your hair? Filled with crazy ideas and silly rhyming text, find out if your idea will work!
Intermediate Winners
By Stacy McAnulty
Felix and Benji are the lucky finders of a wallet belonging to tech giant Laura Friendly. They totally plan to return it—but decide to “borrow” $20 bucks to buy hot dogs. That’s not a big deal…right?
By Katherine Applegate
Rejoin Bob and his best friends Ivan and Ruby for his adventure. Bob needs help finding his long-lost sister and who else can he count on but “the one and only Ivan?”
The Smartest Kid in the Universe
By Chris Grabenstein
Jake’s school is about to be shut down, and he has to save it. That’s when he eats some mysterious jellybeans at his mom’s conference that turn out to be “information pills”! Now everyone is after Jake and his new smarts!
Middle Grade Winners
By James Ponti
After hacking in to the NYC foster care computer system to expose her foster parents as cheats, Sara is the one punished with a stay in “juvie”. When a mysterious spy master gets her released, she has the chance to join a secret agency.
By Victoria Jamieson
A graphic novel that takes place in a part of the world often ignored: a refugee camp. Omar and his younger nonverbal brother Hassan deal with surviving the harsh realities. When Omar gets a chance to get ahead, he must make a difficult choice.
By Kenneth Oppel
When the rain begins, it brings mysterious vines that grow and release toxic pollens causing plants to swallow all in sight. Three kids are discovered who may be able to end the curse.
Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award (Rosie Award)
Winner
By Holly Jackson
As her senior capstone project, Pippa Fitz-Amobi is determined to find the real killer in a closed, local murder case, but not everyone wants her meddling in the past.
Honor Book
By Jennifer Lynn Barnes
When a Connecticut teenager inherits vast wealth and an eccentric estate from the richest man in Texas, she must also live with his surviving family and solve a series of puzzles to discover how she earned her inheritance.
Read Aloud Indiana
“The Read Aloud Indiana program fosters a love of reading and the sound of language. It consists of five read-aloud lists: one each for primary school, upper elementary, middle grade, high school, and ageless. The lists are publicized and distributed to encourage sustained reading and oral sharing of literature among teachers and students.”
See the 2023 Read Aloud Indiana list.