On Monday, the 2024 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards will be presented at an event at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square. The awards ceremony begins at 4 p.m. and is open to the public with registration; it is followed by a signing with the winning authors and illustrators from 6 to 7 p.m.
“We’re especially thrilled that so many of this year’s winners are able to attend,” says Elissa Gershowitz, editor in chief of The Horn Book magazine, adding that the event brings together “the book creators, the teachers, the librarians, all of the people who are doing the work of getting books [to] kids in such a challenging environment. We’re just really glad to be able to support those people in the ways that we can.”
Among the authors expected to attend are Jacqueline Woodson, winner in fiction for “Remember Us”; Sydney Smith, the picture book winner for “Do You Remember?”; author and illustrator of the poetry collection “Kin: Rooted in Hope,” Carole Boston Weatherford and Jeffery Boston Weatherford; author Nicholas Day and illustrator Brett Helquist for nonfiction winner “The Mona Lisa Vanishes”; and Karida L. Brown and Charly Palmer for the special citation winner, “The New Brownies’ Book.”
This year’s ceremony is special in a number of ways, says Gershowitz. It marks the organization’s centennial year. It will be the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic and the first time the event has taken place at the Boston Public Library.
Previous years’ awards ceremonies were hosted by Simmons University, and that relationship remains strong, says Gershowitz. The chair of this year’s award judges is Cathryn Mercier, who heads the university’s program in Children’s Literature, and the other judges are Katrina Hedeen Eftekhari, a librarian and a former editor with The Horn Book Inc.; and Rodney Fierce, a Humanities teacher at Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, Calif..
Attendees can bring their own books for the signing, but Roxbury’s Frugal Bookstore will also sell titles at the event.
“We’ve worked with them for many years,” says Gershowitz. “They were a natural partner. The good work that they do as the only Black-owned bookstore in the Boston area. They have such a focus on children’s literature and getting books into kids’ hands.”
Monday, Sept. 25. 4-7 p.m. Boston Public Library, Rabb Hall. 700 Boylston St. Free. Registration at hbook.com.
Kate Tuttle, a freelance writer and critic, can be reached at [email protected].
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