Ladybug Picture Book Award Reading Marathon

On Thursday, November 17th a group of teachers and staff of Freedom Elementary School and I read 10 picture books nominated for the Ladybug Picture Book Award to children in grades K-3. Whew, it takes a long time to read ten books! Fortunately, we had an attentive audience. After the children heard all the stories, they each voted for their favorite. Click here to see the entire list of nominees.

And the winner was... Too Many Toys by David Shannon! About a little boy named Spencer who has so many toys his mother is on his case to give some away. He finally agrees to part with some and ends up discovering the best toy of all. 11 out of 30 children voted for this book.

Runners up were Bats at the Beach by Brian Lies (4 votes) and a three-way tie for 3rd place (3 votes each): Bedtime at the Swamp by Kristyn Crow and illustrated by Macky Panintuan , Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle and illustrated by Jill McElmurry and Waking Beauty by Leah Wilcox and illustrated by Lydia Monks.

Here are some photos from the morning's reading marathon. Click on photo to see larger version: