The purpose of the AGHE Book Award for Best Children’s Literature on Aging is to recognize positive portrayals of older adults in children’s literature; the award is given every other year.
Submission Period: Spring 2026
Eligibility Criteria:
There are two categories:(a) Primary Reader (pre K—2) and (b) Elementary Reader (3—5 grade). There is one “Honoree” and one “Honorable Mention” in each category. Books must address aging concepts.
Books being nominated need to have been published within the last two years.
Nomination Process
The ILRCE Interest Group will identify eligible books from the American Library Association (published in January) and the Illinois University School of Library Science Center for Children’s Books (published in February). Nominations are welcome from all society membership.
Review Process
Publishers of the nominated books will be notified and requested to send a copy of the book for each member of the review panel. Each member of the review panel will read each book and rate it on a scale of 3 (1 = Poor, 2 = Acceptable, and 3 = Outstanding) on these five criteria:
- Portrayal of meaningful aging
- Portrayal of positive intergenerational relations
- Diversity e.g, gender, race, ethnicity, disability
- Appeal
- Realism of story line
- The Honoree and Honorable Mention awards will be given respectively to the books with the highest and second highest ratings in each category.
Notification
Following the selection of the recipients, the ILRCE Interest Group shall send announcement letters to both the American Library Association and the Illinois University School of Library Science Center for Children’s Books. Announcement letters will be sent to the publisher of the Honoree and Honorable Mention books and the Committee will work with the publishers to inform the authors and to affix the AGHE Book Award seal to the books.