The First Annual SEUSS! Awards: A Retrospective

With todays announcement of The Day the Crayons Quit as winner of the First Annual SEUSS Awards Choice Picture Book, we find ourselves at the end of one of the most exciting weeks in Scarletta history. A little chunk of that history hasn't been shared with you lovely people yet, and so I've asked the wonderful queen of all things Scarletta (Desiree) to share the details:

The idea for the SEUSS! Awards came about through the brainstorming of Josh and myself. How could we celebrate Read Across America, World Read Aloud Day, and Dr. Seuss’ birthday all at once and in a different way? Made up awards are probably the best kind of awards, so that was the route we took. Since it’s awards season in Hollywood, we decided a ballot was more than acceptable. But then we needed nominees. And where better to look for those than at a bookstore? I drank too much coffee and helped the Books-A-Million staff organize their children’s area (it was chaos), and Josh stopped in at his favorite, Magers & Quinn, to browse the children’s shelves. After much rearranging of lists and categories, debates on our personal favorites, and some searching through best seller and book of the year lists online, we had our nominees.

After a lot of social media, some fancy web badges, and a few weeks of voting, it was time to announce the winners. A quick recap on those:

SEUSS! Awards Best Character: Unicorn Thinks He's Great

SEUSS! Awards Best Read Aloud: Tea Rex

SEUSS! Awards Best Illustration: Journey

SEUSS! Awards Best Story Content: The Snatchabook

SEUSS! Choice Award: The Day the Crayons Quit

Additionally this marks the end of our 2014 celebration of Dr. Seuss, World Read Aloud Day, and Read Across America. Luckily there are still plenty of literary celebrations this spring that we're excited to be a part of and invite you to participate in too! We can't wait to see you there!