Two books with vastly different themes have captured the 2024 William Allen White Children’s Book Awards. One centers on a dog who learns to use her special training for a new purpose. The second looks at two different occurrences of September 11, 18 years apart, through the eyes of two children.
The Grade 3-5 selection, “Stella” by McCall Hoyle, is told from the perspective of Stella, a dog trained while a puppy to detect explosives and accelerants. When a situation goes wrong, Stella is retired as a working dog and adopted by a young girl named Cloe who has epilepsy. Stella realizes she needs to find the courage to overcome her fears in order to help save Cloe.
For Grades 6-8, “Ground Zero” by Alan Gratz follows two stories. Brandon is 9 and goes to work with his dad in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Reshmina is an 11-year-old Afghan girl when a battle erupts on Sept. 11, 2019, in her village.
Author Hoyle describes herself as a “sixth-grade teacher, mom, and author who loves reading and dogs!” She dreams of being a dog trainer when she grows up. “Stella” is one of three titles she has written for Shadow Mountain Publishing's empathy-building line of books.
Gratz is the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of 20 novels and graphic novels for young readers, including “Heroes,” “Two Degrees,” “Captain America: The Ghost Army,” “Ground Zero,” “Refugee,” “Allies,” “Prisoner B-3087” and “Ban This Book.” A Knoxville, Tennessee native, Alan is now a full-time writer living in Portland, Oregon with his family.
The William Allen White Children’s Book Award program began after the famed journalist’s death on Jan. 29, 1944 — Kansas Day — when two memorial foundations were created in his name. Emporia State University launched the William Allen White Children’s Book Award, which was guided by Ruth Garver Gagliardo, who was hired by White to write for The Emporia Gazette.
Passionate about books, Gagliardo wrote a regular column that commented on books, music and art, and often concentrated on books for children. She was one of the first to review children’s books for a newspaper, which gave parents, teachers and librarians the chance to know about quality books for children.
Galiardo’s column led to “The Children’s Bookshelf,” a book review column in the Kansas Teacher magazine. She also started the Children’s Traveling Book Exhibit, which helped introduce children all over Kansas to good books for 23 years.
The awards program each year provides a curated list of books to Kansas schoolchildren in Grades 3 through 8. The children read the titles and vote for their favorites.
The 72nd annual celebration of the WAW Children’s Book Awards program, directed by Emporia State University and supported in part by the Trusler Foundation, will be Oct. 5. During that day, schoolchildren from across the state of Kansas travel to Emporia for special events including author readings and book signings. Many teachers use travel to the book awards as incentives in their school reading programs. Registration is free.
Student representatives present the winning authors with their White Award medals during the award ceremony that concludes the special day.
Additional Resources:
- Publishers — “Stella” is published by Shadow Mountain Publishing. “Ground Zero” is published by Scholastic.
- Authors — McCall Hoyle is online at mccallhoyle.com. Alan Gratz is online at alangratz.com.
- William Allen White Children’s Book Awards (registration and more!): https://wawchildrensbookaward.com/