Green Bean Books and Jewish Book Week are delighted to announce the criteria for the second Jewish Children’s Book Awards. The awards will again be judged by Green Bean publisher Michael Leventhal; author and chair of the book selection committee of PJ Library Chris Barash; director of the Children’s and YA department at Kinneret-Zmora-Dvir Yael Molchadsky; and translator and author Lawrence Schimel. We are very pleased that this year, award-winning author Eric Kimmel will also join the panel.
Submission Criteria
The Jewish Children’s Book Awards for story and illustration aim to celebrate the work of talented Jewish children’s book authors and illustrators living in Europe and the UK. Click here to read the award criteria in Ukrainian, Russian, Italian, French, German or Spanish. Submitted work must be original and meet the following criteria:
For the illustration prize:
- The illustration /s should be on the theme of: an object that is regarded as having Jewish worth and/or personal Jewish significance and value to you.
- The submission should be suitable for readers aged 4-8.
- Submissions are invited from illustrators living in Europe and the UK. If you have been displaced from your country within the last year then please contact us directly to see if your submission can be accepted.
- The illustrator can submit existing artwork, which may have been published previously, but the submitted work must be unpublished in the English language and cannot be on active submission or under contract with an English language publisher before the award is announced.
- Each submission must include a note explaining the Jewish content in not more that 100 words. Ideally, this explanatory note should be submitted in English. The note should include your residential address, date of birth, and details of how you found out about the awards.
- Each illustrated submission must include not less than one colour double- page spread along with black and white sketches of 2-6 double page spreads.
- Each illustration must be supplied as a high-resolution jpeg or tiff.
- The completed submission should be emailed to awards@greenbeanbooks.com
For the story prize:
- The story must be Jewish in content, either inspired or informed by Jewish history, folklore, values, festivals or texts.
- The submission should be suitable for readers aged 4-8.
- Submissions are invited from authors living in Europe and the UK. If you have been displaced from your country within the last year then please contact us directly to see if your submission can be accepted.
- The author may have been published; the submitted work, however, must be unpublished in the English language and cannot be on active submission or under contract with a English language publisher before the award is announced.
- The submission text can be no longer than 1200 words.
- Submissions are accepted in English, French, German, Italian, Ukrainian, Russian, Spanish and Yiddish.
- Each submission must include a note explaining the Jewish content in not more than 100 words. Ideally, this explanatory note should be submitted in English. The note should include your residential address, date of birth, and details of how you found out about the awards.
- The submission must be double spaced in font 12 in a Word or PDF
document and the completed submission should be emailed to awards@greenbeanbooks.com
- The winners of each category will receive £1,000 each.
- All entries will be considered for publication by Green Bean Books, but we cannot provide critical feedback on submissions.
- Authors/illustrators must be aged 16 or over.
- No hardcopy submissions will be accepted.
- Entries must be submitted by 18 November, 2022.
- The author/illustrator retains copyright of their work.
- Individuals may enter both prizes but must enter both prizes separately.
- Work previously submitted to JCBA 2021/22 may not be resubmitted.
- The shortlist will be announced early in 2023.
- The winners will be announced at Jewish Book Week 2023, in London, UK.
- For further information please contact: awards@greenbeanbooks.com