Sydney Taylor Book Award – How to Submit Books

Entries are now being considered for next year’s Sydney Taylor Award, which recognizes the best children’s literature of Jewish content appropriate for ages 0-18. We would like to invite you to submit any children’s books with the current year’s copyright that meets the criteria below. In order to be considered, a review copy must be sent to each member of the Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee. No application form is necessary; simply mail the books to each member in a package labeled “Sydney Taylor Book Award Submission.” Email sydneytaylorbookaward@jewishlibraries.org to request a committee mailing list.

The awards will be announced in January of the coming year. To ensure that the committee has enough time to evaluate all of the submissions, the deadline for submissions is November 20 of this year. Please send submissions as soon as they are available. The committee is happy to receive a pre-publication version while waiting for the bound book.

The criteria used to evaluate books for the Sydney Taylor Book Award are:

1. The book has literary merit.
2. The book has positive and authentic Jewish religious or cultural content.
3.  The book is appropriate for the intended grade level in style, vocabulary, format, and illustration.
4. Whether fiction or nonfiction, the book is solidly rooted in authentic and accurate detail through scholarship and research by the author.
5. Particular attention will be paid to titles that demonstrate the broad diversity of the Jewish experience, including diversity of time period and country of origin.
6. Textbooks, liturgy, and reprints are not eligible. Significantly revised editions and re-illustrated editions are eligible.
7. Books must be commercially available for purchase in order to be eligible.
8. Self-published books are not eligible. The author and illustrator must not have paid any money to the publisher. The book must be edited by a professional editor at no cost to the author/illustrator. The publisher must publish books by multiple authors.
9. Books must be published in English (whether originally in English or in translation)
10. If the same book is published in English in multiple countries, the first version submitted will be considered for the award. Other versions then become ineligible.