Nominations are now being accepted for the Newton Marasco Foundation’s 2009 Green Earth Book Award!

NMF created the Green Earth Book Award in conjunction with Salisbury University to promote books that inspire children to grow a deeper appreciation, respect, and responsibility for their natural environment.

This is an annual award started in 2005 for books that best raise awareness of the beauty of our natural world and the responsibility that we have to protect it. In 2009, the Green Earth Book Award will be awarded in four categories:

Picture Book: for books for children from pre-school to age 8 where the pictures and illustrations are as important as the text

Children’s Fiction: encompasses novels for young readers up to age 12

Young Adult Fiction: includes books for readers from age 13 to 21

Nonfiction: includes books for readers from infancy to age 21

See eligibility requirements, award criteria, nomination instructions, and schedule here.

Cynsational Notes

The 2008 winners were:

in the children’s fiction category: Winston of Churchill: One Bear’s Battle Against Global Warming by Jean Davies Okimoto, illustrated by Jeremiah Trammell (Sasquatch Books);

in the young adult fiction category: The Light-Bearer’s Daughter by O. R. Melling (Abrams);

in the non-fiction category: The Down to Earth Guide to Global Warming by Laurie David and Cambria Gordon (Scholastic).

The honor books were: Adventures of Riley: Polar Bear Puzzle by Amanda Lumry and Laura Hurwitz (Eaglemont Press); An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming by Al Gore, adapted by Jane O’Connor (Viking); On Meadowview Street by Henry Cole (Greenwillow); Secrets of the Sirens by Julia Golding (Marshall Cavendish); and The Sorta Sisters by Adrian Fogelin (Peachtree).