Mae's First Day of School news

Mae's First Day of School has been nominated for the Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature, an Oregon Book Award presented by Literary Arts. Kate's debut, Hannah and Sugar, won this award in 2016. This year's winners will be announced on April 22nd. For tickets to attend the Ceremony, hosted by Cheryl Strayed, head to Brown Paper Tickets.

ELOISE JARVIS MCGRAW AWARD FOR CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
Judges: Ashyln Anstee, Ben Clanton, Linda Marshall

Kate Berube of Portland, Mae’s First Day of School (Abrams Books)
Barbara Herkert of Newport, A Boy, a Mouse, and a Spider: The Story of E.B. White (Henry Holt and Co.)
Michelle Roehm McCann of Portland, More Girls Who Rocked the World (Aladdin/Beyond Words)
Emily Whitman of Portland,The Turning (Greenwillow Books)
Deborah Hopkinson of West Linn, Ordinary, Extraordinary Jane Austen (Balzer & Bray)

In addition, Mae's First Day of School is now available in Japanese from Imagination +/ Press! 

Oregon Book Awards!

I'm over the moon today about the announcement that Hannah and Sugar is a finalist for the Eloise Jarvis Macgraw Award for Children's Literature, a Literary Arts Oregon Book Award. This is such an honor! There's something really special about being recognized in this state I have chosen to make my home. I love Oregon and am proud to be called an Oregon author. I put a lot of work over many, many years into making this book and it's a sweet feeling to know my story connected to people. It's nice to have a little outside reassurance that those insistent and insecure voices in my head were wrong all those years - thank goodness I didn't listen to them!

I hope you'll take the time to go to the Literary Arts website to view all the categories and the beautiful books nominated - including my good friend Martha Grover's book The End of My Career. Congratulations, Martha!!! This is so well deserved!


The other finalists for the Children's Literature Award are:
Cathy Camper for Lowriders to the Center of the Earth


Deborah Hopkinson for Steamboat School


Kathleen Lane for The Best Worst Thing


Cynthia Rylant for The Otter


What fantastic books! I'll be heading the the library soon so I can read them all. (Personally I think we each should win an award since all of the books fall into different categories. Hannah and Sugar, of course, is a picture book and then we have a graphic novel, a historical fiction picture book, a middle reader and a chapter book.)

Many thanks to Literary Arts for this recognition. I am very grateful!