Jewish Children's Book Awards
Green Bean Books and Jewish Book Week are pleased to announce the launch of two exciting new prizes for children’s authors and illustrators living in Europe, the UK and Israel. The awards have been established to discover inspiring and relevant stories for young children based on Jewish history, values and traditions. One author and one illustrator will each receive a £1000 prize and their work will be considered for publication by specialist Jewish children’s book publisher Green Bean Books. The awards will be judged by author and chair of the book selection committee of PJ Library Chris Barash; publisher of Green Bean Books Michael Leventhal; director of the Children’s and YA department at Kinneret-Zmora-Dvir Yael Molchadsky; and translator and author Lawrence Schimel.
Remarking on the prize, Michael Leventhal said “I hope that the prizes will prompt authors and illustrators to tackle and submit work based on the great canon of Jewish literature and give talented writers and illustrators recognition”
Yael Molchadsky said “Good literature needs nurture, and even more so in a world that is growing global, with one dominating language and culture. In this world the nurture and celebration of a heritage that belongs to a small nation is a cultural need and duty.”
Chris Barash commented “Talented authors around the globe have Jewish stories to tell, and there are many equally talented artists ready to create the illustrations to help tell those stories. We need to encourage, recognise, and reward new authors and illustrators of Jewish stories. The goal of these awards is to help do just that.”
Lawrence Schimel added “Whatever language they write in, I hope this new prize helps encourage new generations of Jewish writers to create modern, plural, inspiring, illuminating tales of Jewish life.”
Director of Jewish Book Week Claudia Rubenstein added: “we are delighted to be partnering on this important prize.”
Submission Criteria
The Jewish Children’s Book Awards for Writing and Illustration aim to celebrate the work of talented new authors and illustrators of children’s books exploring Jewish themes in their work. Submitted work must be original and previously unpublished in the English language. Further submission criteria for each prize are detailed below. Please read the following guidelines carefully before you submit your work. If you have any questions please email: awards@greenbeanbooks.com
The Award for Illustration
- The illustrations must be Jewish in content and either inspired or informed by the theme of Jewish proverbs.
- The submission should be suitable for readers aged 4-8 years old.
- Submissions are invited from authors and illustrators living in Europe, the UK and Israel.
- The illustrator may have had work 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.
- To submit your work for consideration, email the following to awards@greenbeanbooks.com:
- A minimum of one colour double-page spread with a further 4-6 double page spreads either in full colour or as black and white sketches. Each illustration must be supplied as a high-resolution jpeg or tiff.
- A note explaining the Jewish content in not more than 100 words.
The Award for Writing
- The story must be Jewish in content, and either inspired or informed by Jewish history, folklore, values or festivals.
- The submission should be suitable for readers aged 4-8 years old.
- Submissions are invited from authors and illustrators living in Europe, the UK and Israel.
- The author may have had work 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.
- To submit your work for consideration, email the following to awards@greenbeanbooks.com:
- Text of not more than 1000 words. The submitted text may be in any language, but if the original language is not English please include the submission in the original language alongside an English translation.
- A note explaining the Jewish content in not more than 100 words. (This wording is not included in the 1000 word count limit for submissions).
- The submission must be double spaced in font 12 in a Word or PDF document.
Terms and Conditions
The winners of the Award for Illustration and the Award for Writing will receive £1,000 each. All entries will be considered for publication by Green Bean Books but critical feedback will not be provided on submissions. Authors/illustrators must be aged 18 or over on the date of submission. No hardcopy submissions will be accepted. Entries must be submitted by 1 September 2021. The author/illustrator retains copyright of their work. Individuals may enter both the Award for Illustration and the Award for Writing but must do so separately. The shortlist will be announced in December 2021. The winners will be announced at Jewish Book Week 2022.
The launch of the Green Bean Book Award was covered by The Bookseller magazine