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[DENVER, June 5] – After a meticulous, months-long review and scoring process by professional educators and librarians across the country, Pop Culture Classroom today announced its Excellence in Graphic Literature (EGL) Awards Category Winners, Mosaic Award Winner and 2023 Book of the Year.

Matt Slayter, who oversees the EGL Awards and is Director of Education at Pop Culture Classroom, commented:

“We believe the EGL Awards are a treasure map to the best graphic novels, comics collections, and manga for unique value in classrooms, libraries, and other educational settings. The teachers and librarians who determined this year’s winners worked hard to ensure that each title is age-appropriate and encourages learning and reflection.”

2023 EGL Awards Book of the Year

Button Pusher by Tyler Page (First Second Books)

2023 Excellence in Graphic Literature AwardsBook of the Year - Button Pusher by Tyler Page (First Second Books)

“A must-read for people with ADHD and people who interact with ADHD, I think this book should be in every school, church, or location where people need to know about what’s going on in the brain of an ADHD person to show patience and understanding.”

— Jazmine LeBlanc, EGL Awards Juror, EGL Awards Middle Grade Juror

2023 Mosaic Award Winner

Alice on the Run by Gaspard Talmasse (Life Drawn, an imprint of Humanoids)

2023 Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards Mosaic Award Winner: Alice on the Run by Gaspard Talmasse (Life Drawn, an imprint of Humanoids)

“[Alice on the Run: One Child’s Journey Through the Rwandan Civil War is] A strong nonfiction/biography that has lots of classroom applications as well as telling an important and harrowing story.”

— Sterg Botzakis, EGL Middle Grade Jury Chair

The Mosaic Award is Pop Culture Classroom’s Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards’ celebration of stories about — and from — diverse communities, ethnicities, nationalities, faiths, and identities. Mosaic Award winners can help students see the world from different perspectives, foster a sense of belonging, and encourage empathy and respect for others.

2023 EGL Awards Category Winners

Category winners for the sixth annual Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards are:

  • Children’s Fiction:  
    Mamo
    by Sas Milledge (BOOM! Studios) 
  • Middle Grade — Fiction:  
    Frizzy
    by Claribel A. Ortega and Rose Bousamra (First Second Books) 
  • Middle Grade — Non-Fiction:  
    Button Pusher by Tyler Page (First Second Books) 
  • Young Adult — Fiction:  
    Side Effects by Ted Anderson and Tara O’Connor (Seismic Press)  
  • Young Adult — Non-Fiction 
    Victory. Stand! by Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, and Dawud Anyabwile (Norton Young Readers) 
  • Adult — Fiction 
    The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V and Filipe Andrade (Boom! Studios) 
  • Adult — Non-Fiction 
    Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton (Drawn & Quarterly) 

Book of the Year Finalists

Pop Culture Classroom also announced the Finalists for this year’s Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards Book of the Year today:

  • Button Pusher by Tyler Page (First Second Books)
  • But I Live: Three Stories of Child Survivors of the Holocaust by Barbara Yelin, Gilad Seliktar, and Miriam Libicki (New Jewish Press)
  • Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega and Rose Bousamra (First Second Books)
  • Mamo by Sas Milledge (BOOM! Studios)
  • Putuguq and Kublu and the Attack of the Amautalik by Roselynn Akulukjuk, Danny Christopher, and Astrid Arijanto (Inhabit Media)
  • Ronan and the Endless Sea of Stars by Rick Louis and Lara Antal (Abrams ComicArts)
  • Twelfth Grade Night by Molly Horton Booth, Stephanie Kate Strohm, and Jamie Green (Disney Hyperion)

Book of the Year Finalists

This year’s Mosaic Award Finalists are:

  • What is Home, Mum? (Street Noise Books)
  • Alice on the Run: One Child’s Journey Through the Rwandan Civil War by Gaspard Talmasse (Life Drawn, an imprint of Humanoids)
  • Victory. Stand! by Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, and Dawud Anyabwile (Norton Young Readers)
  • The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V and Filipe Andrade (Boom! Studios)
  • Button Pusher by Tyler Page (First Second Books)
  • Putuguq and Kublu and the Attack of the Amautalik! by Roselynn Akulukjuk, Danny Christopher, and Astrid Arijanto (Inhabit Media)
  • Movements and Moments by Various (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Mamo by Sas Milledge (BOOM! Studios)

How the Winners Were Determined

This year’s EGL Awards juries and advisory board were selected from an applicant pool of educators and librarians from across the United States. Jurors evaluated each title within their category using a clearly defined scoring process rooted in literacy and learning

Note: Juror affiliations are for identification purposes only and do not represent an endorsement of the EGL Awards by the institution or organization.  

Children’s: Jameka B. Lewis (Chair — Library Branch Manager, Denver Public Libraries), David Serchay (Fmr. Librarian, Librarian, Broward County), Jill Tussey (Professor and Division Chair, Buena Vista University, CO), Leslie Haas (Associate Professor, Xavier University of Louisiana), and Shane Gomes (Assistant Professor, Tennessee State University).

Middle Grade: Stergios Botzakis (Chair — Professor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville), Hadiya Evans (Senior Librarian, Denver Public Library), Jazmine LeBlanc (Executive Director, ELLA Library), Jessica Hedaria (ELA Teacher, Coral Academy of Science Middle School), and Michael Gianfrancesco (High School English Teacher, Rhode Island).

Young Adult: Joe Pascullo (Chair — Young Adult Librarian, New York Public Library), Kristina Bad Hand (Creative & Public Engagement Fellow, Denver Art Museum), Quinn Rollins (Teacher, Granite, Utah, School District), Tina Lerno (Librarian, Los Angeles Public Library), William Kist (Professor Emeritus, Kent State University).

Adult: Jack Baur (Chair — Senior librarian, Adult Services, Tigard Public Library, Oregon), Dexter Nelson II (Curator of African American History and Cultural Heritage at History Colorado), Jessica Salazar (Teacher, Jefferson County Schools), John Meier (Head of STEM Libraries, Penn State University), Matthew Noe (Librarian, Harvard Medical School).

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