Children's Literature Association of Utah
Utah Beehive Book Awards
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2021 Beehive Book Award Winners

CLAU is beyond thrilled to announce the 2021 Beehive Book Award winners!

Congratulations to each author and illustrator, and thank you to all the kids and young adults who read and voted!

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CHILDREN'S FICTION

Wolf Called Wander by Rosanne Parry
Swift, a young wolf cub, lives with his pack in the mountains learning to hunt, competing with his brothers and sisters for hierarchy, and watching over a new litter of cubs. Then a rival pack attacks, and Swift and his family scatter. Alone and scared, Swift must flee and find a new home. His journey takes him a remarkable one thousand miles across the Pacific Northwest.

The trip is full of peril, and Swift encounters forest fires, hunters, highways, and hunger before he finds his new home. Inspired by the extraordinary true story of a wolf named OR-7 (or Journey), this irresistible tale of survival invites readers to experience and imagine what it would be like to be one of the most misunderstood animals on earth.


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PICTURE BOOKS

​The Very Impatient Caterpillar by Ross Burach
​When a group of caterpillars scamper up a tree to metamorphosize, one of them is
​still learning about this whole transformation thing.


Who knew that with a little time, and patience, he could become a beautiful butterfly? But the two-week wait inside his chrysalis feels interminable. ("Can I get a comic book?" "What if I need the bathroom?" "Anyone want to play a game?"). His fellow caterpillars all tell him to be patient and let nature take its course, but the waiting is
just so hard. Can he do it??
​

With warmth, wit, and a flair for hilarious cartooning, Ross Burach turns a relatable feeling and an evergreen curriculum topic into an endearing picture book that has all the hallmarks of a modern classic.


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INFORMATIONAL

Borrowing Bunnies: A Surprising True Tale of Fostering Rabbits by Cynthia Lord
Newbery Honor author Cynthia Lord likes fostering rabbits--or, as she fondly calls it, “borrowing bunnies.” This is the heartwarming true story of the author’s own journey with two very special rabbits. In the spring of 2016, Peggotty and Benjamin were saved by Maine’s Cottontail Cottage Rabbit Rescue after their previous owners had neglected them.

But before the two Netherland Dwarf rabbits could be adopted, Cynthia had to help them learn to trust people and feel safe inside a home. The bunnies slowly settled in, enjoying their clean pens, nibbling new foods, and playing with fun toys, while Cindy’s husband, John Bald, photographed Benjamin and Peggotty’s every step toward adoption.


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YOUNG ADULT

​Skyward by Brandon Sanderson
​Spensa’s world has been under alien attack for decades. Pilots are the heroes of what’s
left of humanity, and becoming a pilot is Spensa’s dream. Ever since she was a little girl, Spensa has dreamed of soaring skyward and proving her bravery. But her father’s legacy stands in the way--he was a pilot who was killed for desertion years ago, branding Spensa the daughter of a coward, and making her chances of attending flight school slim to none.


Spensa is still determined to fly--even if it means she must be as resilient in the face of long odds as humanity itself has had to be against the alien threat. And her accidental discovery in a long forgotten cavern might just grant her a way to claim the stars.


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GRAPHIC NOVEL

The Cardboard Kingdom by Chad Sell
This graphic novel follows a neighborhood of kids who transform ordinary cardboard into fantastical homemade costumes as they explore conflicts with friends, family, and their own identity. 

​Welcome to a neighborhood of kids who transform ordinary boxes into colorful costumes, and their ordinary block into cardboard kingdom. This is the summer when sixteen kids encounter knights and rogues, robots and monsters–-and their own inner demons–on one last quest before school starts again. In the Cardboard Kingdom, you can be anything you want to be–imagine that!


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POETRY

Birdie by Eileen Spinelli
Twelve-year-old Birdie Briggs loves birds. They bring her comfort when she thinks about her dad, a firefighter who was killed in the line of duty. Life without her dad isn’t easy, but at least Birdie still has Mom and Maymee, and her friends Nina and Martin.

But then Maymee gets a boyfriend, Nina and Martin start dating, and Birdie’s mom starts seeing a police officer. And suddenly not even her beloved birds can lift Birdie’s spirits. Her world is changing, and Birdie wishes things would go back to how they were before. But maybe change, painful as it is, can be beautiful too.


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