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The Towner Award
2022 Award Winner
The winner of the 2022 Towner Award is...The Pig War: How a Porcine Tragedy Taught England and America to Share, written by Emma Bland Smith and illustrated by Allison Jay!

Here is a true story of how the great nations of America and England almost went to war in 1859 over a pig – but learned to share instead. In 1859, the British and Americans coexist on the small island of San Juan, located off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. They are on fairly good terms – until one fateful morning when an innocent hog owned by a British man has the misfortune to eat some potatoes on an American farmer’s land. In a moment of rash anger, Lyman Cutlar shoots Charles Griffin’s pig, inadvertently almost bringing the two nations to war. Tensions flare, armies gather, cannons are rolled out...all because of a pig!
Emma Bland Smith is the award-winning author of Journey: Based on the True Story of OR7, the Most Famous Wolf in the West, as well as other fiction and nonfiction books for children. Many of Emma’s books include animals—wolves, dogs, pigs, even alligators! Emma is a librarian and author and lives in San Francisco with her husband, two kids, dog, and cat—but no wolf, pig, or alligator. Visit her online at emmabsmith.com and on Twitter at @emmablandsmith.
Alison Jay studied graphic design in London where she now lives. She has worked in all areas of illustration including advertising, packaging, editorial, and design. She has illustrated many children's books, including Welcome to the Zoo which was selected for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.
2023 Towner Award Nominees
2023 Towner Award Nominees Press Release

Bookmark link
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- Battle of the Butts: The Science Behind Animal Behinds, by Jocelyn Rish; illustrated by David Creighton-Pester (Running Press Kids)
- The Little Spacecraft That Could, by Joyce Lapin; illustrated by Simona Ceccarelli (Union Square Kids)
- Brains! Not Just A Zombie Snack, by Stacy McAnulty; illustrated by Matthew Rivera (Henry Holt and Co.)
- The Magic of Sleep: A Fascinating Guide to the World of Slumber, by Vicki Woodgate (DK Children)
- Fourteen Monkeys: A Rain Forest Rhyme, by Melissa Stewart; illustrated by Steve Jenkins (Beach Lane Books)
- Scurry! The Truth About Spiders, by Annette Whipple; illustrated by Juanbjuan Oliver and Franco Rivolli (Reycraft Books)
- The Fearless Flights of Hazel Ying Lee; by Julie Leung; illustrated by Julie Kwon (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
- The Water Lady: How Darlene Arviso Helps a Thirsty Navajo Nation, by Alice B. McGinty; illustrated by Shonto Begay (Schwartz & Wade)
- I Am Smoke, by Henry Herz; illustrated by Mercè López (Tilbury House Publishers)
- Zion Unmatched, by Zion Clark and James S. Hirsch; illustrated by Juanbjuan Oliver and Franco Rivolli
(Candlewick)
2022 Towner Award Nominees
2022 Towner Award Nominees Press Release

Bookmark link
Click the title to go to a Choice Board!!!
- Beautiful Shades of Brown: The Art of Laura Wheeler Waring, by Nancy Churnin, illustrated by Felicia Marshall (Creston Books)
- If You Take Away the Otter, by Susannah Buhrman-Deever, illustrated by Matthew Trueman (Candlewick)
- Dinosaurs: Fact and Fable: Truths, Myths, and New Discoveries, by Seymour Simon (HarperCollins)
- The Only Woman in the Photo: Frances Perkins and Her New Deal for America, by Kathleen Krull, illustrated by Alexandra Bye (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
- Eat Your Rocks, Croc!: Dr. Glider’s Advice for Troubled Animals, by Jess Keating, illustrated by Pete Oswald (Orchard Books)
- The Pig War: How a Porcine Tragedy Taught England and America to Share, by Emma Bland Smith, illustrated by Alison Jay (Calkins Creek)
- Equality’s Call: The Story of Voting Rights in America, by Deborah Diesen, illustrated by Magdalena Mora (Beach Lane Books)
- Railway Jack: The True Story of an Amazing Baboon, by KT Johnston, illustrated by César Samaniego (Capstone Editions)
- Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera, by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Eric Rohmann (Neal Porter Books)
- Your Place in the Universe, by Jason Chin (Neal Porter Books)
2021 Towner Award Nominees
2021 Towner Award Press Release


Previous Winners
2021: Big Cats by Nic Bishop
2020: Avalanche Dog Heroes: Piper and Friends Learn to Search the Snow by Elizabeth Rusch
2019: This Book Isn't Safe by Colin Furze
2018: Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson's Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions by Chris Barton
2017: Tricky Vic: The Impossibly True Story of the Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower by Greg Pizzoli
2016: Neighborhood Sharks by Katherine Roy
2015: Barbed Wire Baseball by Marissa Moss
2014: Snakes by Nic Bishop
Voting is for students in grade 2 through 6 in Washington State. Student votes can be submitted by school and public librarians only. In addition, we will recognize an Educators' Choice. This is your chance to share with other educators which book you found most useful in the classroom.
Join the Towner!
Our enthusiastic committee is looking for a few new members. Click here to apply!
The Washington State Student Award for Informational Text
The Towner Award is named after Bill Towner, longtime Seattle librarian and mentor to dozens of librarians. Bill was an outstanding teacher-librarian who worked with thousands of students from all backgrounds and taught all of them his love of literature. Bill showed us how caring teachers and librarians can make a difference.
This award is intended to complement other awards determined by student vote in the state of Washington; the Sasquatch, Washington’s Children Choice Picture Book and OTTER Book Awards. It is sponsored by the Washington Library Association School Library Division and intended for books enjoyed by students in grades Two through Six.
For the purposes of this award, Informational Text is defined as that which serves chiefly to convey factual information to the reader and may contain biography, narrative and other forms.
Each year a slate of ten books will be selected by a group of librarians from Washington state. This group will include public and school librarians, and members will be selected so as to provide representation for different parts of the state.
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