Charlotte Huck Award

The Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children, established in 2014 and organized by the National Council of Teachers of English, is an annual American literary award for children's fiction books. According to NCTE, the "award recognizes fiction that has the potential to transform children’s lives by inviting compassion, imagination, and wonder."
The award honors Charlotte Huck, a former NCTE president and American author, university professor, and children's literature expert. Huck, who taught elementary school before joining the Faculty of Education at the Ohio State University, "believed that good literature should be at the heart and center of the elementary school curriculum." Given this belief, she established the university's first course in children's literature and eventually "develop master's and doctoral programs in children's literature."

Award eligibility and criteria

To be eligible for the Charlotte Huck Award, books "must have been published or distributed in the United States or its territories during the preceding year." All genres of fictional books aimed at children are eligible for the award, including picture books, graphic novels, novels written in verse, etc. NCTE indicates nominated books "should have exemplary literary quality of text and illustrations" and "should connect children to their own humanity and offer them a rich experience with the power to influence their lives and stretch their thinking, feelings, and imagination."
Eligible books are judged on the following criteria:

It "invites compassion, imagination, and wonder."
It "connects children to their own humanity and offers them a rich experience with the power to influence their lives."
It "stretches children’s thinking, feelings, and imagination."
It "exhibits literary quality of text and illustrations."
It has been "published in the United States or its territories during the previous calendar year."
Its "primary audience is children ages three to twelve."