Every Monday Mabel by Jashar Awan is 2026 Floyd’s Pick Book Award Winner
mars...@library.ohio.gov
Every
Monday Mabel by Jashar Awan (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2025) has been named the eleventh annual Floyd’s
Pick Book Award winner, awarded by the Choose to Read Ohio (CTRO) Advisory Council in memory of children’s literature expert, advocate, and librarian Floyd Dickman.
The Floyd’s Pick Book Award is given annually to a book written by an Ohio author or illustrated by an Ohio illustrator that is representative of high-quality literature created for children. It aims to carry on the legacy of Floyd Dickman’s joyful work to support and share children’s literature.
The CTRO Advisory Council has also selected two Floyd’s Pick Honor Books for 2026:
- Home Is a Wish by Julia Kuo (Macmillan, 2025)
- Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer by Quartez Harris, illustrated by Gordon C. James (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2025)
Floyd’s Pick Book Award winner Every Monday Mabel celebrates the best thing in the world (according to Mabel, at least) in a joyful, suspenseful, high-energy story about perspective, ritual, and delight. According to the publisher, this book is a “celebration of community helpers that captures the joy and wonder of being a kid, centering around a precocious girl whose favorite day of the week is Monday."
Growing up outside of Washington, DC, Jashar Awan loved drawing and reading. In fact, he still does. Jashar debuted as an author-illustrator in 2020. His books have been recognized with a Geisel Award Honor, an ALA Notable, and Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selections and have been included on the Choose to Read Ohio Booklist and Bank Street College’s Best Books of the Year. A longtime New Yorker, Jashar now lives in Ohio with his wife and son, who also love drawing and reading.
Floyd’s Pick Honor Book Home Is a Wish is an exquisitely illustrated, deeply relatable meditation on the discomfort of leaving home and the gradual, hopeful process of creating a new home in a new place. Winner of the 2024 Floyd's Pick Book Award for Luminous: Living Things that Light Up the Night, author and illustrator Julia Kuo is a former Cleveland resident who now lives in Washington State.
Floyd’s Pick Honor Book Go Tell It is a stunning, captivating picture book biography and an imaginative homage both to reading and writing and to creativity and persistence. It follows James Baldwin from childhood through the blossoming of his writing career. The lyrical text and vibrant illustrations work together magically. Quartez Harris is an Ohio-based poet, teacher, and author. Go Tell It is his first published children's book.
Floyd Dickman was a Library Consultant at the State Library of Ohio and a tireless advocate for children’s literature and librarianship. He had an enduring impact on library and literacy services in Ohio and across the country. During his career, Floyd was awarded the Ohio Library Council Librarian of the Year award and was named Outstanding Friend by the Ohio Family Literacy Task Force. Upon Floyd’s retirement in 1999, the State Library of Ohio Board’s retirement resolution recognized his leadership, commitment, and passion for library services, children’s literature, and family literacy. Floyd is also remembered as a dedicated mentor to librarians and library science students. He remained an active teacher, advisor, and champion for many years after retirement. Floyd Dickman passed away in June 2015.
The CTRO Advisory Council established Floyd’s Pick in December 2015 with a proclamation by Beverly Cain, then State Librarian of Ohio. Ohio author and illustrator Loren Long, winner of the first Floyd’s Pick Book Award for Little Tree and honoree in 2022 and 2025, graciously provided the Floyd’s Pick Book Award artwork. Learn more about Floyd’s Pick and past winners and honor books.
Choose to Read Ohio (CTRO) spotlights Ohio authors and illustrators and promotes reading across Ohio. Started in 2009 by the State Library of Ohio and the Ohioana Library with the Ohio Center for the Book and Ohio’s libraries, CTRO celebrates the bounty and diversity of Ohio literature and invites Ohioans of all ages to read and enjoy books together. Each CTRO booklist features twenty representative titles for all ages, selected with the input of dozens of Ohio librarians, educators, and others invested in readers and reading.
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Marsha McDevitt-Stredney
Director, Marketing & Communications
State Library of Ohio
274 E. 1st Avenue
Columbus, OH 43201
Tel: 614.644.6875