An award-winning, nonprofit organization that celebrates the powerful impact books have on young people
My Hands Tell a Story by Kelly Starling Lyons; illus. by Tonya Engel (Reycraft Books).
Like Zoe, author Kelly Starling Lyons grew up baking treats with her Grandma. Now, she celebrates those special moments in stories. Kelly has written many acclaimed children’s books including Caldecott Honor winner Going Down Home with Daddy, Christopher Award winner Tiara’s Hat Parade and Geisel Honor winner, Ty’s Travels: Zip, Zoom. She is a teaching artist and a founding member of The Brown Bookshelf. Kelly lives in North Carolina with her family. Visit her online at www.kellystarlinglyons.com.
Tonya Engel is a self-taught artist born in Texas and has established studios in New York, Miami, Austin, and Houston, where she now lives. Heavily influenced by folk artists of the Deep South and Harlem Renaissance, Tonya’s illustrations speak to image, identity, and relationships. Combining decorative elements, oil paints, and occasional collage, the subjects are mainly women whose facial expressions invite thought and interpretation. Engel has received many awards, including a three-month residency in Paris, France.
Stay tuned for more information about this year’s live event. Anna Dewdney’s daughters, Berol and Cordelia Dewdney, will join us for this year’s virtual event celebrating the winner, with a special reading of Llama Llama Red Pajama.
The 2025 winner was selected through an open voting process. Votes were cast by librarians, educators, booksellers, and caregivers across the country!
Read more about the 2025 winner here!
Penguin Young Readers, the Children’s Book Council, and Every Child a Reader continue their partnership for the 9th Annual Anna Dewdney Read-Together Award in honor of the late Anna Dewdney (1965-2016), author and illustrator of the beloved Llama Llama series.
The Anna Dewdney Read-Together Award is given annually to a picture book that is both a superb read-aloud and also sparks compassion, empathy, and connection. The award commemorates the life and work of author/illustrator Anna Dewdney and celebrates her commitment to reading with young children and putting books into as many little hands as possible.
As a children’s book creator, a literacy advocate, and a parent, Dewdney believed, “A good children’s book can be read by an adult to a child, and experienced genuinely by both. A good children’s book is like a performance. Reading with children makes an intimate, human connection that teaches that child what it means to be alive as one of many beings on the planet. When we read a book with children, then children — no matter how stressed, no matter how challenged — are drawn out of themselves to bond with other human beings, and to see and feel the experiences of others. It is this moment that makes us human. In this sense, reading makes us human.” (Wall Street Journal)
The Anna Dewdney Read-Together Award, co-sponsored by Penguin Young Readers, the Children’s Book Council, and Every Child a Reader, recognizes a picture book published within the last five years (2020-2024) in the United States that kids and grown-ups are currently discovering and enjoying together.
This year’s award marks the 20th anniversary of Llama Llama Red Pajama, Dewdney’s classic read-aloud picture book of bedtime care and comfort that spawned a bestselling series with over 45 million books in print, a Netflix original series, and more. To commemorate the anniversary and Anna Dewdney’s commitment to honoring the love and care shown by parents and teachers everywhere, Penguin Young Readers will publish a new picture book, Llama Llama Loves His Teacher on March 25th, and host a series of events, activities, contests, and more to help young readers celebrate the caregivers in their lives.
Anna Dewdney was the New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of Llama Llama Red Pajama, originally published in May 2005. She was also the author/illustrator of Little Excavator, Nobunny’s Perfect, Roly Poly Pangolin, and Grumpy Gloria. Anna worked as a rural mail carrier and taught at a boys’ boarding school for many years before becoming a full-time author and illustrator. Anna was a committed advocate of literacy, speaking regularly on this topic and publishing articles in the Wall Street Journal and other national outlets.
Anna Dewdney passed away in September 2016, at the age of fifty, from cancer. A teacher, mother, and enthusiastic proponent of reading aloud to children, she continually honed her skills as an artist and writer and published her first Llama Llama book in 2005. Her passion for creating extended to home and garden, and she lovingly restored an eighteenth-century farmhouse in southern Vermont. She wrote, painted, gardened, and lived there with her partner, Reed, her two daughters, two wire-haired pointing griffons, and one bulldog. Anna was a warm-hearted, wonderful, wise soul who will be forever missed, but whose spirit lives on in her books.
There are currently over 45 million Llama Llama books in print worldwide. Other books in the #1 New York Times bestselling Llama Llama series include Llama Llama Red Pajama, Llama Llama Holiday Drama, Llama Llama Misses Mama, Llama Llama Time to Share, Llama Llama Gram and Grandpa, Llama Llama Loves to Read, Llama Llama Mess Mess Mess, Llama Llama Loose Tooth Drama and several others. The latest book in the Llama Llama series, Llama Llama Loves his Teacher, publishes on March 25, 2025. Full of lush art and Anna Dewdney’s signature loving humor, this book showcases all the ways Llama Llama’s teacher helps him feel safe and seen throughout the schoolday.
Anna Dewdney’s Llama books have become a cultural touchstone, branching out to all types of media including the Netflix animated series, ‘Llama Llama’ starring Golden Globe Award-winning actress Jennifer Garner. Llama Llama Red Pajama has been adapted by Dolly Parton for a musical performed at Dollywood and was also chosen as Jumpstart’s Read for the Record book in 2011, setting the world benchmark for the most readings of a single book in one day.
Nominate your child’s favorite teacher who embodies the qualities of kindness, compassion, and empathy reflected in the Llama Llama book series. Parents and caregivers can submit a nomination between March 25 and April 22. Nominating a teacher is easy! See official rules at LlamaLlamaTeacherContest.com for full details.
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Enter between March 25, 2025 and April 22, 2025. Open to US residents, 18 and older. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.
Berol Dewdney, a prekindergarten educator in Baltimore City Schools and The 2023 Maryland State Teacher of the Year, entered the classroom over 12 years ago inspired by her mother Anna’s commitment to the hearts and minds of children. Berol is deeply honored to continue her mother’s legacy of love in the classroom, passionately advocating for the play-based learning all children deserve. Outside of teaching, Berol enjoys running, a hobby she developed on the trails of Vermont with Anna, as well as weight-lifting and chats with her little sister, Cordelia.
Cordelia Dewdney is a Los Angeles-based actor, specializing in both theatre and screen. Her artistic journey was inspired by her mother’s unwavering tenacity and dedication to the arts, and her passion for storytelling was shaped by the cherished memories of Anna, who would read to her as a child—bringing books to life with theatrical flair, from The Pokey Little Puppy to The Hobbit. In her free time Cordelia can be found in her garden as she seeks to make it as lush and magical as her mother’s, with her hands covered in clay at the potter’s wheel, or with her husband, talking to and snuggling with their two rascal cats.
Penguin Young Readers is one of the leading children’s book publishers in the United States. The company owns a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Dial Books, Dutton, Flamingo, Kokila, Nancy Paulsen Books, Penguin Workshop, Philomel, Puffin, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Razorbill, Viking, and Frederick Warne. These imprints are home to such award-winning, New York Times- bestselling authors as, Laurie Halse Anderson, Max Brallier, Jan Brett, Eric Carle, Roald Dahl, Anna Dewdney, John Flanagan, John Green, Oliver Jeffers, Brad Meltzer, Ransom Riggs, Ruta Sepetys, Sabaa Tahir, Jacqueline Woodson, and dozens of other popular authors. Penguin Young Readers Group is also the proud publisher of perennial brand franchises such as The Little Engine That Could, the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series, Peter Rabbit, Spot, the Classic Winnie the Pooh, the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Madeline, Mad Libs, the Last Kids on Earth, the Rangers Apprentice, and Who HQ among many others. Penguin Young Readers Group is a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
Every Child a Reader is a 501(c)(3) award-winning literacy charity whose popular national programs include Children’s Book Week, the longest-running literacy initiative in the country, celebrating 106 years in 2025; Get Caught Reading, a classroom poster project; and the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature program, in partnership with the Library of Congress.
