The Little Peeps Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Childrens and Early Readers. The Grand Prize Winner, Scrap University’s book, The Girl Who Recycled 1 Million Cans will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Little Peeps contest page year ’round!

The best part about being a Chanticleer Int’l Book Award Winner is the love and attention you get all year ‘round!

The 2023 Little Peeps Winners were announced at the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here!

Join us in celebrating the 2023 First Place Little Peeps Winners!

Beth Davis – Lacinda the Lion is a Super Youneek Beast

Lacinda the Lion was born in a tiny town where being a Super Youneek Beast wasn’t always celebrated. Her friends and family didn’t know quite what to think of her! She faces some challenges and curious eyes when she goes to school for the first time, but there’s an awesome learning moment for all at the end of the day! This book is a touching story about being unique, gaining self-esteem, and celebrating exactly who you are!

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Adalgisa and David Nico – Fish in the Desert: The Untold Story of the Death Valley Pupfish

When some think of Death Valley, a barren wasteland comes to mind. Far from it, the area, now a protected national park known for its extreme temperatures, is teeming with a diverse range of endemic species, plants, and terrain. Fish in the Desert explores the fascinating and tiny ‘pupfish,’ the world’s rarest fish who have withstood the harsh conditions of Death Valley since the Pleistocene epoch.

The story follows Adele, a young girl, on a road trip with her family to Death Valley National Park in Southeastern California near the border with Nevada. Adele spots a beautiful and tiny blue and purple fish that the park’s Aquatic Ecologist tells the family is called a pupfish, an endangered fish species renowned for its ability to exist with the intense heat and salt and even adapt to a changing ecosystem over thousands of years.

Young readers will learn that the tenacious pupfish, originally among many types of sea life, is the only species to have survived the climate change and extreme conditions of Death Valley and that there are even subspecies of pupfish that evolved separately in different pools of water.

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Ruth Amanda – Geckos in The Garden

Is there anything more fun than hunting for geckos in your garden? This delightful counting book, told in whimsical rhyming couplets, invites readers to explore the wonder and joy of tromping through nature to look for geckos.

There’s one on the patio! And another in the shrubs! Before you know it, the whole morning will go by happily hunting geckos. Readers will find one, two, three, four… well, you get the idea. Geckos are everywhere, and they’re oh so much fun to discover.

From Chanticleer:

Geckos in the Garden by Ruth Amanda is a children’s counting book that takes readers through a delightful, rhythmic, aesthetically pleasing romp past a series of hidden geckos.

Amanda starts out with just one gecko in the garden. Every page after, one more is added amongst myriad natural details such as flowers, a snail, a palm tree, garden taps, rocks, a mango tree, leaves, a gate, a bird’s nest, a pond, and more.

Amanda demonstrates a natural sense of narrative arc even within a counting book—readers will feel the climax of the adventure when they arrive at the ninth gecko and read the line, “I spot one—two—no, six—no, more! Nine!” The escalation of the words’ momentum makes the ninth and tenth geckos more dramatic. Furthermore, the clever dénouement includes the narrator realizing the geckos might watch them just as much as they watch the geckos, and this is written alongside an adorable picture of a gecko looking in the window of the narrator’s home.

Read More Here

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Jonna Laster – Nutshell Regatta

Grandma took a handful of nutshells from her sweater pocket. I saw empty peanut and walnut shells and asked what they were for. Grandma smiled, “Not shells but sloops and sailboats. This is the HMS Goober”.

From Chanticleer:

In Nutshell Regatta by Jonna Laster, the narrator’s grandmother reveals adventures in nature that could easily be missed without her watchful eye.

With her wise guidance, clouds turn into campers, dandelions hold moon yokes, leaves sing, and a broken branch takes on the form of a fox. Most importantly, twigs and pebbles become sailors who embark on a grand regatta in their nutshell sloops and sailboats.

Three ships come to the forefront of the story. Two of them sink, their twig sailors swimming safely to a nearby lily pad, while one continues on. Its passengers Burt the pebble and Betula the birch twig encounter what appears to be disaster, but when they fall over a waterfall, the grandmother guides the narrator to listen close. When they hear a faint “yipeeeeee” from the bottom of the waterfall, it’s clear that all has turned out well.

Read More Here

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T.K. Sheffield – The Night Icelandic Horses Saved Christmas Eve

Manuscript

Raven Howell – Friends Come in All Sizes

Patience and kindness are important when you want to make new friends, but it’s hard not to consider what it would be like to have a gangly giraffe or chilled-out polar bear as a pal.

A friendship mission prompts two boys to regard would-be companions of many shapes and sizes, and their imaginative adventures hatch brand new, unexpected buddies.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2023 Little Peeps First Place Winners!

You can see our Hall of Fame on the Little Peeps Grand Prize Winners, including Scrap University’s incredible book The Girl Who Recycled 1 Million Cans here.

Your book can join the Tiers of Achievement, but only if you submit to the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards!

Got a great Fiction Book? The 2024 Little Peeps Book Awards are open through the end of September!

Submit to the Little Peeps Awards Today!