Cook Prize

Seal designed by Brian Floca

The Cook Prize

According to its website, "The Cook Prize honors the best science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) picture book published for children aged eight to ten."

The contest is designed by the Bank Street College of Education. From a list of sixteen semifinalists, four finalist advance to a round of voting by students, who read the nominees or hear them read aloud and then vote for whichever one they think is best. Children around the world can and do vote. The award has extensive criteria that children are directed to use in evaluating the nominated books.

Pennekamp participated in the Cook Prize for the first time in 2014. Winners at Pennekamp can be seen in the charts below. The overall winners are those among the nominees that are in bold.

Nominees for 2017

Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson's Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions, by Chris Barton
Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea: Marie Tharp Maps the Ocean Floor, by Robert Burleigh
Journey: Based on the True Story of OR7, the Most Famous Wolf in the West, by Emma Bland Smith
Follow the Moon Home: A Tale of One Idea, Twenty Kids, and a Hundred Sea Turtles, by Philippe Cousteau and Deborah Hopkinson

Pennekamp's 2017 Voting Results

Nominees for 2016

Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled All of France, by Mara Rockliff
Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine, by Laurie Wallmark
High Tide for Horseshoe Crabs, by Lisa Kahn Schnell

Nominees for 2015

Mysterious Patterns: Finding Fractals in Nature, by Sarah C. Campbell
Behold the Beautiful Dung Beetle, by Cheryl Bardoe
Galapagos George, by Jean Craighead George

Pennekamp's 2015 Voting Results

Nominees for 2014

The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos, by Deborah Heiligman
Bone by Bone: Comparing Animal Skeletons, by Sara Levine
Toilet: How It Works, by David Macaulay
No Monkeys, No Chocolate, by Melissa Stewart