Ladybug 2026 Shortlist

The first round of Ladybug Picture Book Award voting closed earlier this week and we are ready to move on to round 2.

Eighty-five people weighed in on the long list of nominees and we have eliminated from consideration any title that did not get at least 7 votes. This left us with a shortlist of 18 titles from which NH librarians are invited to vote for the 9 titles that they think should be nominated for the 2026 Ladybug Picture Book Award.
 
The Final Round 2026 Ladybug Nomination Survey is now open and will remain open until Sunday, 3/22/2026.

PLEASE NOTE that you can only vote once from your device (phone, computer, whatever you use to browse the web) so don't preview the survey, as you will not be able to go back again to vote.

To help make sure as many people as possible in the NH library community have an opportunity to check out these books before voting for the final nominees, we have linked each of the titles below to a video of the book being read. We did not create any of these videos; they are from a variety of sources. Where there was a version available read by the author, we chose that, otherwise we chose the best depiction of the book that we could find.
 
2026 Ladybug Picture Book Award Shortlist:

Aggie and the Ghost by Matthew Forsythe
The Bakery Dragon and the Fairy Cake by Devin Elle Kurtz
Bear and the Three Goldilocks by Patrick Horn and Dan Yaccarino
Broken by X. Fang
Cat Nap by Brian Lies
Cranky, crabby crow (saves the world) by Corey R. Tabor
The Day the Books Disappeared by Joanna Ho, Caroline Kusin Pritchard and Dan Santat
Don't Trust Fish by Neil Sharpson  and Dan Santat
The Humble Pie by Jory John and Pete Oswald 
If I Built a Town by Chris Van Dusen
If We Were Dogs by Sophie Blackall
The Man Who Didn't Like Animals by Deborah Underwood and LeUyen Pham 
Never Give a Baby a Library Card by Erin Sandberg and Tom Booth
Old Blue is My Home by Lita Judge
Pop! Goes the Nursery Rhyme by Betsy Bird and Andrea Tsurumi
Stalactite & Stalagmite: A Big Tale From a Little Cave by Drew Beckmeyer
The Wild Robot on the Island by Peter Brown
Zip Zap Wickety Wack: A Story About Sharing by Matthew Diffee

Book of the Week (2/23/2026)

Beatrix and the Unicorn by Lita Judge (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2026)

Inspired by the famous Unicorn Tapestries, acclaimed author-illustrator Lita Judge weaves together a beautiful picture book about a servant girl searching for a real unicorn—and with it, the promise of friendship.

Long ago and far away, a girl named Beatrix wakes each day to her chores in the castle. She serves the meals and scrubs the floors. And when no one is looking, she gazes at the tapestry of the unicorn in a garden. The unicorn is the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen, but it’s only made from thread. Beatrix knows if she could find the real unicorn, she would never feel lonely again, so late one evening, she gathers what she needs for a long journey and slips out into the night… --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Lita Judge is the award winning author and illustrator of 30 fiction and nonfiction books including The Wisdom of Trees. Her other picture books include Born in the Wild, Red Sled, Hoot and Peep, and One Thousand Tracings, winner of the International Reading Association Award and an ALA Notable Book. Her book, Flight School, was adapted into an off-Broadway musical and is currently running in New York and China. She lives in Peterborough, NH.

2026 Dublin Award Longlist announced!

The Dublin Literary Award 2026 longlist has been announced!

Twenty novels have been selected for the 2026 Dublin Literary Award longlist, including the NH State Library's selection, "The Antidote" by Karen Russell.

The shortlist will be announced on April 7, 2026 and the winning book on May 21, 2026.

Book of the Week (2/16/2026)

Silos, Secrets, and Silence: Forgiving My Family's Alcoholism by Mary Anne Totten (Independently published, 2025)

Totten chronicles her journey through a childhood shaped by alcoholism, family dysfunction, and emotional isolation, exploring the winding road of forgiveness she finds herself on as an older adult. The narrative spans decades, tackling her struggles with parental abandonment, her mother’s alcoholism, and the silos of silence that defined her family’s communication. Totten’s path to becoming a physician, her relationships, and her quest for self-acceptance and reconciliation form the backbone of this deeply personal story, as, through moments of trauma, resilience, and eventual healing, she reflects on the complexities of family dynamics and the lifelong impact of unresolved pain.

Themes of alcoholism, generational silence, and the search for identity resonate deeply, making the memoir relatable and poignant. Totten’s ability to confront painful truths while seeking understanding and closure is inspiring, and her emotional honesty reverberates throughout. From a young age, she acknowledges that her “need for acceptance overrode everything else”—an admission that echoes both a loss of innocence and an important step in her healing journey. This testament to resilience is ideal for readers interested in family dynamics, addiction recovery, and personal growth. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Mary Anne Totten, MD, is a retired physician who practiced primary care, endocrinology, and geriatrics in Boston, Massachusetts; Parkersburg, West Virginia; and Manchester, New Hampshire. After she retired from the practice of medicine in 2015, she was ordained as an interfaith spiritual minister by the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine (ChIME). She currently volunteers in the Spiritual Care Department in her retirement community in Concord, New Hampshire. She has traveled around the world twice, has lived in eight different states, and visited forty-six of the fifty US states.

Join Mary Anne at Gibson's Bookstore on Thu., March 5, 2026 at 6:30 pm where she will present her new memoir.

2026 Poetry Out Loud semi-finals

Mid-February may bring Valentine hearts and cupids to mind for most people, but for two dozen New Hampshire high schoolers, it’s time to show their love of poetry – and skill at reciting it – at the statewide Poetry Out Loud semifinals. 

The N.H. State Council on the Arts, which administers the program in the Granite State, today announced that two semi-finals will take place in the coming weeks: at Plymouth State University Silver Center for the Arts on Feb. 17 (snow date: Feb. 18) and at the Derry Opera House on Feb. 19 (snow date: Feb. 20). Each event begins at 6 p.m.
 
Since 2005, high school students from across the country have participated in Poetry Out Loud, a poetry recitation competition designed to improve public speaking skills, help build confidence, and teach literary history. This year, approximately 3,000 students from New Hampshire high schools and high school groups participated.

In recognition of America’s 250th anniversary in 2026, the 2025-2026 Poetry Out Loud program focuses on poems that celebrate American history and culture. All of the poems for this year’s competition are in the public domain. 

Contestants’ recitations are evaluated by trained judges who evaluate physical presence, voice and articulation, evidence of understanding, interpretation, accuracy and overall performance.

Poetry Out Loud school champions advance to semi-finals, then top semi-final finishers move on to the New Hampshire state championship, scheduled to take place in Representatives Hall at the State House on Friday, March 6 (snow date: March 9) beginning at 5 p.m.

New Hampshire’s state champion will have the opportunity to join with champions from other states and territories at the Poetry Out Loud National Finals, scheduled to take place April 27-29, 2026 in Washington, D.C., coinciding with National Poetry Month.

Managed at the national level by the National Endowment for the Arts and in New Hampshire by the State Council on the Arts, Poetry Out Loud provides free lesson plans and other educational materials to teachers and organizers, curates the online poem anthology, funds and produces the national championship and provides monetary awards to champions at the state and national level. 
                                
In addition to funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, additional support in New Hampshire comes from Brightspot Consultants; the Currier Museum of Art; Derry Public Arts Committee; the Frost Place; New Hampshire Writers’ Project; North Country Education Services; the Putnam Foundation, a donor-advised fund of the N.H. Charitable Foundation and Slam Free or Die.

To learn more about 2026 New Hampshire Poetry Out Loud, visit nharts.dncr.nh.gov/programs/poetry-out-loud. For additional information, contact Allison Hawkins, New Hampshire State Council on the Arts at 603-271-0791, allison.hawkins@dncr.nh.gov. -- NH Department of Natural & Cultural Resources press release

Book of the Week (2/9/2026)

How to Be Good by David Banach (Bee Monk Press, 2025)

“What is goodness?” David Banach asks in his compelling new collection. The poems of How to Be Good journey through the political, the historical, and the personal, examining the theatrical masculinity of the town dump, nicknaming the inflatable figure in front of car dealerships the “Sisyphus of advertising,” and blasting anger like a broken jar of salsa. 

Banach recalls for us “all the difficulties of/loving in this wind-swept world where kindness/is lighter than air” through work that considers profanity and philosophy, theology and gender. How to Be Good rings with Whitman and Blake and declares empathy “an ache in places I never knew/I had places.” Banach is a rare poet of the pure heart, and his poems soothe like a balm for a contemporary age where heaven might require a two-factor authentication for entrance as a way of keeping out those who have ignored sunsets or kissed without passion. --Jennifer Militello, Poet Laureate of New Hampshire

About the author:

David Banach is a philosopher and a poet, though often not in that order. He has taught for many years at Saint Anselm College and lives in Goffstown, NH, where he tends chickens, keeps bees, and watches for lessons in the sky. He has published over 70 poems in various journals, and is editor of Touchstone, the journal of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. He is a Pushcart, Best of the Net, and Forward Prize nominee, and is a past president of the Northern New England Philosophical Association. 

Join David at The Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough, NH on Sunday, April 12, 2026 at 11 am where he will read from & discuss his newest book of poetry.

Ladybug Longlist: Transportation

Big Boy 4014 and the Steam Team: The World's Largest Steam Engine Roars Back to Life! by Marsha Diane Arnold

"A wonderful non-fiction book with widespread appeal and captivating illustrations. Inspiring in the face of a difficult challenge." -- nominator

Good Luck, Ice Cream Truck! by Sorche Fairbank

"A top circulating book for our kids this year!" -- nominator

Old Blue is My Home by Lita Judge

"A gorgeous, respectful window into housing insecurity from a New Hampshire-based author-illustrator. The story is sure to raise many questions from readers, but, also, hopefully, a more nuanced worldview." -- nominator

This post is one of a series of 14 "bite-sized" pieces into which we have divided the 2026 Ladybug Picture Book Award Long List to help NH librarians consider all the potential nominees. Please review the full list (or wait until we have covered all the titles) before you cast your vote as you can only vote once.