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2025 Bookmaking Winners

Exhibition May 1-28 Brooklyn Public Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza

2025 City Winners

Stephen Fraher (Grade 3), Oops, I Lost My Book!
Suhala Hassan (Grade 8), External View
Anna Konavalov (Grade 12), The Disappearing Fish

2025 EJK Bookmaking Catalog
2025 Complete List of Winners
More about Bookmaking

Take a Peek inside the Winning Books

Click an image to view a gallery of the book pages

Stephen Fraher
(Grade 3)

Suhala Hassan
(Grade 8)

Anna Konavalov
(Grade 12)

Stephen Fraher
(Grade 3)

Suhala Hassan
(Grade 8)

Anna Konavalov
(Grade 12)

Borough Winners

Grades (3-5)
Cleo Kim (Grade 4), Those Red Boots
Angel Leon and Elias Flores (Grade 5), Don’t Mess With Fendrick
Ignacio Mahecha Ossa (Grade 5), Ninja Mouse 2 – The Tigers Rising
Ephraim Smith Jr (Grade 4), Ben and The Lego City
Eric Zheng and Winnie Yan (Grade 5), The Discovery of the Beloved Water
Grades (6-8)
Aleksia Bala (Grade 8), Zoey For President
Eleanor Fekete (Grade 6)There Once Was A Chicken Named Beef A Tale of a Crocheting Chicken
Zukhro Khusainova (Grade 7), Duchess
Hanna Mair (Grade 6), Lets Go Scuba Diving
Ethan Velez Acosta (Grade 7), The Happy Little Pencil
Grades (9-12)
Justin Ceballos (Grade 12), Recipes From Grannys Bakery
Oscar Corderos (Grade 11), Something Special
Maya Wang Medina (Grade 12), Two Heroes: A Search of Darkness and Mystique
Xiaoyan Wang (Grade 12), An Introvert Like Me
Hanyue Zhang (Grade 10), The Bunny Who Can’t Bake

Nina Crews, Artist/Illustrator

Guest Judge and Speaker

NINA CREWS is an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator. Her first book, One Hot Summer Day, was published in 1995 and is still in print in hardcover and paperback. Other favorite titles include I’m Not Small, Below, The Neighborhood Mother Goose, Not Done Yet: Shirley Chisholm’s Fight for Change (written by Tameka Fryer Brown), A Girl Like Me (written by Angela Johnson), and Seeing Into Tomorrow: Haiku by Richard Wright (poems by Richard Wright). Nina’s work has been recognized by the ALA Notable Committee, the Black Caucus of the ALA, The Horn Book, Junior Library Guild, NCTE, CCBC, New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Bank Street College of Education, and many others.  She is the recipient of the 2023 New York State Library Association’s Empire State Award. Nina is the daughter of children’s book authors and illustrators Donald Crews and Ann Jonas. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and son. Nina Crews Children’s Books

Our Partners

Melissa Jacobs, Director, NYC School Library System and Vincent Hyland, Library Coordinator, NYC Public Schools, Judy Zuckerman, Director of Youth & Family Services, Brooklyn Public Library, Benjamin Perry, Coordinator School Age Services, Brooklyn Public Library, Sally Chen, EJK Bookmaking Competition Manager, Brooklyn Public Library

Special Thanks

To the teachers, librarians, administrators and families who facilitated the work of all the students who created books for this competition.

To the EJK Bookmaking Jury, a group of dedicated professionals who gathered in person to serve as judges for the 2025 EJK Bookmaking Competition:

Amanda Bruns, Senior Editor, Children’s Reviews, Publishers Weekly

Nina Crews, Author/Illustrator

Shelley Diaz, Reviews Editor, School Library Journal

Vincent Hyland, NYCPS, Library Coordinator

Stephanie Frescas Macías, Assistant Editor, Lee & Low Books

Esther Petrushka, Children’s Librarian, QPL

Donette Riker, Librarian, BPL

Ruth Rodriguez, Artist, Manager of Bilingual Children’s Services, NYPL

Cecilia Ruiz, Author/Illustrator/Educator, School of Visual Arts

To Penguin Random House, who generously donates gift bags filled with new books for the student winners and honorable mentions, and their teachers and librarians every year.

Copyright ©2025 · Ezra Jack Keats Foundation
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Brooklyn, NY 11215-5702

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