Announcing the Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award Winners
And the winner is…
The votes have been counted and 25,000 students from across the state have selected their favorite books as part of the Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Book Award program. The student selections are:
Picture Book – There’s a Ghost in This House by Oliver Jeffers
Grades 3-5 – Odder by Katherine Applegate, illustrated by Charles Santoso
Graphic Novels Grades 3-5 – Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas
Grades 6-8 – Attack of the Black Rectangles by A.S. King
Graphic Novels Grades 6-8 – Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega, illustrated by Rose Bousamra
High School – Eat Your Heart Out by Kelly DeVos AND I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
Congratulations to our winning authors, illustrators, and publishers and to the students, teachers, and librarians who every year make the program such a resounding success.
Elementary
![There's a ghost in this house There's a ghost in this house](https://assets.unlayer.com/projects/0/1714431440163-BES%20Winner%2023-24%20PB.png)
![Odder Odder](https://assets.unlayer.com/projects/0/1714431459808-BES%20Winner%2023-24%20Grades%203-5.png)
![Swim team Swim team](https://assets.unlayer.com/projects/0/1714431469820-BES%20Winner%2023-24%20GN%20Grades%203-5.png)
Middle School 6-8
High School
The Results
Wondering how your favorite book did in student voting? The following charts list the books in descending order beginning with the top vote-getter. In deference to our authors, publishers, and especially the student voters whose books did not capture top honors, we do not publish numbers of votes.
Picture Books
- There’s a Ghost in This House
- The Floating Field: How a Group of Thai Boys Built Their Soccer Field
- XO, Exoplanet
- Nacho’s Nachos: The Story Behind the World’s Favorite Snack
- All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans With Disabilities Changed Everything
- Everywhere With You
- Looking for a Jumbie
- Finding Fire
- Lunch From Home
- The Pig War: How a Porcien Tragedy Taught England and America to Share
- Beautifully Me
- Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion
- Listen to the Language of the Trees: A Story of How Forests Communicate Underground
- Home
- My First Day
Grades 3-5
- Odder
- How to Win a Slime War
- Cookies & Milk
- Just Right Jillian
- Once Upon a Tim
- Honestly Elliott
- Maizy Chen’s Last Chance
- Anybody Here Seen Frenchie?
- Chester Keene Cracks the Code
- The Natural Genius of Ants
Graphic Novels Grades 3-5
- Swim Team
- Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story Graphic Novel
- Yummy: A History of Desserts
- Miss Quinces
- The Aquanaut
- Katie the Catsitter
- The Secret Garden on 81st Street
- Garlic and the Vampire
- Sort of Super
- Saving Sorya: Change and the Sun Bear
Grades 6-8
- Attack of the Black Rectangles
- When the World Was Ours
- Rivals
- Violets are Blue
- Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun
- The Door of No Return
- Pony
- Yonder
- Troublemaker
- The Secret Battle of Evan Pao
Graphic Novels Grades 6-8
- Frizzy
- Invisible
- The Golden Hour
- The Well
- Treasure in the Lake
- M is for Monster AND Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice
- Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Book 1
- Little Monarchs
- Isla to Island
High School
- Eat Your Heart Out AND I Must Betray You
- House of Hollow
- Messy Roots: a graphic memoir of a Wuhanese American
- Me(Moth)
- Golden Boys
- All My Rage
- The Agathas
- Mamo
- Call Me Athena: Girl from Detroit