Student Favorite: ‘I Love Strawberries’ Named Arkansas Diamond Book Award Winner

“I Love Strawberries,” a Feeding Minds Press book written by children’s book author Shannon Anderson, was recently chosen as an Arkansas Diamond Book Award Winner for 2024-2025. Published in 2022, this popular and beautifully illustrated book chronicles the journey of a young girl determined to grow her own strawberries.

The Arkansas Diamond Book Award for children’s literature is presented annually to an author whose book has been selected through a vote taken by Arkansas school children in grades K-3. The purpose of the award is to promote better reading for children statewide. The Arkansas Diamond Book Award is under the sponsorship of the Arkansas Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Arkansas State Library and the Arkansas Literacy Association, with support from other cooperating organizations.

The award will be formally presented during a luncheon at the Arkansas Literacy Association’s Celebrate Literacy event on July 13, on the campus of Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas.

Other publishing honors previously presented to “I Love Strawberries” are listed below.

• American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture Book of the Year Award

• 2022 Good Housekeeping Best Kids Books inaugural award

• 2023 Benjamin Franklin Gold Award for Picture Book

• 2023 Growing Good Kids Book Award from the Jr. Master Gardener Program

• Bronze Foreword, Indie’s Best Award

• 2023 Hindi’s Best Females in Fiction Award

• 2023 Penelope’s Prize Children’s Book Award Judge’s Selection