Review Committees

Publishers are invited to submit entries to the following committee members. Please email Nancy Hope.

Category 1: Children’s Literature (Picture/Elementary Level – up to grade 5)

Christine Cervera, Digital Literacy Teacher Librarian, Prairie Hills and Meridian Elementaries

Cathy Ishida, Senior Staff Associate, Program for Teaching East Asia, University of Colorado

Kurt Johnson, Assistant Professor, Director, Asia Teacher Education Program, Brigham Young University-Hawaii

Amie Ha, Elementary Literary Specialist, Denver Public Schools

Hye Seung (Theresa) Kang, Associate Director, East Asia Studies Center, Indiana University

Jennifer Schroeder, Teacher Librarian, Moorlands Elementary

Lynn Kalinauskas, National Administrator, National Consortium for Teaching about Asia

Chair: Nancy Hope, Executive Director, Freeman Book Awards


Category 2: Young Adult’s Literature (Secondary Reading Level – grades 6-12)

Gwen Johnson, Teacher, Scarsdale High School

Nancy Hope, Executive Director, Freeman Book Awards

Janet Koza, Teacher, Kathryn P. Stoklosa Middle School

Victoria Mahoney, English Language Specialist, Wake County Public Schools

Jenna Martin, Dean of Instruction, Henry Legacy Middle School

Meb Norton, Retired, Director of Libraries, Metairie Park Country Day School

Mandy Perret, Teacher, Dutchtown High School

Julie Wakefield, Teacher, Robert McQueen High School

Lynn Kalinauskas, National Administrator, National Consortium for Teaching about Asia

Chair: Roberta Martin, Director, Asia for Educators
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University


Book Eligibility Reminder

1. The publication date must match that of the award year (i.e. only titles published in 2020 will be considered for the 2020 award cycle)

2. The title may be for primary or secondary reading level.

3. Language of publication may be English or any one of the East or Southeast Asian languages, as long as there is English translation.

4. The book must be published in the United States, or by a publisher with offices within the U.S.

5. Submissions may be fiction, poetry, folklore, graphic novels or selected non-fiction.

The committee will make a determination as to eligible non-fiction. Generally the committee considers titles that include a narrative element. Fact books are not eligible.

6. A book will only be considered in its first year of publication in the United States. A book originally published in the U.S. in English with a translated edition in a subsequent year will only be eligible in the year of the first edition in the U.S.

A book first published in another country in a previous year, then published in the United States in translation, may compete for the award in the year of its U.S. publication.