Significance of the Freeman Book Awards
Since the early 1990s, the Freeman family has made significant contributions to the Americans’ understanding of East Asia. Through the Freeman Foundation, the family has supported thousands of programs with beneficial impacts on millions of people. The vision, dedication and devotion of the Freeman family have nurtured relationships between the United States and East and Southeast Asia. Past and current efforts continue to profoundly enhance those relationships. The Freeman Foundation believes that the Freeman Book Award is a most appropriate way to recognize the Freeman family, and will aid the work of many American educators in promoting education about Asia in this country. The Freeman Foundation hopes that the Freeman Book Awards will encourage writers to write more books on Asia, teachers to teach more of those books, and students to read more of those books.
The National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA) is a flagship program in education about Asia in this country. During the past two decades, the Freeman Foundation and NCTA have collaborated effectively in creating and implementing programs on Asia in K-12 schools throughout America. NCTA and its member sites, in collaboration with the Committee on Teaching about Asia (CTA) of the Association for Asian Studies, administer the Freeman Book Awards.
Review Committees
Publishers are invited to submit entries to the following committee members. Please email Nancy Hope.
Children’s Literature
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Christine Cervera
- Digital Literacy Teacher Librarian
- Prairie Hills and Meridian Elementaries
-
Amie Ha
- Elementary Literary Specialist
- Denver Public Schools
-
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
-
Hye Seung (Theresa) Kang
- Associate Director International Development
- Indiana University
-
Jill Klune
- Teacher
- Tolt Middle School
-
Khanh Nguyen Le
- Assistant Professor of Education
- Regis University
-
Jennifer Schroeder
- Teacher Librarian
- Moorlands Elementary
-
Chair: Nancy Hope
- Executive Director
- Freeman Book Awards
Young Adult’s Literature
-
Diane Daugherty
- Teacher
- Olathe Northwest High School
-
Nora Douglas
- Teacher
- Kent Mountain View Academy
-
Nancy Hope
- Executive Director, Freeman Book Awards
-
Gwen Johnson
- Teacher
- Scarsdale High School
-
Michelle Konberger
- Teacher, Library Information Specialist
- Mt. Pisgah Middle and High School
-
Jenna Martin
- Dean of Instruction
- Henry Legacy Middle School
-
Mandy Perret
- Teacher
- Dutchtown High School
-
Julie Wakefield
- Teacher
- Robert McQueen High School
-
Chair: Roberta Martin
- Director, Asia for Educators
- Weatherhead East Asian Institute Columbia University
Book Eligibility Reminder
- The publication date must match that of the award year (i.e. only titles published in 2024 will be considered for the 2024 award cycle).
- The title may be for primary or secondary reading level.
- Language of publication may be English or any one of the East or Southeast Asian languages, as long as there is English translation.
- The book must be published in the United States, or by a publisher with offices within the U.S.
- 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.
- 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.
