The Judith’s Award Recipient

The Judith's Award | The Judith's Award Recipient

Amy Allison, State College, PA – 2024
Byjrrtestadmin March 1, 2024January 21, 2026

Amy Allison’s project, Advocacy for Teens Class, teaches teens how to appropriately engage in civic and cultural literacy through a project that they eventually get to present at the local township meeting. Says Allison, “I feel it is my duty as a teacher to aid students in learning how to navigate our world, understand our cultural literacy and advocate for themselves and others.” Such advocacy mirrors the intentions, the dreams, the insistence, the passion of Judith F. Krug, in whose name Judith’s Reading Room was established.

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The Judith's Award | The Judith's Award Recipient

Amber Drinen, Chinle, Arizona – 2023
Byjrrtestadmin March 4, 2023January 19, 2026

The Judith’s Award winner is Amber Drinen for “R.E.A.D. in Beauty Bookmobile” project, an initiative of Chinle Planting Hope in Chinle, Arizona, a Native-controlled nonprofit that supervises the Bookmobile which serves 34,000 members of the Navajo Nation, where there is no public library.

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The Judith's Award | The Judith's Award Recipient

Dominique Zara, Resita, Romania – 2022
Byjrrtestadmin January 18, 2022January 19, 2026

If you meet librarian Dominique Zara, winner of our 2022 Judith’s Award, you will marvel at her humility and enthusiasm. Committed to supporting the more vulnerable members of her community, she is credited with building the only English learning program at her library in Romania. More than 270 children have benefited from the engaging, creative library activities she’s organized and even more children have borrowed books to enjoy at home. And yet, ask Zara about her work, and she’d admit, “I wasn’t convinced that my actions [were] worthy of such an award.”

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The Judith's Award | The Judith's Award Recipient

Joicki Flyod, Newark, New Jersey – 2021
Byjrrtestadmin August 18, 2021January 19, 2026

With her philosophy of “reading is fun-to-da-mental (fundamental),” Ms. Joicki Floyd began her Y.O.U.T.H. program to enable students in finding motivation, positivity, and a love of reading in the face of difficulty. Y.O.U.T.H. works with students who may not see themselves as readers and uses strategies like Socratic Seminars, discussion panels with city officials, and open mics, to spark change in their mindsets. A crucial element is Joicki’s engagement with the community; to her, seeing your neighbor or local store owner with a book in hand is as important as working directly with students.

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The Judith's Award | The Judith's Award Recipient

Ty Allan Jackson, Bronx, New York – 2020
Byjrrtestadmin September 27, 2020January 19, 2026

The Judith’s Award – $1,500September 27, 2020 Ty Allan Jackson, Bronx, New York Too often, children’s books represent non-white protagonists within a narrow range of topics. Award-winning author Ty Allan Jackson writes highly engaging books that buck this tradition, offering children who don’t always see themselves in the stories they read the opportunity for a …

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The Judith's Award | The Judith's Award Recipient

Vicky Xanthopoulou, Potamia, North Greece – 2019
Byjrrtestadmin November 9, 2019January 19, 2026

Children in the village of Potamia on Thassos Island in North Greece have little access to books; without a library, it had been difficult for the community to foster solid reading skills. That’s why Vicky, an elementary school teacher, jumped into action. She created “Let’s Play Book,” which encourages children to interpret the world around them through reading and playing with books that she and other local authors have created.

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