Regional
Helen Frost
Helen Frost was born in Brookings, South Dakota, and spent her teenage years growing up in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. She attended Syracuse University where she received a degree in Elementary Education with a concentration in English. After that, she moved frequently, living and teaching in Vermont, Colorado, Alaska, Oregon, California, and Scotland. She settled in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and has lived there for 35 years while working with the Fort Wayne Dance Collective, the YWCA, and Fort Wayne Youth Theater.
Helen writes a variety of books for children, teens, and adults, including novels-in-poems for middle grade readers, picture books, poetry collections, anthologies, plays, and a book about teaching writing. She won the Women Poets Series Competition in 1993 for her first collection, Skin of a Fish, Bones of a Bird, and was awarded a Michael L. Printz Honor for her young adult novel Keesha’s House. She has also received the Boston Public Library Literary Lights for Children Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Poetry, and the Children’s History Book Prize from the New York Historical Society, among others.
When Helen is away from her writing desk, she enjoys traveling with her husband, Chad, and their two sons as well as maintaining her pollinator garden for birds and monarch butterflies.
2026 Children's Shortlist: The Mighty Pollinators
The Mighty Pollinators is a poetry collection featuring captivating photos of the small creatures and insects responsible for maintaining our ecosystems.
2024 Children's Shortlist: Wait and See
Through poetry and close-up photographs, readers are encouraged to look closely and watch as a praying mantis hides, hunts, and eats, then makes an ootheca (egg case) from which hundreds of baby praying mantises will emerge in the spring. The last page gives more information about praying mantises, encouraging children to look closely and wait patiently as they observe life in the natural world.
2022 Middle Grade Winner: All He Knew
A novel in verse about a young deaf boy during World War II, the sister who loves him, and the conscientious objector who helps him. Inspired by true events. Henry has been deaf from an early age—he is intelligent and aware of langauge, but by age six, he has decided it’s not safe to speak to strangers. When the time comes for him to start school, he is labeled “unteachable.” Because his family has very little money, his parents and older sister, Molly, feel powerless to help him. Henry is sent to Riverview, a bleak institution where he is misunderstood, underestimated, and harshly treated. Victor, a conscientious objector to World War II, is part of a Civilian Public Service program offered as an alternative to the draft. In 1942, he arrives at Riverview to serve as an attendant and quickly sees that Henry is far from unteachable—he is brave, clever, and sometimes mischievous. In Victor’s care, Henry begins to see how things can change for the better. Heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful, Helen Frost’s All He Knew is inspired by true events and provides sharp insight into a little-known element of history.
2020 Children's Shortlist: Hello, I'm Here!
Will my legs hold me?
What if I fall?
Peek in as a sandhill crane hatchling makes its first wobbly stand and takes its first steps alongside its brother. With their parents close by, they flap their wings and dance before enjoying a buggy treat. Someday they will fly with the majestic cranes overhead, but for now, Mama’s soft feathers beckon. With a lyrical narrative and lovely photo illustrations, this latest venture from an acclaimed creative team makes a perfect new baby gift — and will appeal to bird lovers, too.
2011 Regional Award Winner
