Kids make their picks for the Children's Choice Book Awards

Best author winner James Patterson contemplates his acceptance speech.

The 2010 Children's Choice Book Awards were announced last week by the Children's Book Council, a national nonprofit association for childrens trade book publishers. Young readers cast more than 115,000 votes at local libraries, bookstores and online at bookweekonline.com for their favorite titles, authors and illustrators. Here are the results:

Author of the Year
James Patterson for Max (A Maximum Ride Novel) (Little, Brown)

Illustrator of the Year
Peter Brown for The Curious Garden (Little, Brown)

Kindergarten to Second Grade Book of the Year
Lulu the Big Little Chick by Paulette Bogan (Bloomsbury USA)

Third Grade to Fourth Grade Book of the Year
Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Knopf/Random House)

Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the Year
Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life by Rachel Rene Russell (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster)

Teen Choice Book of the Year
Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press)

(Read our interview with James Patterson, the adult thrill-writer turned YA sci-fi wiz and you'll get why weand thousands of kids across Americalove his Maximum Ride series and newest installation, Fang.)Joanna Batt