About the Award
One of the two early literacy book awards from CLEL, the English CLEL Bell Awards are an annual recognition of five high-quality children’s books that provide excellent support of early literacy development in young children ages 0-5. The five winners are selected from a shortlist of 25 honored titles.
You can read more about these winning titles and access caregiver activity sheets on our winners page. The 25 titles in each year’s shortlist are chosen from nominations put forward by our committee.
Note: See Los Premios de CLEL Bell, or Spanish CLEL Bells, for books published in Spanish.
Award Labels
Purchase sheets of stickers through Zazzle if you are interested in labeling the English CLEL Bell Award winning books in your collection.
Selection Criteria
Learn more about the Selection Criteria for the CLEL Bell Awards for books published English.
Award Timeline
February through November: Title suggestions can be submitted February through November 16. Only books published or distributed in the United States between November 16 of the previous year and November 15 of the current year are eligible for suggestion for the CLEL Bell Award. Suggested titles that meet our Selection Criteria are posted on our Nominations page.
December: The Shortlist of titles selected from the nominations are announced in December. The Shortlist is a recommended list of excellent early literacy titles for the year.
January: The public is invited to vote on their favorite shortlist titles during January. The committee takes these votes into consideration when deciding the award winners.
February: The winning titles for the CLEL Bell Awards are announced in early February.
Award Selection Committee
The CLEL Bell Award Selection Committee recruits new members in February and March. Learn more about the committee.
History
2013 – CLEL created the CLEL Bell Awards and the CLEL Bell Awards Committee named the Silver Bells for honorary titles from the previous 25 years
2014 – The first annual CLEL Bell Award Winners and Shortlist were awarded
2024 – The CLEL Bell Awards celebrated 10 years and Los Premios de CLEL Bell (the Spanish CLEL Bells) was formed
