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A fictional demo: the library, the young artists and their artwork are invented, and every image was made with AI. About this demo
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The Winners

On September 19, three judges spent a whole day with all 142 entries. They judged every piece within its age group and looked for big ideas, hard work and surprises, not neatness. Here's who took home a ribbon. Every artist in the show gets a certificate at Opening Night, and the People's Choice award is still up for grabs.

Best in Show

Collage of a city skyline at night on cardboard: black paper buildings with hundreds of tiny windows cut from colorful magazine photos under a navy sky and a magazine-photo moon.

Item

City at Night, Window by Window

The library was giving away old magazines, so I took a whole stack. Every window in these buildings is a tiny piece of someone's photo: faces, food, flowers, the ocean. There's one window that's just a dog. I'm not going to tell you where. It took 23 hours, and I kept track.

Creator
Kai, age 13
Date
2026
Type
Collage
Subject
Cities; Night

View the full record

Blue Ribbons, one for each age group

  • A very tall, narrow marker drawing on three taped sheets of paper: a small giraffe at the bottom whose spotted neck stretches all the way to the top, where it bites a white cloud.

    The Tallest Giraffe in the World

    Priya, age 7 · 2026

    I needed more paper because her neck kept going and going. Ms. Dana gave me tape. She is eating a cloud because all the leaves were too low for her. Her name is Stretch.
  • Watercolor of a dark blue lake at night with a full moon's path of light on the water, pine silhouettes, a small glowing orange tent, and a speckled starry sky.

    Night Swim

    Ava, age 12 · 2026

    This is Harlow Lake at night when we went camping in July. The water was so dark it looked like it went down forever, but the moon made a path across it. I sprinkled salt on the wet paint to make the stars, which is a trick I learned from a library video. I'm most proud of the reflection.
  • Purple clay octopus with worried eyebrows; six arms wear painted clay socks, one wears a real striped baby sock, and one arm is bare.

    The Octopus Who Lost a Sock

    Hazel, age 10 · 2026

    Octopuses have eight arms so they need eight socks. This one only has seven, which is why he looks worried. I made his worried eyebrows with a paperclip. The socks are clay except the striped one, which is a real sock from my baby cousin. I asked first.

Librarians' Pick

The library staff chose this one for obvious reasons.

Five-panel ink and marker comic page titled The Book That Ate the Library: a red book with teeth grows huge and chomps the shelves, until a librarian reads it a story and it falls asleep.

The Book That Ate the Library

An overdue book gets so hungry it eats the whole library, until the librarian reads it a bedtime story. Felix, age 12, says the moral is to return your books on time. We agree.

Honorable Mentions

  • Long colored-pencil panorama of a street of fourteen small houses with mailboxes, trees, a mail truck, a kid on a bike, a dog walker, and a house with a blue door and a cat in the window.

    Our Whole Street

    Jonah, age 10 · 2026

    I drew every house on Larch Street from my house to the corner. Mrs. Okafor's house is the one with the blue door and the cat in the window. It took me three weeks. There are 14 mailboxes and I drew all of them.
  • Very lumpy cream clay chicken with two different-size googly eyes, a red comb, orange craft feathers and a small brown clay egg beside her.

    Pancake the Chicken

    Rosie, age 5 · 2026

    This is Pancake. She is our real chicken. She lays brown eggs. I gave her big eyes so she can find worms. (Rosie told this to Ms. Dana at the library.)
  • Collage of a bird in flight made of pressed leaves: a wing of yellow aspen leaves, an orange maple-leaf body, a willow-leaf tail, petal chest, and a sunflower-seed eye.

    Leaf Bird

    Amara, age 9 · 2026

    I collected all of these leaves on walks with my dad. The wing is made of eleven aspen leaves. The eye is a sunflower seed. Some of the leaves turned brown after I glued them, but my dad says that's just what nature does.
  • Four-panel marker comic: a brown dog hides behind a chair saying NO, puts on a red cape and mask, crashes into a vacuum with a yellow BOOM, and stands proudly on the tipped-over vacuum.

    Captain Biscuit vs. the Vacuum

    Maya, age 8 · 2026

    My dog Biscuit is scared of the vacuum in real life, but in my comic he's a superhero and he wins. The vacuum is the bad guy because it's so loud. Panel 3 is my favorite because of the BOOM.

People's Choice

Visitors vote for their favorite piece all through the show. The ballot box is opened at the holiday party on Saturday, December 12, and the winner takes home the golden paintbrush.