Youth Services

New youth Materials

Services for Youth in Vermont

Hinesburg Community Resource Center Hinesburg Friends of Families, a branch of HCRC, offers free playgroups and other great resources for local families.

Help Me Grow Vermont  is a statewide system for improving access to existing resources and services for expectant parents and families with young children through age 8. 
Prevent Child Abuse Vermont  promotes and supports healthy relationships within families, schools and communities to eliminate child abuse. 

Building Bright Futures is Vermont’s Early Childhood State Advisory Council.

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides Federal grants to States for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk. 

Children's Literacy Foundation aims to inspire a love of reading and writing among low-income, at-risk, and rural children up to age 12 throughout New Hampshire and Vermont.

Outright Vermont is a group whose vision is to build “a Vermont where all LGBTQ+ youth have hope, equity, and power!” Outright Vermont offers social and support groups for youth and families and training for youth-serving professionals.

WEBSITES FOR YOUTH & Parents

 

Vermont Youth Book Awards

Red Clover Award

The Red Clover Award promotes the reading and discussion of the best of contemporary picture books in nearly all of Vermont’s elementary schools. Each year over 20,000 K-4 students read, or have read to them, the ten nominated books. Students then vote to pick the winner.

2024-2025 Red Clover Winner: Who’s Afraid of the Light by Anna McGregor

2025-2026 Nominees:

The Last Stand by Antwan Eady, illustrated by Jarrett & Jerome Pumphrey

We Are Definitely Human by X. Fang

I Know How to Draw an Owl by Hilary Horder Hippely, illustrated by Matt James

Wat Kept Playing by Emily Inouye Huey, illustrated by Kaye Kang

I’m Sorry You Got Mad by Kyle Lukoff, illustrated by Julie Kwon

Time to Make Art by Jeff Mack

Whalesong: The True Story of the Musician Who Talked to Orcas by Zachariah OHora

The Cafe at the Edge of the Woods by Mikey Please

When You Find the Right Rock by Mary Lyn Ray, illustrated by Felicita Sala

Ursula Upside Down by Corey R. Tabor

 

Vermont Golden Dome Book Award

The Golden Dome Book Award was created to honor excellence in children's literature. Each year since 1957, Vermont students in grades four through eight have selected their favorite book from a list of 30 nominees. It is recommended that students read at least five of the year's nominated titles before voting. Voting takes place in the spring.

2023-2024 Golden Dome Book Award Winner: Lasagna Means I Love You by Kate O’Shaughnessy

2025-2026 Nominees (Titles we own are linked to our catalog.):

{Grade 4 and Up}

All the Ways to Go - Jessie Janowitz

Averil Offline - Amy Noelle Parks

Force of Nature: A Novel of Rachel Carson - Ann E. Burg, illustrated by Sophie Blackall

Mountain of Fire: The Eruption and Survivors of Mount St. Helens - Rebecca E.F. Barone

The Mystery of Locked Rooms - Lindsay Currie

The Night Librarian - Christopher Lincoln

Olivetti - by Allie Millington

Plain Jane and the Mermaid - Vera Brosgol

The Secret Library - Kekla Magoon

The Sherlock Society - James Ponti

A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall - Jasmine Warga, illustrated by Matt Rockefeller

Summer at Squee - Andrea Wang

{Grade 5 and Up}

The Bletchley Riddle - Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinken

Coyote Lost and Found - Dan Gemeinhart

The Creepening of Dogwood House - Eden Royce

A Game of Noctis - Deva Fagan

Impossible Creatures - Katherine Rundell, illustrated by Ashley Mackenzie

Kareem Between - Shifa Saltagi Safadi

Paper Dragons: The Fight for the Hidden Realm - Siobhan McDermott

{Grade 6 and Up}

The Flicker - H.E. Edgmon

How it All Ends - Emma Hunsinger

Murray Out of Water - Taylor Tracy

The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman - Gennifer Choldenko

The Wrong Way Home - Kate O'Shaughnessy

{Grade 7 and Up}

The Liars Society - Alyson Gerber

Green Mountain Book Award

The Green Mountain Book Award (GMBA), initiated in 2005, is a reader's choice award for Vermont students in grades 9 - 12. The program is intended to encourage high schoolers to become enthusiastic and discriminating readers. It is recommended that students read at least three of the year's 15 nominated titles before voting in the spring.

2024-2025 GMBA Winner: Where He Can’t Find You by Darcy Coates

2025-2026 Nominees (Titles we own are linked to our catalog.)