The Young Reader 3 Apples Book Award
A New York State Young Reader's Choice Award
About Our Name - 3 Apples Book Award
Storytellers can be found in all cultures of the world, for the love of stories is universal. There are many ways that a storyteller can choose to begin a story in order to invite his listeners to settle in and share a delightful experience. A traditional beginning might be "Once upon a time...", or "Long, long ago...". Many such beginnings have evolved through the centuries.
In the same way, traditional endings have also developed: "... and they lived happily ever after", or " ... and ever since then, that is the way it has been", or more simply, "The End".
There is a traditional story ending in the Armenian storytelling culture that goes like this:
Three apples fell from heaven:
One for the teller of the tale,
One for the listener,
And one for all the peoples of the world.
We have adopted the intent of that saying for the name of our 3 Apples Children's Choice Book Award and, in the folkloric tradition of adaptation, we have altered it for the written word.
Three apples fell from the tree:
One for the writer of the tale,
One for the reader,
And one for the pick of the crop.
Written stories and books for children have a strong tradition of their own, and involvement in the New York State 3 Apples Book Award encourages the children of New York State to participate in that tradition, to nurture their love of reading for pleasure, to select the best book of "the crop", and to honor the author of that book. In this case "three apples" is more a beginning than an end.
