There will be no winner of the inaugural Fred Rogers Be My Neighbor Prize, which was created to honor the most uplifting and least controversial book of 2017. The panel of judges was unable to reach consensus regarding a longlist, culled from titles nominated in an online poll of children and adults nationwide. Organizers said the number of objections raised for each book considered made the chances of narrowing the field to a shortlist, and ultimately a winner, impossible.
"It just seems to be the wrong moment to launch a prize like this one, despite our best intentions," said the prize committee in a joint statement. "We plan to try again eventually, though perhaps we will wait until after 2020 to revive the effort." --Robert Gray