One Book Colorado 2020 Winning Book Celebration

The 2020 winner of the One Book Colorado program is “The Little Red Fort” by Brenda Maier and illustrated by Sonia Sanchez.

One Book Colorado is a statewide collaboration among Serve Colorado, the Colorado State Library, the Colorado Department of Education, the Denver Preschool Program, Denver7, Mile High United Way, public and military libraries statewide, the private sector, and the nonprofit and foundation communities.

The winning title is chosen out of 3 that have the following criteria:

  • an exceptional book for 4-year-olds
  • available in English and Spanish
  • published by a publisher that has the ability to create and ship 75,000 paperback copies of the title for the program with a custom imprint

What do I do next?

Between October 13-25 (and beyond) stop by one of our three library locations to pick up a copy of “The Little Red Fort” in either English or Spanish for each 4 year old in your life. Please help spread the word to family and friends and learn more about One Book Colorado online.

Book Readings:

Listen in as Amy reads “The Little Red Fort” in English.

Then, hear Larimer County Commissioner John Kefalas read the book in Spanish, “El fuertecito rojo.”

Make Your Own Little Red Fort

Create your own little red for just like Ruby did in the One Colorado book “The Little Red Fort.” Thank you to Elizabeth Morisette for this fun family activity.

Supplies needed:

  • Scissors
  • Glue Stick
  • Construction paper
  • magazines
  • pencil or crayons

What to do:

Want even more fun “little red fort” ideas?

Check out the great Literacy extensions and resources for families found in the One Book Colorado Toolkit online.

Read Aloud Materials and Additional Resources

“The Little Red Fort” PDF versions

Reading Tips for Families in English and Spanish (PDF) – Courtesy of Reach Out and Read Colorado

Books about forts!

Books for adults:

How to build treehouses, huts & forts with designs and illustrations by David Stiles

Fantastic forts : inspiration for wild hideaways by Jo Schofield, Fiona Danks

Colorado forts : historic outposts on the wild frontier by Jolie Anderson Gallagher

Children’s books:

What are you doing, Benny? with words by Cary Fagan; pictures by Kady MacDonald Denton

This is MY fort! by Drew Daywalt; illustrated by Olivier Tallec

Fort-building time by Megan Wagner Lloyd; illustrated by Abigail Halpin

Everything you need for a treehouse by Carter Higgins; illustrated by Emily Hughes