Friends of Children and Literature
Los Angeles Public Library Children's Literature Department
The FOCAL Award
The FOCAL Award was instituted by founding member Janet McOuat. The Award is presented annually to a work that enriches a child’s knowledge and understanding of California and its history. In order to receive the Award, a book must be of the highest literary and artistic quality, and must exhibit California content. It must also be interesting and appealing to children of the book’s target age level. Generally, the Awards Committee chooses from books published within the past five years, and the book must still be in print. The first FOCAL Award was given in 1980 to Pedro, the Angel of Olvera Street by author and illustrator Leo Politi, whose charming illustration of reading children was designed especially for FOCAL, and became the FOCAL logo.
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The Award, which is a unique hand-crafted puppet representing a character from the winning book, is presented to the author of that book. The unique puppets, which are on display in the Children’s Literature Department of Central Library, were created by Carol Onofrio each year from 1980 – 2014. Since then the puppets have been created by Jesse Kingsley and Moira MacDonald.
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The FOCAL Award committee is comprised of a Chair, five voting members, and two non-voting members, including the FOCAL president and former committee chairperson. Each member serves a two-year term.
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The 2023 Essay Contest is closed. The announcement of the winners is pending.
The 2025 FOCAL Award winner is...
Cactus Queen : Minerva Hoyt Establishes
Joshua Tree National Park
written by Lori Alexander & illustrated by Jenn Ely
​Sponsored by FOCAL (Friends of Children and Literature) of the Children’s Literature Department, Central Library, Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL.) Cactus Queen was also a 2025 Bank Street College of Education Cook Prize Silver Medalist, and was included on The Nature Generation’s 2025 Green Earth Book Award Short List.
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How did the Joshua Tree National Park in California come to be? Meet Minerva Hamilton Hoyt, an artist, activist, and environmentalist, whose determination saved the desert and helped to create the park, in this STEAM picture book.
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​Long before she became known as the Cactus Queen, Minerva Hamilton Hoyt found solace in the unexpected beauty of the Mojave Desert in California. She loved the jackrabbits and coyotes,
the prickly cacti, and especially the weird, spiky Joshua trees.
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However, in the 1920s, hardly anyone else felt the same way. The desert was being thoughtlessly destroyed by anyone and everyone. Minerva knew she needed to bring attention to the problem. With the help of her gardening club, taxidermists, and friends, she took the desert east and put its plants and animals on display. The displays were a hit, but Minerva needed to do much more: she wanted to have the desert recognized as a national park. Although she met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and won him over, Minerva still had to persuade politicians, scientists, teachers, and others to support her cause. And, it worked! Minerva’s efforts led to what came to be known as Joshua Tree National Park in California, and saved hundreds of thousands of plants and animals. Now, the millions of people who visit each year have learned to love the desert, just as Minerva did.