Any Children's book which meets the nominating criteria can be chosen for the award. Nominated book titles are given to the Nomination chair who compiles a list of all titles. The cutoff date for nominations is January 15th. The Nomination chair then verifies the criteria for nominated titles. Once all the information is verified, the list of titles is copied and distributed to all committee members. It is important that the original list of titles is between 75 - 100.
Any title that receives 2 or more nominations is automatically included on the list. Each committee member rates each title they have access to, using a 0-5 scale, (0 being you never want to see the book again, and 5 being it better be on the list or I'll be mad) by January 30. The committee then meets to read and rate any titles not previously viewed. The chair of the committee, the Awards Chair and the Selection Chair tally the ratings. The top 30 titles will then be read aloud to a group of Listeners/Selectors.
A meeting is scheduled in early Spring for the Committee members to read the 30 titles to a group of Listeners/Selectors. The Listener/Selectors rate each book and the top 10 books become the final nominees for librarians, parents and caregivers to read to preschool children.
Between September 1st and December 31st children, once they have listened to a minimum of five titles, vote on their one favorite title. All votes are submitted to the Awards Chair via email, fax, or postal mail. The book with the highest number of votes becomes the winner of that year's Missouri Building Block Award.