Awards season continues with the American Library Association Youth Media Awards!

Each year, ALA honors books, videos, and other outstanding materials for children and teens. Selected by committees composed of librarians and other literature and media experts, the awards encourage original and creative work in the field of children’s and young adult literature and media.

The 2015 Youth Media Awards were announced Monday at the ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibition in Chicago.

Here are some highlights (linked titles are in the CA Library collection):

Michael L. Printz Award

The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature.

2016 Printz Award Winner: Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

2016 Printz Honor Books:

• Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez
• The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick

YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults

The YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction honors the best nonfiction book published for young adults (ages 12-18) during a Nov. 1 – Oct. 31 publishing year.

2016 Excellence in YA Nonfiction Award Winner: Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin

2016 Excellence in YA Nonfiction Finalists:

• Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir by Margarita Engle
• First Flight Around the World: The Adventures of the American Fliers Who Won the Race by Tim Grove
• Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson
• This Strange Wilderness: The Life and Art of John James Audubon by Nancy Plain

Margaret A. Edwards Award

The Margaret A. Edwards Award, established in 1988, honors an author, as well as a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.

The 2016 Edwards Award winner is David Levithan, author of Hold Me Closely, Tiny Cooper, Every Day, Another Day, Two Boys Kissing and other books available at CA Library.

William C. Morris Award

The William C. Morris YA Debut Award honors a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens and celebrating impressive new voices in young adult literature.

The 2016 Morris Award winner is Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli.

2016 Morris Award finalists:

• Because You’ll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas
• Conviction by Kelly Loy Gilbert
• The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes
• The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore

Alex Awards

The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.

• All Involved by Ryan Gattis
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Bones & All by Camille DeAngelis
• Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong
• Girl at War by Sara Nović
• Half the World by Joe Abercrombie
• Humans of New York: Stories by Brandon Stanton
• Sacred Heart by Liz Suburbia
• Undocumented: A Dominican Boy’s Odyssey from a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League by Daniel Padilla Peralta
• The Unraveling of Mercy Louis by Keija Parssinen

 

Coretta Scott King Book Awards

The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are given annually to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values.

2016 Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award: Gone Crazy In Alabama by Rita Williams-Garcia

2016 King Author Honor Books:

• All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
• The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds
• X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz with Kekla Magoon

2016 Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award: Trombone Shorty, illustrated by Bryan Collier

2016 King Illustrator Honor Books:

• The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth & Harlem’s Greatest Bookstore, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
• Last Stop on Market Street, illustrated by Christian Robinson, written by Matt de la Peña

2016 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award: Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith

2016 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award: Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, illustrated by Ekua Holmes

2016 Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement: Jerry Pinkney.

Pura Belpré Awards

The Pura Belpré Award is presented annually to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.

2016 Pura Belpré (Illustrator) Award: The Drum Dream Girl, illustrated by Rafael López

2016 Belpré Illustrator Honor Books:

• My Tata’s Remedies = Los remedios de mi tata, illustrated by Antonio Castro L., written by Roni Capin Rivera-Ashford
• Mango, Abuela, and Me, illustrated by Angela Dominguez, written by Meg Medina
• Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras, illustrated and written by Duncan Tonatiuh

2016 Pura Belpré (Author) Award: Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir by Margarita Engle

2016 Belpré Author Honor Books:

• The Smoking Mirror by David Bowles
• Mango, Abuela, and Me by Meg Medina, illustrated by Angela Dominguez

Schneider Family Book Award

The Schneider Family Book Awards honor an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.

2016 Schneider Award winner (ages 0-10): Emmanuel’s Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah, written by Laurie Ann Thompson, illustrated by Sean Qualls

2016 Schneider Award winners (ages 11-13): Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt and The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

2016 Schneider Award winner (ages 13-18): The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Teresa Toten

Stonewall Book Award – Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award

Stonewall Book Award – Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award is given annually to English-language works of exceptional merit for children or teens relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience.

2016 Stonewall Children’s Award winner: George by Alex Gino

2016 Stonewall YA Award winner: The Porcupine of Truth by Bill Konigsberg

2016 Stonewall Honor Books:

• Wonders of the Invisible World by Christopher Barzak
• Sex is a Funny Word: A Book about Bodies, Feelings, and YOU, written by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth, illustrated by Fiona Smyth

John Newbery Medal

The Newbery Medal is awarded annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

2016 Newbery Award winner: Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña

2016 Newbery Honor Books:

• The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
• Roller Girl, written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson
• Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan

Randolph Caldecott Medal

The Randolph Caldecott Medal is awarded annually , to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

2016 Caldecott Award winner: Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear, illustrated by Sophie Blackall

2016 Caldecott Honor Books:

• Trombone Shorty, illustrated by Bryan Collier, written by Troy Andrews
• Waiting, illustrated and written by Kevin Henkes
• Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, illustrated by Ekua Holmes, written by Carole Boston Weatherford
• Last Stop on Market Street, illustrated by Christian Robinson, written by Matt de le Peña

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal

The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal is awarded annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished informational book published in the United States in English during the preceding year.

2016 Sibert Award winner: Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras, written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh

2016 Sibert Honor Books:

• Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans, written and illustrated by Don Brown
• The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club by Phillip Hoose
• Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March, written by Lynda Blackmon Lowery as told to Elspeth Leacock and Susan Buckley, illustrated by PJ Loughran
• Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, written by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Ekua Holmes