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 2021 Youth Media Awards were announced Monday at the Virtual ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibition.
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.
2021 Printz Award Winner: Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayen
2021 Printz Honor Books:
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- Apple (Skin to the Core) by Eric Gansworth
- Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang, color by Lark Pien
- Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh
- We Are Not Free by Traci Chee
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.
2021 Excellence in YA Nonfiction Award Winner: The Rise & Fall of Charles Lindbergh, written by Candace Fleming
2021 Excellence in YA Nonfiction Finalists:
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- All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team, written by Christina Soontornvat
- The Cat I Never Named: A True Story of Love, War, and Survival, written by Amra Sabic-El-Rayess with Laura L. Sullivan
- How We Got to the Moon: The People, Technology, and Daring Feats of Science Behind Humanity’s Greatest Adventure, written and illustrated by John Rocco
- You Call This Democracy?: How to Fix Our Democracy and Deliver Power to the People, written by Elizabeth Rusch
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.
Kekla Magoon wins the 2021 Edwards Award for X: A Novel, How It Went Down, The Rock and the River, Fire in the Streets, 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 2021 Morris Award winner is If These Wings Could Fly, written by Kyrie McCauley.
2021 Morris Award finalists:
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- Black Girl Unlimited: The Remarkable Story of a Teenage Wizard written by Echo Brown
- The Black Kids written by Christina Hammonds Reed
- It Sounded Better in My Head written by Nina Kenwood
- Woven in Moonlight written by Isabel Ibañez
Alex Awards
The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.
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- Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
- The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
- The Impossible First: From Fire to Ice – Crossing Antarctica Alone by Colin O’Brady
- Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf
- The Kids Are Gonna Ask by Gretchen Anthony
- The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
- Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
- Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebochi
- Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh
- We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
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.
2021 Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award: Before the Ever After, written by Jacqueline Woodson
2021 King Author Honor Books:
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- All the Days Past, All the Days to Come, written by Mildred D. Taylor
- King and the Dragonflies, written by Kacen Callender
- Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box, written by Evette Dionne
2021 Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award: R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, illustrated by Frank Morrison, written by Carole Boston Weatherford
2021 King Illustrator Honor Books:
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- Magnificent Homespun Brown: A Celebration, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita, written by Samara Cole Doyon
- Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks, illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera, written by Suzanne Slade
- Me & Mama, illustrated and written by Cozbi A. Cabrera
2021 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award: Legendborn, written by Tracy Deonn
2021 Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement: Dorothy L. Guthrie.
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.
2021 Pura Belpré Young Adult Author Award: Furia, written by Yamile Saied Méndez
2021 Belpré Young Adult Author Honor Books:
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- Never Look Back, written by Lilliam Rivera
- We Are Not from Here, written by Jenny Torres Sanchez
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.
2021 Schneider Award winner (ages 13-18): This Is My Brain in Love, written by I.W. Gregorio
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.
2021 Stonewall Book Award winner: We Are Little Feminists: Families, written by Archaa Shrivastav, designed by Lindsey Blakely
2021 Stonewall Honor Books:
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- Beetle & The Hollowbones, illustrated and written by Aliza Layne
- Darius the Great Deserves Better, written by Adib Khorram
- Felix Ever After, written by Kacen Callender
- You Should See Me in a Crown, written by Leah Johnson