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

Each year, ALA honors books, audiobooks, 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 2022 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.

2022 Printz Award Winner: Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

2022 Printz Honor Books:

• • Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas
  • Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
  • Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
  • Starfish by Lisa Fipps

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).

2022 Excellence in YA Nonfiction Award Winner: Ambushed!: The Assassination Plot Against President Garfield by Gail Jarrow

2022 Excellence in YA Nonfiction Finalists:

• • Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre by Brandy Colbert
  • From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement by Paula Yoo
  • In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers: The Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months and Years after the 9/11 Attacks, written and illustrated by Don Brown
  • The Woman All Spies Fear: Code Breaker Elizebeth Smith Friedman and Her Hidden Life by Amy Butler Greenfield

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.

A.S. King wins the 2022 Edwards Award for Ask The Passengers, Please Ignore Vera Dietz, Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future, 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 2022 Morris Award winner is Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley.

2022 Morris Award finalists:

• • Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké- Íyímídé
  • Vampires, Hearts & Other Dead Things by Margie Fuston
  • Me (Moth) by Amber McBride
  • What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson

Alex Awards

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

• • Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
  • The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin
  • The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec
  • The Library of the Dead by T.L Huchu
  • How Lucky by Will Leitch
  • Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell
  • The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
  • Crossing the Line: A Fearless Team of Brothers and the Sport That Changed Their Lives Forever by Kareem Rosser
  • Lore Olympus, Vol. 1 by Rachel Smythe
  • Malice by Heather Walter

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.

2022 Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award: Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre, written by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Floyd Cooper.

2022 King Author Honor Books:

• • Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo
  • Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
  • The People Remember by Ibi Zoboi, illustrated by Loveis Wise

2022 Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award: Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre, illustrated by Floyd Cooper and written by Carole Boston Weatherford. 

2022 King Illustrator Honor Books:

• • Nina: A Story of Nina Simone, illustrated by Christian Robinson, written by Traci N. Todd.
  • We Wait for the Sun, illustrated by Raissa Figueroa, written by Dovey Johnson Roundtree & Katie McCabe.
  • Soul Food Sunday, illustrated by C.G. Esperanza, written by Winsome Bingham.

2022 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award: Me (Moth), written by Amber McBride

2022 Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement: Nikki Grimes.

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.

2022 Pura Belpré Young Adult Author Award Winner: How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe, written by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

2022 Belpré Young Adult Author Honor Books:

• • Fifteen Hundred Miles From The Sun by Jonny Garza Villa
  • Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet by Laekan Zea Kemp
  • Where I Belong by Marcia Argueta Mickelson

American Indian Youth Literature Award

The American Indian Youth Literature Award identifies and honors the very best writing and illustrations by Native Americans and Indigenous peoples of North America.

2022 American Indian Youth Literature Award Winner For Young Adults is Apple (Skin to the Core): A Memoir in Words and Pictures, written by Eric Gansworth [Onondaga].

2022 American Indian Youth Literature Young Adult Honor Books:

• • Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger [Lipan Apache Tribe]
  • Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley [Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians]
  • Hunting by Stars by Cherie Dimaline [Métis Nation of Ontario]
  • Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present by Adrienne Keene [Cherokee Nation]
  • Soldiers Unknown by Chag Lowry [Yurok, Maidu and Achumawi]

Asian/Pacific American Award For Literature

Asian/Pacific American Award For Literature honors and recognizes individual works about Asian/Pacific Americans and their heritage, based on literary and artistic merit.

2022 Asian/Pacific American Award Winner for Young Adult Literature is Last Night at the Telegraph Club, written by Malinda Lo.

2022 Asian/Pacific American Honor Book for Young Adult Literature:

• • We Are Not Free by Traci Chee

Sydney Taylor Book Award

The Sydney Taylor Book Award is presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience.

2022 Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner for Young Adults is The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros.

Sydney Taylor Book Award Honors For Young Adults:

• • The Last Words We Said by Leah Scheier
  • Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero by E. Lockhart, illustrated by Manuel Preitano
  • The Summer of Lost Letters by Hannah Reynolds

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.

2022 Schneider Award winner (teens): Words in My Hands, written and illustrated by Asphyxia.

2022 Schneider Honor Book (teens):

• • A Face for Picasso: Coming of Age with Crouzon Syndrome by Ariel Henley

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.

2022 Stonewall Young Adult Literature Award winner: Last Night at the Telegraph Club, written by Malinda Lo.

2022 Stonewall Honor Books:

• • Almost Flying by Jake Maia Arlow
  • The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer
  • Grandad’s Camper, written and illustrated by Harry Woodgate