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 2023 Youth Media Awards were announced Monday, January 30th at LibLearnX: The Library Learning Experience (LLX).
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.
2023 Printz Award Winner: All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir (Get the eBook | Get the Audiobook)
2023 Printz Honor Books:
-
- Scout’s Honor by Lily Anderson
- Icebreaker by A.L. Graziadei
- When The Angels Left The Old Country by Sacha Lamb
- Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality by Eliot Schrefer
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).
2023 Excellence in YA Nonfiction Award Winner: Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist For Justice by Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes and Dawud Anyabwile (Get the eBook)
2023 Excellence in YA Nonfiction Finalists:
-
- Abuela, Don’t Forget Me by Rex Ogle (Get the Audiobook)
- American Murderer: The Parasite that Haunted the South by Gail Jarrow (Get the eBook)
- A Face for Picasso: Coming of Age with Crouzon Syndrome by Ariel Henley (Get the Audiobook)
- Unequal: A Story of America by Michael Eric Dyson and Marc Favreau (Get the eBook | Get the Audiobook)
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.
Jason Reynolds wins the 2023 Edwards Award for Ain’t Burned All The Bright, Long Way Down, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You, The Boy In The Black Suit, 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 2023 Morris Award winner is The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum (Get the eBook | Get the Audiobook)
2023 Morris Award finalists:
-
- The Summer of Bitter and Sweet by Jen Ferguson (Métis/white)
- Wake the Bones by Elizabeth Kilcoyne
- The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes
- Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White (Get the eBook | Get the Audiobook)
Alex Awards
The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.
-
- A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting by Sophie Irwin
- Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R. F. Kuang
- Chef’s Kiss by Jarrett Melendez
- Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan
- I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
- Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora
- The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere., written and illustrated by James Spooner
- The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
- True Biz by Sara Nović
- Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser
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.
2023 Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award: Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson.
2023 King Author Honor Books:
-
- Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler by Ibi Zoboi (Get the eBook | Get the Audiobook)
- The Talk by Alicia D. Williams
- Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice by Tommie Smith and Derrick Barnes (Get the eBook)
2023 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award: Jas Hammonds for We Deserve Monuments
- 2023 Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement: Dr. Claudette McLinn
Pura Belpré Award
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.
2023 Pura Belpré Young Adult Author Award Winner: Burn Down, Rise Up by Vincent Tirado (Get the Audiobook)
2023 Belpré Young Adult Author Honor Books:
-
- Breathe and Count Back from Ten by Natalia Sylvester
- High Spirits by Camille Gomera-Tavarez
- The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes
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.
2023 Asian/Pacific American Award Winner for Young Adult Literature is Himawari House by Harmony Becker
2023 Asian/Pacific American Honor Book for Young Adult Literature:
-
- The Silence That Binds Us by Joanna Ho
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.
2023 Sydney Taylor Gold Medal Book Award Winner for Young Adults is When The Angels Left The Old Country by Sacha Lamb.
Sydney Taylor Book Award Silver Medalists For Young Adults:
-
- My Fine Fellow: A Delicious Entanglement by Jennieke Cohen
- Some Kind of Hate by Sarah Darer Littman
- Eight Nights of Flirting 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.
The 2023 Schneider Award Winner for Teens is The Words We Keep by Erin Stewart (Get the eBook | Get the Audiobook)
2023 Schneider Honor Book (teens):
-
- Breathe and Count Back from Ten by Natalia Sylvester
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.
2023 Stonewall Young Adult Literature Award winner is When The Angels Left The Old Country by Sacha Lamb
2023 Stonewall Honor Books:
-
- I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston (Get the eBook | Get the Audiobook)
- Kings of B’more by R. Eric Thomas
- Man o’ War by Cory McCarthy (Get the Audiobook)
- The Summer of Bitter and Sweet by Jen Ferguson (Métis/white)