The 2021 Youth Media Awards will be announced at 8 a.m. CST today during the ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibition which is virtual via YouTube!
2021 Caldecott Medal and Honor Books
The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It honors the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.
2021 Caldecott Winner
We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom, illustrated by Michaela Goade
2021 Caldecott Honor Books
The Cat Man of Aleppo by Karim Shamsi-Basha and Irene Latham, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu
Me & Mama by Cozbi Cabrera
Outside In by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Cindy Derby
A Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart by Zetta Elliott, illustrated by Noa Denmon
Asian/Pacific American Award For Literature (APALA Awards)
The goal is to honor and recognize individual works related to Asian/Pacific American experiences (either historical or contemporary) or Asian/Pacific American cultures.
Asian/Pacific American Award 2021 Picture Book Winner
Paper Son: The Inspiring Story of Tyrus Wong, Immigrant and Artist by Julie Leung, illustrated by Chris Sasaki
Asian/Pacific American Award 2021 Picture Book Honor
Danbi Leads the Parade by Anna Kim
Asian/Pacific American Award 2021 Children’s Winner
When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
Asian/Pacific American Award 2021 Children’s Honor
Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park
Asian/Pacific American Award 2021 Young Adult Winner
This Light Between Us: A Novel of World War II by Andrew Fukuda
Asian/Pacific American Award 2021 Young Adult Honor
Displacement
2021 Newbery Medal and Honor Books
The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It honors the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
2021 Newbery Winner
When You Trap A Tiger by Tae Keller
2021 Newbery Honor Books
Box: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford
Fighting Words by Kim Bradley
A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat
All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys Soccer Team by Christina Soontornvat
We Dream of Space by Erin Entrada Kelly
Printz Award and Honor Books 2021
Michael L. Printz Award honors excellence in literature written for young adults.
2021 Printz Award Winner
2021 Printz Award Honor Books
We Are Not Free by Traci Chee
Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang
Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh
Apple (Skin to the Core) by Eric Gansworth
2021 Geisel Medal and Honor Books
The Geisel Award is given annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished American book for beginning readers published in English in the United States. When will the Geisel award be renamed?
2021 Geisel Award Winner
2021 Geisel Honor Books
The Bear in My Family by Maya Tatsukawa
What About Worms!? by Ryan T. Higgins
Ty’s Travels: Zip, Zoom! by Kelly Starling Lyons, illustrated by Nina Mata
Where’s Baby by Anne Hunter
Pura Belpré Winner and Honor Books 2021
The award is named after Pura Belpré, the first Latina librarian at the New York Public Library. The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, 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.
Pura Belpré (Author) Award honoring a Latino writer whose children’s books best portray, affirm, and celebrate the Latino cultural experience.
2021 Belpré Author Award Winner
Efren Divided by Ernesto Cisneros
2021 Belpré Author Award Young Adult Winner
Furia by Yamile S. Mendez
2021 Belpré Author Honor Books
Lupe Wong Won’t Dance by Donna Barba Higuera
The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez by Adrianna Cuevas
2021 Belpré Author Young Adult Honor Books
We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez
Never Look Back by Lilliam Rivera
Pura Belpré (Illustrator) Award honoring a Latino illustrator whose children’s books best portray, affirm, and celebrate the Latino cultural experience.
2021 Pura Belpré Illustrator Award Winner
¡Vamos! Let’s Go Eat by Raul Gonzolez
2021 Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Books
Sharuko: El Arqueólogo Peruano Julio C. Tello / Peruvian Archaeologist Julio C. Tello by Monia Brown, illustrated by Elisa Chavarri
Batchelder Winner and Honor Books 2021
The Batchelder Award is given to the most outstanding children’s book originally published in a language other than English in a country other than the United States, and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States.
2021 Batchelder Award Winner
2021 Batchelder Honor Books
Catherine’s War by Julia Billet, illustrated by Claire Fauvel, translated by Ivanka Hahnenberger
The Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award
The Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award is given to a digital media producer that has created distinguished digital media for an early learning audience.
The 2021 Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award winner is “The Imagine Neighborhood,” produced by Committee for Children.
One honor title was named: “Sesame Street Family Play: Caring for Each Other,”produced by Sesame Workshop.
Carnegie Winner 2021
The Andrew Carnegie Medal honors the most outstanding video productions for children released during the previous year.
Carnegie Award for Fiction is
Carnegie Winner of the Carnegie Award in Non-Fiction
2021 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award
Neil Gaiman will deliver the lecture.
Children’s Literature Legacy Award 2021
The Children’s Literature Legacy Award honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.
Mildred D. Taylor is the winner!
Margaret Edwards Award for Lifetime Achievement 2021
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 annual award is administered by YALSA and sponsored by School Library Journal magazine.
The winner is Kekla Magoon!
Odyssey Winner and Honor Audiobooks 2021
This annual award is given to the producer of the best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States.
2021 Odyssey Award Winner
Kent State by Deborah Wiles, narrated by Christopher Gebauer, Lauren Enzo, Christina DeLaine, Johnny Heller, Roger Wayne, Korey Jackson, and David de Vries
2021 Odyssey Honor Recordings
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, narrated by Jason Reynolds with an introduction by Ibram X. Kendi
Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award 2021
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. The award is named in honor of Robert F. Sibert, the long-time President of Bound to Stay Bound Books, Inc. of Jacksonville, Illinois. ALSC administers the award. Silbert Informational Winner and Honor Books 2016
2021 Sibert Award Winner
Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mallifera by Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann
2021 Sibert Honor Books
How We Got to the Moon: The People, Technology, and Daring Feats of Science Behind Humanity’s Greatest Adventure by John Rocco
Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks by Suzanne Shade, illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera
Coretta Scott King Winner and Honor Books 2021
Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults.
2021 Coretta Scott King Author Book Winner
Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson
2021 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Books
Lifting As We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box by Evette Dionne
All the Days Past, All the Days to Come by Mildred D. Taylor
2021 Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award
2021 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book
Illustrator Honor:
Me & Mama by Cozbi Cabrera
Magnificient Homespun Brown: A Celebration by Samara Cole Doyon, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita
Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks by Suzanne Shade, illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera
2021 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
2021 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award
2021 Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement
The annual award is presented in even years to an African American author, illustrator, or author/illustrator for a body of his or her published books for children and/or young adults, and who has made a significant and lasting literary contribution.
Coretta Scott King Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement Award: Dorothy L. Guthrie.
Dorothy L. Guthrie is an award-winning retired librarian, district administrator, author and school board member. A respected children’s literature advocate, Guthrie promotes and affirms the rich perspectives of African Americans. Her work, “Integrating African American Literature in the Library and Classroom,” inspires educators with African American literature. Guthrie founded the first African American museum in her home, Gaston County, North Carolina.
Schneider Family Book Award Winner and Honor Books 2021
Schneider Family Book Award for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience.
2021 Schneider Family Book Award for children ages 0 to 10
I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott, illustrated by Sydney Smith
Honor:
All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything by Annette Bay Pimentel, illustrated by Nabi Ali
Itzhak: A Boy Who Loved the Violin by Tracy Newman, illustrated by Abigail Halpin
Just Ask!: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You by Sonia Sotomayor, illustrated by Rafael Lopez
2021 Schneider Family Book Award for middle-school ages 11-13
Show Me a Sign by Anne Clare LeZotte
Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly
When Stars are Scattered 
Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen! by Sarah Kapit
Each Tiny Spark by Pablo Cartaya
2021 Schneider Family Book Award for Teens ages 13-17
This is My Brain in Love by I. W. Gregorio
Honor:
2021 Alex Awards for the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences
Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf
Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brooch
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune
The Impossible First by Colin O’Brady
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 Anyebuchi
We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
Stonewall Book Winner and Honor Books 2021
Stonewall Book Award – Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award given annually to English-language works of exceptional merit for children or teens relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender experience.
2021 Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award
We Are Little Feminists: Families by Archaa Shrivastav
You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
Beetle & the Hollowbones by Aliza Layne
Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram
William C. Morris Award Winner and Honor Books 2021
William C. Morris Award is for a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens.
2021 Morris Award Winner
If Wings Could Fly by Kyrie McCauley
2021 Morris Award Winner Finalists
The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed
Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown
It Sounded Better in My Head by Nina Kenwood
Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibanez
YALSA Award Winners and Honor Books 2021
YALSA Award is for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults.
2021 YALSA Nonfiction Award Winner
The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh by Candace Fleming
2021 YALSA Nonfiction Award Finalists
The Cat I Never Named: A True Story of Love, War, and Survival by Amra Sabic-El-Rayess with Laura L. Sullivan
You Call This Democracy?: How to Fix Our Democracy and Deliver Power to the People by Elizabeth Rusch
How We Got to the Moon: The People, Technology, and Daring Feats of Science Behind Humanity’s Greatest Adventure by John Rocco
All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys Soccer Team by Christina Soontornvat
American Indian Youth Literature Award 2020
The American Indian Youth Literature Awards are presented every two years. The awards were established as a way to identify and honor the very best writing and illustrations by and about American Indians. Books selected to receive the award will present American Indians in the fullness of their humanity in the present and past contexts.
American Indian Library Association 2020 Youth Picture Book Award
Bowwow Powwow: Bagosenjige-niimi’idim by Brenda J. Child (Red Lake Ojibwe), translated into Ojibwe by Gordon Jourdain (Lac La Croix First Nation), and illustrated by Jonathan Thunder (Red Lake Ojibwe)
American Indian Library Association 2020 Youth Picture Book Honor
Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillard (Seminole Nation, Mekusukey Band), illustrated by Juana Martínez-Neal
Birdsong by Julie Flett (Cree-Métis)
At The Mountain’s Base by Traci Sorell (Cherokee), illustrated by Weshoyot Alvitre (Tongva/Scots-Gaelic)
We Are Grateful by Traci Sorell (Cherokee), illustrated by Frané Lessac
Raven Makes the Aleutians adapted from a traditional Tlingit story and illustrated by Janine Gibbons (Haida, Raven of the Double-Finned Killer Whale clan, Brown Bear House)
American Indian Library Association 2020 Middle Grade Winner
Indian No More by Charlene Willing McManis (Umpqua/Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde) with Traci Sorell (Cherokee), cover art by Marlena Myles (Spirit Lake Dakota, Mohegan, Muscogee Creek)
American Indian Library Association 2020 Middle Grade Honor
I Can Make This Promise by Christine Day (Upper Skagit), with cover art by Michaela Goade (Tlingit, Kiks.ádi clan, Steel House)
The Grizzly Mother by Hetxw’ms Gyetxw (“Bret D. Huson,” Gitxsan), illustrated by Natasha Donovan (Métis Nation of British Columbia)
American Indian Library Association 2020 Young Adult Winner
Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee)
American Indian Library Association 2020 Young Adult Honor
Apple in the Middle by Dawn Quigley (Ojibwe, Turtle Mountain Band)
Surviving the City by Tasha Spillet (Nehiyaw-Trinidadian), illustrated by Natasha Donovan (Métis Nation of British Columbia
Reawakening Our Ancestors Lines: Revitalizing Inuit Traditional Tattooing gathered and compiled by Angela Hovak Johnston (Inuk), with photography by Cora De Vos (Inuk)
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, adapted by Jean Mendoza and Debbie Reese (Nambé Owingeh)
2021 Sydney Taylor Book Awards
Named in memory of Sydney Taylor, author of the classic All-of-a-Kind Family series, the award recognizes books for children and teens that exemplify high literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience.
Sydney Taylor Gold Medalists 2021
Sydney Taylor Gold Medalists Picture Book 2021
Welcoming Elijah: A Passover Tale with a Tail by Leslea Newman, illustrated by Susan Gal
Sydney Taylor Gold Medalists Middle Grade 2021
Turtle Boy by M. Evan Wolkerstein
Sydney Taylor Gold Medalists Young Adult 2021
Dancing at the Pity Party by Tyler Feder
Sydney Taylor Silver Medalists 2021
Younger Readers Picture Book Honor
I Am the Tree of Life: My Jewish Yoga Book by Rabbi Mychal Copeland, illustrated by Andre Ceolin
Miriam at the River by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Khoa Le
Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack
No Vacancy by Tziporah Cohen
Blackbird Girls by 
They Went Left by Monica Hesse
Sydney Taylor Notable Books 2021
The Eight Knights of Hanukkah by Leslie Kimmelman, illustrated by Galia Bernstein
A Place at the Table by Laura Shoven and Saadia Faruqi
Letters from Cuba by Ruth Behar
We Had To Be Brave: Escaping the Nazis on the Kindertransport by Deborah Hopkinton
The Way Back by Gavriel Savit
The Assignment by
Sydney Taylor Body of Work Award
The Body of Work Award has been given twelve times in the 50-year history of the Sydney Taylor Awards. The last recipient was author Eric Kimmel in 2004.
National Jewish Book Awards 2021
The National Jewish Book Awards program began in 1950 when the Jewish Book Council presented awards to authors of Jewish books at its annual meeting.
National Jewish Book Award for Children’s Literature 2021
National Jewish Book Award for Young Adult 2021
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Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
- Starred review from School Library Journal
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
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