ALA Announces 2015 Award-Winning Titles for Children and Young Adults

On Monday, February 2, 2015, at its Midwinter Meeting in Chicago, the American Library Association announced its 2015 Youth Media Award winners and honorees in print, video, and audio books for children and young adults.

The 2015 award winners are:

John Newbery Medal, honoring the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature:

• The Crossover, written by Kwame Alexander and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Newbery Honor Books:

• El Deafo by Cece Bell, illustrated by Cece Bell and published by Amulet Books/ABRAMS.
• Brown Girl Dreaming, written by Jacqueline Woodson and published by Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Group (USA).

Randolph Caldecott Medal, honoring the most distinguished American picture book for children:

• The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, illustrated and written by Dan Santat and published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group.

Caldecott Honor Books:

• Nana in the City, illustrated by Lauren Castillo, written by Lauren Castillo, and published by Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
• The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract Art, illustrated by Mary GrandPré, written by Barb Rosenstock, and published by Alfred A. Knopf/Random House Children’s Books.
• Sam & Dave Dig a Hole, illustrated by Jon Klassen, written by Mac Barnett, and published by Candlewick Press.
• Viva Frida, illustrated by Yuyi Morales, written by Yuyi Morales, and published by Roaring Brook Press/A Neal Porter Book.
• The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus, illustrated by Melissa Sweet, written by Jen Bryant, and published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers/Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
• This One Summer, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki, written by Mariko Tamaki, and published by First Second.

Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award, honoring an African-American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults:

• Brown Girl Dreaming, written by Jacqueline Woodson and published by Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Group (USA).

King Author Honor Books:

• Kwame Alexander for The Crossover, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
• Marilyn Nelson for How I Discovered Poetry, illustrated by Hadley Hooper and published by Dial Books/Penguin Books (USA).
• Kekla Magoon for How It Went Down, published by Henry Holt and Company.

Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award:

• Firebird, illustrated by Christopher Myers, written by Misty Copeland, and published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons/Penguin Group (USA).

King Illustrator Honor Books:

• Christian Robinson for Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker, written by Patricia Hruby Powell, published by Chronicle Books.
• Frank Morrison for Little Melba and Her Big Trombone, written by Katheryn Russell-Brown, published by Lee and Low Books.

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award:

• When I Was the Greatest, written by Jason Reynolds and published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster Children’s Books.

Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement:

• Deborah D. Taylor, coordinator of School and Student Services at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore.

Michael L. Printz Award, for excellence in literature written for young adults:

• I’ll Give You the Sun, written by Jandy Nelson and published by Dial Books/Penguin Group (USA).

Printz Honor Books:

• And We Stay, written by Jenny Hubbard and published by Delacorte Press/Random House Children’s Books.
• The Carnival at Bray, written by Jessie Ann Foley and published by Elephant Rock Books.
• Grasshopper Jungle, written by Andrew Smith and published by Dutton Books/Penguin Group (USA).
• This One Summer, written by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki, and published by First Second.

Schneider Family Book Award, for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience:

• A Boy and a Jaguar, written by Alan Rabinowitz, illustrated by Catia Chien, and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, won the award for children from birth to age 10.
• Rain Reign, written by Ann M. Martin and published by Feiwel and Friends, is the winner of the middle-school award (ages 11 to 13).
• Girls Like Us, written by Gail Giles and published by Candlewick Press, is the winner of the award for teens (ages 13 to 18).

Alex Awards, for the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences:

• All the Light We Cannot See, written by Anthony Doerr and published by Scribner/Simon & Schuster.
• Bellweather Rhapsody, written by Kate Racculia and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
• Bingo’s Run, written by James A. Levine and published by Spiegel & Grau/Random House Publishing Group.
• Confessions, written by Kanae Minato, translated by Stephen Snyder and published by Mulholland Books/Little, Brown and Company/Hachette Book Group.
• Everything I Never Told You, written by Celeste Ng and published by The Penguin Press/Penguin Group (USA).
• Lock In, written by John Scalzi, a Tor Book published by Tom Doherty Associates.
• The Martian, written by Andy Weir and published by Crown Publishers/Random House.
• The Terrorist’s Son: A Story of Choice, written by Zak Ebrahim with Jeff Giles and published by TED Books/Simon & Schuster.
• Those Who Wish Me Dead, written by Michael Koryta and published by Little, Brown and Company/Hachette Book Group.
• Wolf in White Van, written by John Darnielle and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Andrew Carnegie Medal, for excellence in children’s video:

• Paul R. Gagne and Melissa Reilly Ellard, Weston Woods Studios, Inc., producers of Me…Jane, an adaptation of Patrick McDonnell’s 2012 Caldecott Honor book.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, honoring an author or illustrator whose books, published in the U.S., have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.

• Donald Crews, whose award-winning works include Freight Train, which was a Caldecott Honor Book in 1979, and Truck, a Caldecott Honor Book in 1981. His other titles include Harbor, Parade, Shortcut, and Bigmama’s, all published by Greenwillow Books.

Margaret A. Edwards Award, for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults:

• Sharon M. Draper, author of more than 20 books, including Tears of a Tiger (1994), Forged by Fire (1997), Darkness Before Dawn (2001), Battle of Jericho (2004), Copper Sun (2006), and November Blues (2007), all published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.

2016 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award, recognizing an author, critic, librarian, historian, or teacher of children’s literature, who then presents a lecture at a winning host site.

• Pat Mora, a pioneering author and literacy advocate who has written more than three dozen books for young people that represent the Mexican-American experience.

Mildred L. Batchelder Award Winner, to an outstanding children’s book translated from a foreign language and subsequently published in the U.S.:

• Mikis and the Donkey, written by Bibi Dumon Tak, illustrated by Philip Hopman, translated by Laura Watkinson, and published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers/Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Batchelder Honor Books:

• Hidden: A Child’s Story of the Holocaust, published by First Second, an imprint of Roaring Brook Press/Holtzbrinck Publishing; written by Loic Dauvillier, illustrated by Marc Lizano, color by Greg Salsedo, and translated by Alexis Siegel.
• Nine Open Arms, published by Enchanted Lion Books; written by Benny Lindelauf, illustrated by Dasha Tolstikova, and translated by John Nieuwenhuizen.

Odyssey Award, for best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the U.S.:

• H. O. R. S. E.: A Game of Basketball and Imagination, produced by Live Oak Media, written by Christopher Myers, and narrated by Dion Graham and Christopher Myers.

Odyssey Honor Recordings:

• Five, Six, Seven, Nate! produced by Audioworks (Children’s)/Simon & Schuster Audio Division, written and narrated by Tim Federle.
• The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place, produced by Listening Library/Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, written by Julie Berry, and narrated by Jayne Entwistle.
• A Snicker of Magic, produced by Scholastic Audiobooks, written by Natalie Lloyd, and narrated by Cassandra Morris.

Pura Belpré (Illustrator) Award, honoring a Latino writer and illustrator whose children’s books best portray, affirm, and celebrate the Latino cultural experience:

• Viva Frida, illustrated and written by Yuyi Morales and published by Roaring Brook Press, a Neal Porter Book.

Belpré Illustrator Honor Books:

• Little Roja Riding Hood, illustrated by Susan Guevara, written by Susan Middleton Elya, and published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons/Penguin Group (USA).
• Green Is a Chile Pepper, illustrated by John Parra, written by Roseanne Greenfield Thong, and published by Chronicle Books.
• Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation, illustrated and written by Duncan Tonatiuh and published by Abrams Books for Young Readers/ABRAMS.

Pura Belpré (Author) Award, honoring Latino authors whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience:

• I Lived on Butterfly Hill, written by Marjorie Agosín, illustrated by Lee White, and published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster Children’s Books.

Belpré Author Honor Book:

• Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes, written by Juan Felipe Herrera, illustrated by Raúl Colón, and published by Dial Books for Young Readers/Penguin Group (USA).

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award, for most distinguished informational book for children:

• The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus, written by Jen Bryant and published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers/Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Sibert Honor Books:

• Brown Girl Dreaming, written by Jacqueline Woodson and published by Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Group (USA).
• The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, & the Fall of Imperial Russia, written by Candace Fleming and published by Schwartz & Wade Books/Random House Children’s Books.
• Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker, written by Patricia Hruby Powell, illustrated by Christian Robinson, and published by Chronicle Books.
• Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting With the Great Whites of California’s Farallon Islands, written and illustrated by Katherine Roy and published by David Macaulay Studio/Roaring Brook Press.
• Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation, written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh and published by Abrams Books for Young Readers/ABRAMS.

Stonewall Book Award – Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award, given annually to English-language children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender experience:

• This Day in June, written by Gayle E. Pitman, Ph.D., illustrated by Kristyna Litten, and published by Magination Press/the American Psychological Association.

Stonewall Honor Books:

• Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, written by Susan Kuklin, photographed by Susan Kuklin, and published by Candlewick Press.
• I’ll Give You the Sun, written by Jandy Nelson and published by Dial Books/Penguin Group (USA).
• Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress, written by Christine Baldacchio, pictures by Isabelle Malenfant, and published by Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press.

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award, for the most distinguished beginning reader book:

• You Are (Not) Small, written by Anna Kang, illustrated by Christopher Weyant, and published by Two Lions.

Geisel Honor Books:

• Mr. Putter & Tabby Turn the Page, written by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Arthur Howard, and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
• Waiting Is Not Easy! written by Mo Willems, illustrated by Mo Willems, and published by Hyperion Books for Children/Disney Book Group.

William C. Morris Award, for a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens:

• Gabi, a Girl in Pieces, written by Isabel Quintero and published by Cinco Puntos Press.

Finalists for the Morris Award:

• The Carnival at Bray, written by Jessie Ann Foley and published by Elephant Rock Books.
• The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim, written by E.K. Johnston and published by Carolrhoda Lab™/Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Publishing Group.
• The Scar Boys, written by Len Vlahos and published by Egmont Publishing.
• The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, written by Leslye Walton and published by Candlewick Press.

YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults:

• Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek, written by Maya Van Wagenen and published by Dutton/Penguin Young Readers Group.

Finalists for YALSA Award:

• Laughing at My Nightmare, written by Shane Burcaw and published by Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.
• The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia, written by Candace Fleming and published by Schwartz & Wade/Random House Children’s Books.
• Ida M. Tarbell: The Woman Who Challenged Big Business — and Won! written by Emily Arnold McCully and published by Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers.
• The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights, written by Steve Sheinkin and published by Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.

For more information on the ALA youth media awards and notables, visit ala.org/yma.