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Awards for Children’s Literature

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Online Resources

  • ALSC Book & Media Awards Shelf
    Browse the Book & Media Awards tool from the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC). The searchable webpage includes more than 2,000 books, recordings, apps, and websites for children that have been honored during the 100 years of ALSC’s awards history. Search by award/notable list, author, genre, format, award year, or age range.
  • Caldecott Medal Books
    This quick-reference guide lists all of the Caldecott Award winners and their call numbers in the S-Collection.
  • Caldecott Medal Homepage
    This page was designed by the American Library Association’s Association for Library Services to Children, which awards the Caldecott Medal. The page features a brief history of the award, important terms and criteria for the award, and detailed committee resources.
  • Database of Award Winning Children’s Literature 
    This database of award-winning children’s literature can be searched by a number of useful categories, such as the gender of the protagonist, the age of the reader, and the book’s setting or genre. The author, a librarian at Ohio State University, has done an excellent job in providing simple, concrete instructions on how to use the database.
  • Hans Christian Andersen Award
    Administered by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), this is one of the most prestigious international awards for children’s literature. Every other year, the Hans Christian Andersen Award recognizes one author and one illustrator “whose complete works have made an important, lasting contribution to children’s literature.” From this award homepage, users can browse the list of winning authors (awarded since 1956) and illustrators (awarded since 1966) and learn more about the recent juries and selection criteria.
  • National Book Award for Young People’s Literature
    The National Book Foundation, an organization dedicated to celebrating literature in America, has a search function for locating titles that have been honored by their awards in the past several decades. This link directs to a chronological list of the children’s and young adult titles recognized within the Young People’s Literature category. Note that many of records of the finalists and winners for each year include a snippet of the judges’ assessment of the book’s merit.
  • Newbery Medal Books
    Use this guide as a ready reference for all of the Newbery Award winners and their call numbers in the S-Collection.
  • Newbery Medal Homepage
    This page was designed by the American Library Association’s Association for Library Services to Children, which awards the Newbery Medal. The page features a brief history of the award, important terms and criteria for the award, and detailed committee information.
  • 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.
  • South Asia Book Award
    The South Asia Book Award is given out each year to two books that “accurately and skillfully portray South Asia or South Asians in the diasporas.” Along with lists of the winning and honor books, the website also includes resources such as lesson plans and related websites and blogs.
  • The Walter Dean Myers Awards
    These awards, administered by the organization We Need Diverse Books, were inaugurated in 2016. In each of two categories, Teen (ages 13-18) and Younger Readers (ages 9-13), the awards recognize “diverse authors whose works feature diverse main characters or address diversity in a meaningful way.”

Print Resources

S.027.625 C127
Caldecott Medal Books, 1938-1957. The Horn Book Magazine. 1957.

S.028.52 B456c
Berman, Matt. Children’s Book Awards Annual. 1998-.
This series reviews the books from the major national children’s book awards and lists, giving them each a short synopsis and critical review of each book. The awards covered are the Newbery, Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Mildred L. Bachelder, Pura Belpré, Boston Globe-Horn, National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Also included are lists from various journals, such as the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books’ Blue Ribbon Books and School Library Journal’s Best Books. Author, illustrator, title, awards, publisher, type, and genre/subject indexes can be found near the back of this book.

S.010 C436
Children’s Book Council. Children’s Books: Awards & Prizes: Including Prizes and Awards for Young Adult Books. 2005 ed. New York: Children’s Book Council, Inc., 2005.
This printed reference tool contains information about 288 different awards and prizes for children’s literature. It is organized into four sections: United States Awards selected by Adults, United States Awards selected by Young Readers, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and United Kingdom Awards, and Selected International and Multicultural Awards. Most of the lists are current through 1996. The lists are indexed by title and person.

S.016.813 G412n 2006
Gillespie, John T. and Corinne J. Naden. The Newbery/Printz Companion: Booktalk and Related Materials for Award Winners and Honor Books. 3rd ed., 2006.
This excellent source contains plot summaries, themes, passages for booktalking, related titles, and information about the author for every Newbery Medal and Printz Award winner through 2006. Brief summaries of Newbery and Printz Honor books are also included. The 1st ed. of The Newbery Companion: Booktalk and Related Materials for Newbery Medal and Honor Books (published in 1996) is also available online as an e-Book through UIUC’s online collection.

S.028.5 N424 1955
Newbery Medal Books: 1922-1955. Boston: Horn Book, 1955.

S.028.5 N424 1965
Newbery and Caldecott Medal Books: 1956-1965. Boston: Horn Book, 1965.

S.028.5 N424 1975
Newbery and Caldecott Medal Books: 1966-1975. Boston: Horn Book, 1975.

S.028.5079 N423
Newbery and Caldecott Medal Books: 1976-1985. Boston: Horn Book, 1986.

S.011.62079 N428
The Newbery & Caldecott Medal Books, 1986-2000: A Comprehensive Guide to the Winners. Chicago: American Library Association, 2001.
This series of books includes the acceptance papers, related material, and biographical information for all of the Newbery and Caldecott recipients. Included are author, illustrator, and title indexes. The 2006 edition is available online as an e-Book through UIUC’s online collection.

S.011.62 Y825e
York, Sherry. Ethnic Book Awards: a Directory of Multicultural Literature for Young Readers. 2005.
Features high quality multicultural literature from the winners of the culturally-specific following book awards: the Sydney Taylor, Coretta Scott King, Carter G. Woodson, Americas, Tomas Rivera, Pura Belpré, and Asian Pacific American Awards. Includes annotations for each book and indexes by subject and title.

Award-Winning Books in the S-Collection

Each year we automatically acquire a copy of books receiving the following awards. For the Caldecott Medal and Newbery Medal award books, we receive three copies of each. Note that honor books have not won the award but have been chosen to receive honorable mention.

  • Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards and Honors
    This award annually honors authors and illustrators of outstanding children’s and young adult books in these three categories: Fiction and Poetry, Nonfiction, and Picture Book.
  • Caldecott Medal and Honor
    The Caldecott Medal is given to a U.S. illustrator of the most distinguished picture book for children published in the U.S. in the preceding year. We also collect Caldecott Honor books.
  • Carnegie Medal
    The Carnegie Medal is given annually by the British group the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) to an outstanding book for children.
  • Carter G. Woodson Award
    This award is given annually, with four awards and three honors are given to social science books best depicting ethnicity in the United States.
  • Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award
    Any book that is an act of creative writing, written by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, and that was published in Canada the previous year is eligible for this award.
  • Canadian Library Association Amelia F. Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award
    This award is given to an illustrator of an outstanding children’s book (for ages 12 or under) published in Canada the previous year. The winner must be a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada and the text of the book must also be outstanding.
  • Canadian Library Association YA Canadian Book Award
    This award is given to an author of an outstanding fictional young adult book in English. The author must be a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada.
  • Coretta Scott King Awards and Honors
    This award commemorates the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther king Jr. and honors his widow Coretta Scott King for her courage and determination in continuing work for peace and world brotherhood. The award is presented annually to authors and illustrators of African descent whose distinguished books promote an understanding and appreciation of the American Dream.
  • Kate Greenaway Medal
    This award is given annually by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), a British organization, to an example of outstanding illustration in a children’s book.
  • Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in YA Literature
    There are two winners and up to three honor awards given out each year. The awards are given to books that exemplify literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a Topeka, Kansas school librarian and presented by the American Library Association Young Adult Services Association.
  • Mildred L. Batchelder Award and Honor
    This award honors the former executive director of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). It is given by ALSC to an American publisher for a children’s book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country and then translated into English and published in the United States.
  • Newbery Medal and Honor
    There is one winner and four honor awards given out each year. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
  • New York Times Best Illustrated Books
    Nine to ten titles are given this award each year. The awards are sponsored by The New York Times and are selected by a panel of three judges from The New York Times’ book review list.
  • Pura Belpré Award and Honor
    There are two winners and four to five honor awards given out every other year. The Pura Belpré Award honors Latinx writers and illustrators whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latinx cultural experience in children’s books. It is named after Pura Belpré, the first Latinx librarian from the New York Public Library. It is co-sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and the National Association to Promote Library Services to the Spanish Speaking.