It’s Book Award Season!
Monday was the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards, and it’s a time to celebrate Book Joy!
What’s more, yesterday I spent five hours online deliberating with the committee to select this year’s Mathical Book Prize winners (announced February 21), and I’m also in charge of getting some annotations in for the zero to five reading group of Capitol Choices and overseeing the Young Adult Speculative Fiction judges choosing a Cybils Award winner (announced February 14). So awards are on my mind!
Now, I put a huge number of books on hold Monday. And was feeling smug that I already have several honorees checked out. But I wanted to take a moment to celebrate some of the books I’ve already read and already love.
First, I was on the Morris Award committee this year and am super happy that now I can post the reviews I wrote of our winner and finalists. (I will try to get them posted within the next week or so.) Almost all of them won other awards, and I was so proud! So I have to celebrate them first:
Rez Ball, by Byron Graves
Our William C. Morris Award Winner!
American Indian Youth Literature Award Winner, Young Adults
CYBILS Young Adult Fiction Finalist
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #5 More Teen Fiction
Saints of the Household, by Ari Tison
William C. Morris Award Finalist
Walter Award Winner, Teen Category
Pura Belpré Award Winner, Young Adult Author
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #4 More Teen Fiction
Once There Was, by Kiyash Monsef
William C. Morris Award Finalist
Odyssey Award Honor (for the audiobook)
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #3 Children’s Speculative Fiction
All the Fighting Parts, by Hannah V. Sawyerr
William C. Morris Award Finalist
Walter Award Honor, Teen Category
CYBILS Finalist, Novels in Verse
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #8 More Teen Fiction
She Is a Haunting, by Trang Thanh Tran
William C. Morris Award Finalist
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #9 Teen Speculative Fiction
For the other awards, the one that simply filled me with joy was the beautiful book Big, by Vashti Harrison, winning the Randolph Caldecott Medal for most distinguished picture book of the year. Everyone, read this wonderful book! Read it to your children!
Big, by Vashti Harrison
Randolph Caldecott Medal Winner
Coretta Scott King Honor, both for Author and Illustrator
National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Finalist
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #2 Picture Books
(Number one was my personal favorite for quirky reasons, but this was the book I wanted to win the Caldecott — and it did!)
Another super joyful moment with recognition for a book of my heart was this one:
Simon Sort of Says
John Newbery Medal Honor
National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Longlist
Schneider Family Book Award Honor, Middle Grades
CYBILS Middle Grade Fiction Finalist
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #1 More Children’s Fiction
And more favorites that picked up wins:
Mexikid, by Pedro Martin
John Newbery Medal Honor
Odyssey Award Honor (for the audiobook)
Pura Belpré Award Winner, for both Illustrator and Children’s Author
CYBILS Elementary/Middle Grade Graphic Novels Finalist
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #8 Children’s Nonfiction
A First Time for Everything, by Dan Santat
National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Winner
CYBILS Elementary/Middle Grade Graphic Novels Finalist
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #1 Children’s Nonfiction
In Every Life, by Marla Frazee
Randolph Caldecott Medal Honor
Remember, by Joy Harjo, illustrated by Michaela Goode
American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor, Picture Books
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #3 Picture Books
The Lost Year, by Katherine Marsh
National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Finalist
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #4 Children’s Fiction
Warrior Girl Unearthed, by Angeline Boulley
American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #3 More Teen Fiction
Hidden Systems, by Dan Nott
National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Longlist
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #3 Teen Nonfiction
America Redux, by Ariel Aberg-Riger
YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #7 Teen Nonfiction
Now, because of reading for the Morris Award in 2023, I did not read widely this year. So this is a small sampling of award winners, but I am very sure that many more will show up on my 2024 Sonderbooks Stand-outs list.
Happy reading!