Today the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards were announced!
For the last couple years, I’ve done a program for other Youth Services librarians in February, highlighting award winners – so for this month I’m going to try to madly read the winners I’ve missed. But I did want to take a moment to celebrate the wonderful books I did read and love before they got their due recognition.
The picture above is the wonderful way I spent a bit of my snow day – reading the Newbery Medal winner, All the Blues in the Sky, by Renee Watson. I was given a signed copy last June at ALA Annual Conference, and fully meant to read it, but it didn’t have a due date! So that way it was all ready for me to read today.
But which ones did I catch? First, I love that I had a review of the Sibert Medal Winner, Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka con la Papa, by Sara Andrea Fajardo and Juana Martinez-Neal, all queued up to post today.
Another book that I only recently discovered was Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book, André: André Leon Talley – A Fabulously Fashionable Fairy Tale, written by Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders, illustrated by Lamont O’Neal.
But how did my 2025 Sonderbooks Stand-outs do?
First, I’m super happy about the success of my #3 Stand-out in Teen Speculative Fiction, Legendary Frybread Drive-in, edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith. This book won the Michael L. Printz Award and the American Indian Youth Literature Award for Best Young Adult Book and an Odyssey Honor for audiobooks.
Another triple winner was Candace Fleming. Not only did she win the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award for her latest book (My #2 Stand-out in Teen Nonfiction), Death in the Jungle, she won YALSA’s Margaret Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults and ALSC’s Children’s Literature Legacy Award for a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.
And a double winner was Whale Eyes, by James Robinson, my #1 Stand-out in Children’s Nonfiction, which won the Schneider Family Young Adult Award and an Odyssey Honor for audiobooks. (Since a strength of that book was how he showed you what it’s like to see the way he does – I really wonder how they pulled that off in an audiobook.)
The rest of my Stand-outs that won things won only one thing each. Let me go by category:
#2 in More Teen Fiction, Sisters in the Wind, by Angeline Boulley, was an American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book.
Last year’s #8 in Speculative Teen Fiction, Sheine Lende, by Darcie Little Badger, was also an American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book. (These are given in even years.)
#5 in Children’s Speculative Fiction, The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest, by Aubrey Hartman, was a John Newbery Medal Honor Book.
#2 in More Children’s Fiction, The Teacher of Nomad Land, by Daniel Nayeri, was also a John Newbery Medal Honor Book.
#3 in More Children’s Fiction, The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze, by Derrick Barnes, was a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book.
#9 in Children’s Nonfiction, The Book of Candles: Eight Poems for Hanukkah, written by Laurel Snyder, illustrated by Leanne Hatch, won a Sydney Taylor Silver Medal for Picture Books.
#2 in Picture Books, the brilliant Every Monday Mabel, by Jashar Awan, was a Randolph Caldecott Medal Honor Book. (I got a signed copy of that at ALA!)
#8 in Picture Books, Chooch Helped, by Andrea L. Rogers, illustrated by Rebecca Lee Koonz, won last year’s Randolph Caldecott Medal, and this year’s American Indian Youth Literature Award for Best Picture Book. (These are given every other year.)
And my Stand-outs are not selected for the art alone, so I am indeed delighted with this year’s Randolph Caldecott Medal Winner, my #9 Sonderbooks Stand-out in Picture Books, Fireworks, by Matthew Burgess, illustrated by Cátia Chien.
Yes, I did need a moment of silence for my Sonderbooks Stand-outs that did not win any awards today – but all of them have my deep love. And all of the choices are truly wonderful. So it’s worth taking time to celebrate these amazing books. Huzzah!
And for the next month, you can expect to see more reviews of award winners – and they may well show up on next year’s Sonderbooks Stand-outs.