Book Awards - Children's and Youth Literature   Tags: book_awards, childrens_literature, education, research, young_adult_literature  

Each year there are several children's and young adult book and media awards announced at the American Library Association (ALA) mid-winter meeting. 

Awards are given to children and youth books in a variety of categories.  Some honor a specific title as a whole, some the illustration quality,  others an author or publisher's entire body of work. These awards can be used as a source to find critically acclamied works, books featuring or written by a specific cultural group, or for various coursework assignments.

Tabs/Pages

The Age Groups tab lists awards sorted in Primary and Secondary school groupings.  Below each award is the specific age criteria for that award.

The Multicultural tab lists a group of awards that recognize children's and young adult literature titles that portray an authentic image of a racial, ethnic or religious group; or promote social justice and peace.  The criteria for some awards recognize the Author or Illustrator's racial or ethnic heritage. 

The Disabilties tab lists awards that recognize literature that portrays people with disabilities in an authentic way.

The Subject Area tab lists awards by the topic (social studies or language arts) or the type of book (fiction, non-fiction, poetry) that the award covers.  Most awards cover more than one type of book and are listed in multiple categories.

The Illustration tab lists awards that recognize illustrations rather than the picture book as text.

The Reader's Choice tab lists awards that recognize titles chosen by students in a specific range of grades.

The Award Criteria tab lists the critera each award uses for choosing titles, authors, illustrators or publishers to honor and how often the award is given.

Guide orginally created by
Heidi McReynolds,
September 2008.