Special Collections

ALA Award Winners - Children's

Description: The American Library Association offers a wide range of awards recognizing excellence in children's and middle grade literature. This collection contains winners of the AIYLA, Batchelder, Belpre, Seuss Geisel, and Stonewall awards. #award #kids


Showing 26 through 50 of 63 results
 
 

Too Bright to See

by Kyle Lukoff

A haunting ghost story about navigating grief, growing up, and growing into a new gender identity.

It's the summer before middle school and eleven-year-old Bug's best friend Moira has decided the two of them need to use the next few months to prepare. For Moira, this means figuring out the right clothes to wear, learning how to put on makeup, and deciding which boys are cuter in their yearbook photos than in real life. But none of this is all that appealing to Bug, who doesn't particularly want to spend more time trying to understand how to be a girl. Besides, there's something more important to worry about: A ghost is haunting Bug's eerie old house in rural Vermont...and maybe haunting Bug in particular.

As Bug begins to untangle the mystery of who this ghost is and what they're trying to say, an altogether different truth comes to light—Bug is transgender.

Date Added: 07/24/2023


Year: 2022

Award: Stonewall

Julián Is a Mermaid

by Jessica Love

In an exuberant picture book, a glimpse of costumed mermaids leaves one boy flooded with wonder and ready to dazzle the world.

While riding the subway home from the pool with his abuela one day, Julián notices three women spectacularly dressed up. Their hair billows in brilliant hues, their dresses end in fishtails, and their joy fills the train car. When Julián gets home, daydreaming of the magic he’s seen, all he can think about is dressing up just like the ladies in his own fabulous mermaid costume: a periwinkle curtain for his tail, the fronds of a potted fern for his headdress. But what will Abuela think about the mess he makes — and even more importantly, what will she think about how Julián sees himself? Mesmerizing and full of heart, Jessica Love’s author-illustrator debut is a jubilant picture of self-love and a radiant celebration of individuality.

Date Added: 04/03/2019


Year: 2019

Award: Stonewall

Up, Tall And High!

by Ethan Long

Three side-splitting stories in one great picture book! In three laugh-out-loud situations, an irresistible cast of colorful birds illustrate the concepts of "up," "tall" and "high. " First, a short peacock proves that he may not be tall, but he definitely isn't small. Then, a resourceful bird helps his penguin friend find a way to fly. Finally, two birds want to live in the same tree, but what goes up must come down! Each short story features a flap that reveals a surprise twist. With fun fold-outs, easy-to-read text, and a hilarious cast of characters, these stories beg preschoolers and emerging readers to act them out again and again.

Winner of the Theodore Seuss Geisel Medal

Date Added: 07/21/2017


Year: 2013

Award: Seuss Geisel

The Apprentice

by Pilar Molina Llorente

A story about a young boy who wishes to become a painter. Even though his father doesn’t like that, he is forced to send his child to be apprenticed by Maestro Cosimo de Forli who is jealous of the boy.

Date Added: 07/21/2017


Year: 1994

Award: Batchelder

Just a Girl

by Lia Levi

In this award-winning memoir translated from Italian to English, a Jewish girl grows up during a difficult time of racial discrimination and war, and discovers light in unexpected places. This classic, powerful story from Lia Levi is adapted for young readers, with beautiful black-and-white illustrations, a family photo album, and a powerful author’s note to readers. 1938, Italy. Six-year-old Lia loves to build sandcastles at the beach and her biggest problem is her shyness and quiet, birdlike voice—until prime minister Mussolini joins forces with Hitler in World War II, and everything changes.Now there are laws saying Jewish children can’t go to school, Jews can’t work, or go on vacation. It’s difficult for Lia to understand why this is happening to her family. When her father loses his job, they must give up their home and move from city to city.As war comes closer, it becomes too dangerous to stay together, and Lia and her sisters are sent to hide at a convent. Will she ever be “just a girl” again?The memoir is full of poignant moments of friendship and loss, dreaded tests at school, told in Lia's captivating voice, as she grows into a young teen. Just a Girl is an important addition to the WWII Jewish canon.

Date Added: 07/24/2023


Year: 2023

Award: Batchelder

Zelda and Ivy, the Runaways

by Laura Mcgee Kvasnosky

In three short notes, two fox sisters run away from home, bury a time capsule, and take advantage of some creative juice.

Winner of the Theodore Seuss Geisel Medal

Date Added: 07/21/2017


Year: 2007

Award: Seuss Geisel

Friedrich

by Hans Peter Richter and Edite Kroll

The tragic story of a little Jewish boy growing up in Nazi Germany during the 1930s.

Date Added: 07/21/2017


Year: 1972

Award: Batchelder

Temple Alley Summer

by Avery Fischer Udagawa and Sachiko Kashiwaba and Miho Satake

Winner of a 2022 SCBWI Crystal Kite AwardFrom renowned Japanese children’s author Sachiko Kashiwaba, Temple Alley Summer is a fantastical and mysterious adventure filled with the living dead, a magical pearl, and a suspiciously nosy black cat named Kiriko featuring beautiful illustrations from Miho Satake. Kazu knows something odd is going on when he sees a girl in a white kimono sneak out of his house in the middle of the night―was he dreaming? Did he see a ghost? Things get even stranger when he shows up to school the next day to see the very same figure sitting in his classroom. No one else thinks it’s weird, and, even though Kazu doesn’t remember ever seeing her before, they all seem convinced that the ghost-girl Akari has been their friend for years! When Kazu’s summer project to learn about Kimyo Temple draws the meddling attention of his mysterious neighbor Ms. Minakami and his secretive new classmate Akari, Kazu soon learns that not everything is as it seems in his hometown. Kazu discovers that Kimyo Temple is linked to a long forgotten legend about bringing the dead to life, which could explain Akari’s sudden appearance―is she a zombie or a ghost? Kazu and Akari join forces to find and protect the source of the temple's power. An unfinished story in a magazine from Akari’s youth might just hold the key to keeping Akari in the world of the living, and it’s up to them to find the story’s ending and solve the mystery as the adults around them conspire to stop them from finding the truth.

Date Added: 07/24/2023


Year: 2022

Award: Batchelder

You Are (Not) Small

by Anna Kang and Christopher Weyant

2015 Geisel Medal Winner!

Two fuzzy creatures can't agree on who is small and who is big, until a couple of surprise guests show up, settling it once and for all!

The simple text of Anna Kang and bold illustrations of New Yorker cartoonist Christopher Weyant tell an original and very funny story about size--it all depends on who's standing next to you.

Date Added: 07/21/2017


Year: 2015

Award: Seuss Geisel

Charlie & Mouse

by Laurel Snyder and Emily Hughes

Four hilarious stories, two inventive brothers, one irresistible story! Join Charlie and Mouse as they talk to lumps, take the neighborhood to a party, sell some rocks, and invent the bedtime banana. With imagination and humor, Laurel Snyder and Emily Hughes paint a lively picture of brotherhood that children will relish in a format perfect for children not quite ready for chapter books.
Winner of the 2018 Theodore Seuss Giesel Award

Date Added: 02/12/2018


Year: 2018

Award: Seuss Giesel

The Last Cuentista

by Donna Barba Higuera

Winner of the John Newbery MedalWinner of the Pura Belpré AwardTIME's Best Books of the YearWall Street Journal's Best of the YearMinneapolis Star Tribune's Best of the YearBoston Globe's Best of the YearBookPage's Best of the YearPublishers Weekly's Best of the YearSchool Library Journal's Best of the YearKirkus Reviews' Best of the YearBank Street's Best of the YearChicago Public Library's Best of the BestNew York Public Library Best of the YearA Junior Library Guild SelectionCybils Award FinalistFrom Pura Belpré Award winner and Newbery Medalist, Donna Barba Higuera—a brilliant journey through the stars, to the very heart of what makes us human."Gripping in its twists and turns, and moving in its themes – truly a beautiful cuento."—New York Times"Clever and compelling … wonderfully subversive."—The Wall Street Journal★ "This tale packs a wallop. Exquisite."—Kirkus Reviews (starred)★ "Gripping, euphonious, and full of storytelling magic."—Publishers Weekly (starred)★ "A strong, heroic character, fighting incredible odds to survive and protect others."—School Library Journal (starred)Había una vez . . . There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.But Petra's world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children – among them Petra and her family – have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet – and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity's past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether.Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?

Date Added: 07/24/2023


Year: 2022

Award: Belpré

Benny and Penny in the Big No-No!

by Geoffrey Hayes

In the second comic-book-style title to star brother and sister mice Benny and Penny, the fussy duo track down a mysterious new kid who may have climbed over the fence into their yard and stolen Benny's pail (a no-no).

Winner of the Theodore Seuss Geisel Medal

Date Added: 07/21/2017


Year: 2010

Award: Seuss Geisel

The Man from the Other Side

by Uri Orlev and Hillel Halkin

A Pole, 14-year-old Marek helps his stepfather smuggle goods into the Jewish ghetto, enduring trips through the foul sewers not from altruism but in order to reap lucrative profits. When Marek decides to help another Jew, his actions lead him into the ghetto during the peak of the uprising. "The author's refusal to exaggerate gives the story unimpeachable impact".--Publishers Weekly.

Date Added: 07/21/2017


Year: 1992

Award: Batchelder

The Island on Bird Street

by Uri Orlev and Hillel Halkin

The Second World War is raging. Times are very bad in Poland, especially for Jews, and Alex is one of them. Alone, Alex is forced to take refuge in an abandoned building at 78 Bird Street.

Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Honor Book

Date Added: 07/21/2017


Year: 1985

Award: Batchelder

How I Became an American

by Karin Gundisch and James Skofield

In 1902 in a small German town a traveler turns up singing songs about America. The land sounds like paradise, and young Johann Bonfert is excited when his own family plans a life overseas. They set out from a small town in Central Europe in search of a better life in America. But for ten-year-old Johann, the journey across the Atlantic to Youngstown, Ohio, is much more than a change of home and homeland. Johann's whole family is changing, with new jobs, a new language, and new struggles. Everything is different in America. Rich people want to stay thin, the milk cows have American names, and the very air, which at home smelled of hay and rain, here smells only of soot. But finally, as he writes about his new life and begins to realize just how far he has come, "Johnny" also begins to feel that at last he is an American. Through the plain-spoken, affecting voice of Johann, prize-winning author Karin Gundisch and celebrated translator James Skofield capture the stark truths faced by German-speaking immigrants and the heartening family bonds that saw them through--experiences as true today as they were a hundred years ago." This book is full of a young boy's thoughts and dreams and very interesting details about the way people lived in the United States and Germany over a hundred years ago. It contains lyrics of songs used to encourage and discourage immigration, short versions of German children's stories and a few footnotes.

Date Added: 07/21/2017


Year: 2002

Award: Batchelder

Triple Threat (Sports Stories)

by Jacqueline Guest

Matthew Eagletail's good friend, John Salton, has come to visit. Together, the boys form the Bobcats to compete in the Rocky Mountain basketball tournament. A summer of fun stretches out before them. The fun stops when Matt's arch rival, John Beal, enters the tournament with his team, the Mean Machine. Suddenly, Matt finds himself fighting the battle of his life. The Bobcats and the Machine use fair play, foul play -- whatever it takes to win.

Date Added: 08/07/2017


Year: 2012

Award: AIYLA

Melissa

by Alex Gino

BE WHO YOU ARE.

When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl.

George thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part . . . because she's a boy.

With the help of her best friend, Kelly, George comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte—but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all.

Date Added: 07/21/2017


Year: 2016

Award: Stonewall

Rose Blanche

by Christophe Gallaz

A young girl named Rose Blanche watches as the streets of her town fill with German soldiers and tanks. Then, one day, she follows a truck into the woods, where she discovers a terrible secret.

This acclaimed book, illustrated by Hans Christian Andersen Award winner Roberto Innocenti, contrasts the innocence of childhood with the horrors of war.

Date Added: 07/21/2017


Year: 1986

Award: Batchelder

The Thief Lord

by Cornelia Funke

The enchanting international bestseller with bonus back matter and a beautiful new cover!Two orphaned brothers, Prosper and Bo, have run away to Venice, where crumbling canals and misty alleyways shelter a secret community of street urchins. Leader of this motley crew of lost children is a clever, charming boy with a dark history of his own: He calls himself the Thief Lord.Propser and Bo relish their new "family" and life of petty crime. But their cruel aunt and a bumbling detective are on their trail. And posing an even greater threat to the boys' freedom is something from a forgotten past: a beautiful magical treasure with the power to spin time itself.

Date Added: 07/21/2017


Year: 2003

Award: Batchelder

The Birchbark House

by Louise Erdrich

Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847.

[This text is listed as an example that meets Common Core Standards in English language arts in grades 4-5 at http://www.corestandards.org.]

Date Added: 05/31/2019


Year: 2006

Award: AIYLA

Bink and Gollie

by Alison Mcghee and Kate DiCamillo

Meet Bink and Gollie, marvelous companions who can always agree to put on their roller skates. In other matters, however, (such as which socks to wear, the buying of goldfish, or venturing to the Andes Mountains), compromise is required. But even if one sees a tree house as halfway up and the other as halfway down, these girls are always the best of friends.

Winner of the Theodore Seuss Geisel Medal

Date Added: 07/21/2017


Year: 2011

Award: Seuss Geisel

Martin de Porres

by Gary D. Schmidt and David Diaz

As the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a former slave, Martin de Porres was born into extreme poverty. Even so, his mother begged the church fathers to allow him into the priesthood. Instead, Martin was accepted as a servant boy. But soon, the young man was performing miracles. Rumors began to fly around the city of a strange mulatto boy with healing hands, who gave first to the people of the barrios. Martin continued to serve in the church, until he was finally received by the Dominican Order, no longer called the worthless son of a slave, but rather a saint and the rose in the desert.

Date Added: 10/17/2018


Year: 2013

Award: Belpré

Counting Coup

by Herman J. Viola and Joseph Medicine Crow

The book presents the amazing life story of Joseph Medicine Crow and illuminates the challenges faced by the Crow people as hurricanes of change raged through America.

Date Added: 08/07/2017


Year: 2008

Award: AIYLA

Little & Lion

by Brandy Colbert

A stunning novel on love, loss, identity, and redemption, from Publishers Weekly Flying Start author Brandy Colbert. When Suzette comes home to Los Angeles from her boarding school in New England, she isn't sure if she'll ever want to go back. L.A. is where her friends and family are (along with her crush, Emil). And her stepbrother, Lionel, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, needs her emotional support.But as she settles into her old life, Suzette finds herself falling for someone new...the same girl her brother is in love with. When Lionel's disorder spirals out of control, Suzette is forced to confront her past mistakes and find a way to help her brother before he hurts himself--or worse.
Winner of the 2018 Stonewall Book Award

Date Added: 02/12/2018


Year: 2018

Award: Stonewall

Efren Divided

by Ernesto Cisneros

Efrén Nava’s Amá is his Superwoman—or Soperwoman, named after the delicious Mexican sopes his mother often prepares. Both Amá and Apá work hard all day to provide for the family, making sure Efrén and his younger siblings Max and Mía feel safe and loved. But Efrén worries about his parents; although he’s American-born, his parents are undocumented.

His worst nightmare comes true one day when Amá doesn’t return from work and is deported across the border to Tijuana, México. Now more than ever, Efrén must channel his inner Soperboy to help take care of and try to reunite his family.

Date Added: 01/25/2021


Year: 2021

Award: Belpré


Showing 26 through 50 of 63 results