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Award Winning

Award Winning Books for Children

Caldecott Medal

The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

2022 Winner

Watercress

2022 Honor Books

Have You Ever Seen a Flower?

Mel Fell

Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre

Wonder Walkers

Goldfinch Award

The Goldfinch Award gives children an opportunity to choose the award winning book and to suggest books for the yearly reading list. Books chosen are fiction or nonfiction titles appropriate for children in preschool through 3rd grade.

2022-2023 Nominees

A New Day

Anna & Samia: the true story of saving a black rhino

Boardwalk Babies

Eyes that Kiss in the Corners

Field Trip to the Ocean Deep

How to Catch a Clover Thief

I Promise

I Will Dance

Just Like Me

Lift

Maryam’s Magic: the story of mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani

Milo Imagines the World

My Papi has a Motorcycle

My Very Favorite Book in the Whole Wide World

Swish!: the slam-dunking, alley-ooping, high flying Harlem Globetrotters

The Paper Kingdom

The Power of her Pen: the story of groundbreaking journalist Ethel L. Payne

The Proudest Blue: a story of hijab and family

Unicorns are the Worst

You Matter

Your Name is a Song

Iowa Children's Choice Award (ICCA)

The Iowa Children’s Choice Award gives children an opportunity to choose the award winning book and to suggest books for the yearly reading list. Books chosen are fiction or nonfiction titles appropriate for children in 3rd through 6th grade.

2021-2022 Nominees

A Good Kind of Trouble

Ambrose Deception

Blended

Boy at the Back of the Class

Dragons in a Bag

From the Desk of Zoe Washington

Greystone Secrets: The Strangers

Inkling

Look Both Ways

Prairie Lotus

Small Spaces

Some Places More Than Others

Stay

Team Players

The Best at It

The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl

The Unsung Hero of Birdsong, USA

Where the Watermelons Grow

Wonderland

Words on Fire

Newbery Medal

newbery medal logo
The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

2022 Newberry Award Winner

The Last Cuentista

2022 Newberry Honor Books

A Snake Falls to Earth

Red, White, and Whole

Too Bright to See

Watercress

Coretta Scott King Award

The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are given annually to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values. The award commemorates the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and honors his wife, Mrs. Coretta Scott King, for her courage and determination to continue the work for peace and world brotherhood.

2022 Award Winner

Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre

2022 Honor Books

Home is Not a Country

Revolution in Our Time

The People Remember

2022 Illustrator Award Winner

Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre

2022 Illustrator Honor Books

Nina: A Story of Nina Simone

Soul Food Sunday

We Wait for the Sun

Pura Belpré Award

The award is named after Pura Belpré, the first Latina librarian at the New York Public Library. The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented annually to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth. It is co-sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), and REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking, an ALA affiliate.

2022 Award Winner

The Last Cuentista

2021 Honor Books

Child of the Flower-Song People

2022 Illustrator Award Winner

¡Vamos! Let’s Cross the Bridge

2022 Illustrator Honor Books

Boogie Bookgie, Y’all

Bright Star

May Your Life Be Deliciosa

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award

The Geisel Award is given annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished American book for beginning readers published in English in the United States during the preceding year.

2022 Award Winner

Fox at Night

2022 Honor Books

Beak & Ally #1: Unlikely Friends

I Hop

Nothing Fits a Dinosaur

Award Winning Books for Teens

Alex Awards

The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18. The winning titles are selected from the previous year’s publishing. The Alex Awards were first given annually beginning in 1998 and became an official ALA award in 2002.

2022 Winners

Crossing the Line

How Lucky

Light from Uncommon Stars

Lore Olympus, Vol. 1

Malice

The Library of the Dead

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot

The Rose Code

The Witch’s Heart

Winter’s Orbit

Iowa High School Book Award

IHSBA Logo
In March, high school students across Iowa take part in the nomination of books for the Iowa High School Book Award. These books are reviewed by the IHSBA committee and teacher librarian volunteer readers and the list is narrowed. During the summer, the readers read and rate the titles. The committee members finalize the list in the fall. The list for the next school year is released in January for the following school year.

2022-2023 Nominees

Burn

Clap When You Land

Concrete Rose

Dear Justyce

Dragon Hoops

Punching the Air

The Cost of Knowing

The Gilded Ones

The Girl from Widow Hills

The Inheritance Games

The Night Swim

We Are Not Free

Iowa Teen Award

In March, teens across Iowa take part in the nomination of books for the Iowa Teen Award. These books are reviewed by the ITA committee and volunteer readers and the list is narrowed. During the summer, the adult readers read and rate the titles. In March, teens also vote for their favorite book from that year’s list.

2022-2023 Nominees

All This Time

Becoming

Breathing Underwater

Fighting Words

Go With the Flow

Ground Zero

Instructions for Dancing

Just Like That

Long Way Down

Love is a Revolution

One Year at Ellsmere

Raybearer

Roll With It

Starfish

The Inheritance Games

Morris Award

The William C. Morris YA Debut Award honors a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens and celebrating impressive new voices in young adult literature. The award’s namesake is William C. Morris, an influential innovator in the publishing world and an advocate for marketing books for children and young adults.

2022 Winner

Ace of Spades

Firekeeper’s Daughter

Daunis, a half-Ojibwe, half-white former hockey player/aspiring scientist never feels fully settled in either her reservation or the outside world. She finds herself even more torn when she witnesses her best friend’s murder and is pulled into an FBI investigation centered on a lethal new drug running wild among her friends and family.

2022 Finalists

Ace of Spades

Me (Moth)

Vampires, Hearts and Other Dead Things

What Beauty There Is

Printz Award

The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a Topeka, Kansas school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association. The award is sponsored by Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association.

2022 Winner

Concrete Rose

Firekeeper’s Daughter

2022 Finalists

Concrete Rose

Last Night at the Telegraph Club

Revolution in Our Time

Starfish

YALSA Nonfiction Award

YALSA’s Award for Excellence in Nonfiction honors the best nonfiction book published for young adults (ages 12-18) during a Nov. 1 – Oct. 31 publishing year.

2022 Winner

Ambushed! The Assassination Plot Against President Garfield

An intricately detailed narrative of the assassination of President Garfield, Jarrow uses historical documents, newspaper accounts, and diary entries to create an engaging chronology of events as part of her Medical Fiascoes series.

2022 Finalists

Black Birds in the Sky

From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry

In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers

The Woman All Spies Fear

YALSA Teen Top Ten

TALSA Teens' Top Ten

The Teens’ Top Ten is a “teen choice” list, where teens nominate and choose their favorite books of the previous year! Nominators are members of teen book groups in sixteen school and public libraries around the country. Nominations are announced the Thursday of National Library Week, and teens across the country vote on their favorite titles each year. Readers ages twelve to eighteen vote online between August 15 and October 15; the winners are announced during October (TeenTober).

Nominate a book to be considered for next years Teen Top Ten!

2022 Winners

10 Truths and a Dare

Ace of Spades

All of Us Villains

All These Bodies

Concrete Rose

Here’s to Us

Ivies

Rule of Wolves

The Hawthorne Legacy

We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This