Awards

Alex Award

The YALSA Alex Award is annually awarded to ten fiction or nonfiction works, published for adults, with significant appeal to teen readers.

The John and Patricia Beatty Award

Sponsored by Book Wholesalers, Inc., the California Library Association's John and Patricia Beatty Award honors the author of a distinguished book for children or young adults that best promotes an awareness of California and its people.

Pura Belpré Award Illustration and Pura Belpré Award Narrative

The Pura Belpré Award , established in 1996, is presented 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. The award is named after Pura Belpré, the first Latina librarian from the New York Public Library. The awards are given biennially.

Caldecott Honor and Caldecott Winner

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.

California Young Reader Medal Program

The California Young Reader Medal Program program encourages recreational reading of popular literature among the young people of our state. Since its inception in 1974, millions of California children have nominated, read, and voted for the winners of the California Young Reader Medal.

Christopher Award

The Christophers uses print and electronic media to spread a message of hope and understanding to people of all faiths and of no particular faith. Each year, the creators of films, television programs, and books which "affirm the highest values of the human spirit" are honored at a ceremony in New York City.

Cook Prize

Presented for the first time in 2011, the Cook Prize honors science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) picture books published for children aged eight to ten, and is awarded by the Center for Children’s Literature at Bank Street College.

Golden Kite Author Award and Golden Kite Illustration Award

The Golden Kite Award is the only award presented to children's book authors and artists by their fellow authors and artists. Four Golden Kite Statuettes - for fiction, nonfiction, picture book text, and picture-illustration - are awarded each year to the most outstanding children's books published during that year and having been written or illustrated by members of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. An Honor Book plaque in each category is awarded as well. The works chosen are those that the judges feel exhibit excellence in writing, and in the case of the picture-illustrated books - in illustration, and genuinely appeal to the interests and concerns of children.

Hugo Award

The Hugo Award is also known as the Science Fiction Achievement Award and was named in honor of Hugo Greenback, the "Father of Magazine Science Fiction." It is given annually by the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS). The distinguishing characteristics of the Hugo Award are that it is sponsored by WSFS, administered by the committee of the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) held that year, and determined by nominations from and a popular vote of the membership of WSFS.

Jefferson Cup Award

The Jefferson Cup honors a distinguished biography, historical fiction or American history book for young people. Presented since 1983, the Jefferson Cup Committee’s goal is to promote reading about America’s past; to encourage the quality writing of United States history, biography and historical fiction for young people and to recognize authors in these disciplines.

Coretta Scott King Author Award and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award

The Coretta Scott King Award is presented annually by the Coretta Scott King Task Force of the American Library Association's Social Responsibilities Round Table. Recipients are authors and illustrators of African descent whose distinguished books promote an understanding and appreciation of the "American Dream." The Award commemorates the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and honors his widow, Coretta Scott King, for her courage and determination in continuing the work for peace and world brotherhood.

James Madison Book Award

The James Madison Book Award is the award named for President James Madison. It was established in 1986 and is presented annually on the anniversary of his birth to honor individuals or groups who have championed, protected and promoted public access to government information and the public’s right to know at the national level.

National Book Award

A consortium of book publishing groups has presented the National Book Award since 1950. Its goal is to enhance the public's awareness of exceptional books written by fellow Americans and to increase the popularity of reading in general. The award is given in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people's literature.

Nebula Award

The Nebula Awards are voted on and presented by active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. Since 1965, the Nebula Awards have been given each year for the best novel, novella, novelette, and short story eligible for that year's award. An anthology including the winning pieces of short fiction and several runners-up is also published every year.

Newbery Medal

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. The Newbery Medal is one of the world's oldest and most prestigious children's book prizes.

Nobel Prize

Literature is one of the five prize areas mentioned in Alfred Nobel's will. Nobel stated that a Nobel Prize be given to those who, during the preceding year, "shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind" and that one part be given to the person who "shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency."

Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Award

The Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Award was established in 1984 by Scott O'Dell, recipient of the Hans Christian Andersen Award, Newbery Medal, and many other awards. This award recognizes outstanding works of historical fiction. The criteria require that the book be published in English by a U.S. publisher and that it be set in the New World (North, Central, and South America).

Orbis Pictus Award

The National Council of Teachers of English established the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children, an annual award for promoting and recognizing excellence in the writing of nonfiction for children. The world of children's literature contains a variety of genres, all of which have appeal to the diverse interests of children as well as potential for classroom teaching. In recent years, however, nonfiction or information books have emerged as a very attractive, exciting, and popular genre. This award centers specifically on nonfiction books for children.

Outstanding Books for the College Bound

The American Library Association (ALA) Young Adult Library Services Division puts together the Outstanding Books for the College Bound . This list of books is considered to be outstanding for those pursuing formal higher education or for those who just wish to be better educated. The list is divided into five sections: fiction, biography, nonfiction, drama, and poetry. In selecting these works for the list, the committee used a variety of criteria: readability, cultural and ethnic diversity, balance of points of view, contemporary and classical works, different genres, and availability.

Michael L. Printz Award

The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature.

Pulitzer Prize

In the latter years of the nineteenth century, Joseph Pulitzer stood out as the very embodiment of American journalism. His innovative New York World and St. Louis Post-Dispatch reshaped newspaper journalism. In writing his 1904 will, which made provision for the establishment of the Pulitzer Prizes as an incentive to excellence, Pulitzer specified solely four awards in journalism, four in letters and drama, one for education, and four traveling scholarships. Since the inception of the prizes in 1917, the board, later renamed the Pulitzer Prize Board, has increased the number of awards to 21 and introduced poetry, music, and photography as subjects, while adhering to the spirit of the founder's will and its intent.

Schneider Family Book Award

This annual award honors an author or illustrator for a book emphasizing the artistic expression of the disability experience for children and or adolescent audiences. Books selected for the Schneider Family Book Award portray an aspect of living with a disability that may be physical, mental or emotional.

Robert F. Sibert Award

The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award was established and administered by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association. This award will be awarded annually to the author of the most distinguished informational book published during the preceding year. The award is named in honor of Robert F. Sibert, the longtime President of Bound to Stay Bound Books, Inc. of Jacksonville, Illinois, and is sponsored by the company.

Stonewall Book Award

The Stonewall Book Award honors books that relate to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience. The children and young adult literature award was added in 2010.

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award is given annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of an American book for beginning readers published in English in the United States in the preceding year. The award was established in 2004 and first presented in 2006. Named for children’s author, Theodor Geisel, also known as “Dr. Seuss.”