Announcing the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award 2024 Winner and Honor Books!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANE ADDAMS CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARDS ANNOUNCED
JANUARY 12, 2024… Recipients of the 2024 Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards were announced today by the Jane Addams Peace Association. Since 1953, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award annually recognizes children’s books of literary and aesthetic excellence that effectively engage children in thinking about peace, social justice, global community, and equity for all people.
The Artivist, written and illustrated by Nikkolas Smith, and published by Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Random House, is the winner in the Picture Book category.
The Artivist features a young artist who discovers how to use his creative abilities to bring awareness to his community about social issues. Tackling themes like home insecurity, voter suppression, and clean water accessibility, the young hero merges his identity as an artist with that of an activist, proudly adopting the title of "ARTIVIST." Through his artwork, he skillfully brings attention to deep societal challenges while envisioning pathways to healing. The lifelike brush strokes within the illustrations add a stunning and vivid background to the culminating public awareness of social issues. Even though Smith's language is sweeping and all-encompassing, the visuals vividly portray particular challenges in today's society. The first-person narrative inspires artivists of all ages, as readers are inspired to piece the world back together with empathy, connection, and unity for all.
Quote: “Artivism has the power to spark the compassion and empathy of the whole world.” --Nikkolas Smith
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The Lost Year, written by Katherine Marsh, and published by Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan, is the winner in the Chapter Book category.
The Lost Year is a historical novel blending the COVID pandemic and the famine of 1930s Ukraine, while amplifying the virtue of storytelling across generations. Seventh-grader Matthew is stuck indoors, tasked with helping his great-grandmother GG unbox her items from the nursing home she just left. He finds mementos that lead to bonding over hobbies, and curiosity about GG's younger life. Thankfully, his journalist father, stuck at work in Europe, indirectly gives him ideas on how to talk to hesitant interviewees. Marsh writes alternating chapters to tell the perspectives of Matthew in 2020, Helen, a young aspiring writer in Brooklyn in 1933, and Mila, a Soviet child whose father has political ties to Stalin. Readers also learn from Nadiya, a previously unknown relative whose family lived in the countryside during the Holodomor. The mosaic of storylines helps teach readers that our familial connections, or lack thereof, can perpetuate propaganda and oppression. It also teaches about the moral issues journalists face during societal traumas. Each character has transformative moments that speak to the significance of surviving and healing from historical events.
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In addition, two Honor Books were named in the Picture Book category:
That Flag, written by Tameka Fryer Brown, illustrated by Nikkolas Smith, and published by HarperCollins.
That Flag is a perfect collaboration of words and illustration that, in the words of the author and illustrator, “foster transformative conversations that lead to change.” Fryer Brown and Smith come together as a powerful duo to shed light on the power of representations and symbols. Two best friends, across different cultures and races, are confronted by the differences in the symbolic representation of their cultures that deliver a relational divide. We see the humanity of the journey that Keira and Bianca partake in as they walk through the awareness of the history of the confederate flag. Fryer Brown utilizes the character development of Kiera’s father at the confederate exhibit to invite us all to interrogate “something we need to see.” Keira’s present-day freedom to sit at the front of the bus while she grapples with the past, uncovered by the collision of the sighting of the confederate flag, speaks to the reality of the complexities of the freedom we still fight for today.
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A Song for the Unsung: Bayard Rustin, the Man Behind the 1963 March on Washington, written by Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders, illustrated by Byron McCray, and published by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Macmillan.
A Song for the Unsung: Bayard Rustin, the Man Behind the 1963 March on Washington introduces an unsung hero, Bayard Rustin, who made the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom possible. It was where Dr. Martin Luther King (MLK) Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963. As a follower of Gandhi, Bayard Rustin shared his knowledge about the principles of nonviolent protest with Dr. King. Authors Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders inform readers of Bayard Rustin’s various life experiences during different stages of his life, and illustrate how Bayard put his heart into the Civil Rights Movement during a challenging period for him as a Quaker Black gay man. The illustrator, Byron McCray, recreates scenes of the 1960s in beautiful collages. Right from the book’s cover, readers are introduced to Bayard’s passion and energy to make the world a better place for people who were treated unfairly. Back matter adds more information about Bayard Rustin and the March that he organized. An unsung hero, Bayard Rustin is remembered through this picture book, and finally, we hear his song from people he loved.
Two Honor Books were named in the Chapter Book category:
Mascot, written by Charles Waters and Traci Sorrell, and published by Charlesbridge Press.
Mascot is a novel in verse told from alternating perspectives of six eighth-graders and their English teacher at a suburban school outside of Washington, D.C. It’s hard enough being the new kid in school, but for Callie, speaking up against its mascot – a caricature of Native Americans – is more important than fitting in. When Ms. Williams assigns it as a project, the entire class gets involved in the debate of whether the mascot is racist, and if its prominent use in the town’s highly popular football games is unifying or damaging. Students of various backgrounds present arguments with which they don’t necessarily agree. Through research, dialogue, shifting friendships, and plenty of good (and bad) advice from adults, the students learn what can be gained by working together to change harmful systems, and how letting go of the status quo might be what is truly brave. Drawing clear parallels with how real-life institutions have dealt with this exact topic, Mascot provides insight not only into questions around Native sovereignty and humanity, but also the emotional hurdles fueling the backlash against change. The characters’ journeys offer a blueprint for any community trying to do better to create spaces of justice and belonging.
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World Made of Glass, written by Ami Polonsky, and published by Little, Brown and Company.
World Made of Glass is a middle-grade, historical novel that takes readers into the not-so-distant past when the AIDS epidemic swept the nation. Twelve-year-old Iris Cohen's world is shattered when her father dies of AIDS. The novel takes place in New York City in 1987, when the ACT UP movement was starting to draw public attention to the indifference of the medical industry and the callous public regard for people with HIV/AIDS and the LGBTQ community in general. Iris is furious at her own loss and what she sees around her, and with the help of supportive adults and friends, channels her anger into activism. While this issue is central to the novel, so are other important topics such as loss, friendship, and love. A large cast of well-developed characters bring this story to life with vivid immediacy. Iris's journey is one of self-reflection, acceptance, and recognition of the beauty, strength and fragility of life that will resonate on different levels with all readers.
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