This is the best time of the year - when all the book award finalists and best book lists are announced! I’m sharing a few of them with you, including a few that aren’t sponsored through ALA that I wasn’t familiar with.

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), has selected five books as finalists for the 2020 William C. Morris Award, which honors the year’s best book written for young adults by a previously unpublished author.

YALSA will name the 2020 award winner at the Youth Media Awards at 8 a.m. E.T., on Monday, January 27, 2020 in Philadelphia, during the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits. 

The 2020 finalists are:

• “The Candle and the Flame” written by Nafiza Azad, published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic
• “The Field Guide to the North American Teenager” written by Ben Philippe, published by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
• “Frankly in Love” written by David Yoon, published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers, a division of Penguin Random House
• “Genesis Begins Again” written by Alicia D. Williams, published by Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
• “There Will Come a Darkness” written by Katy Rose Pool, published by Henry Holt, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group

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Whippoorwill Award

At the NCTE Conference in November, the committee for the inaugural award book award called the Whippoorwill Award (https://whippoorwillaward.weebly.com/ presented a session with some of the winning authors of the 2019 Whippoorwill Award (10 titles were selected). The Whippoorwill Award honors young adult literature that portrays the complexity of rural living by dispelling stereotypes and demonstrating diversity among rural people. One of the committee members for the 2019 award was Kate Kedley, Department of Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Education, Rowan University. The 2020 Whippoorwill Award (books published in 2019) will be announced by mid-end of December 2020.

Dolly Gray Children’s Literature Award

I discovered a book award I wasn’t familiar with over the weekend while attending an author session at the NJASL Virtual Event when an author mentioned a book that won the award in 2018. The award is the Dolly Gray Children’s Literature Award. It is awarded “for promoting high quality literature for children and youth that authentically characterizes individuals with developmental disabilities.” https://www.dollygrayaward.com/home

 

Last month Book Riot also highlighted some other book awards that aren’t sponsored by the American Library Association: https://bookriot.com/childrens-book-awards/

 

~Sharon

 

All the best,

 

Sharon Rawlins, MLS, she/her/hers

Youth Services Specialist for Lifelong Learning

NJ State Library

185 West State St.

P.O. Box 520

Trenton, NJ 08625-0520

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609-278-2640 ext. 116

609-278-2650 – fax