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Children's Book Awards

How to find award-winning children's books

To find children's book award winners and honors, open up a Basic Search in Acorn. In the Search Field, type the name of the award you're searching followed by {586}, then click Search. Your results will be all the winner and honor books we own for that particular award.

Award Descriptions and Criteria

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.

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.

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.

Coretta Scott King Awards

Given to African American authors and illustrator for outstanding inspirational and educational contributions, the Coretta Scott King Book Award titles promote understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples and their contribution to the realization of the American dream.

The award is designed to commemorate the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to honor Mrs. Coretta Scott King for her courage and determination to continue the work for peace and world brotherhood.

John Steptoe Award for New Talent

The award is established to affirm new talent and to offer visibility to excellence in writing and/or illustration which otherwise might be formally unacknowledged within a given year within the structure of the two awards given annually by the Coretta Scott King Task Force.

These books affirm new talent and offer visibility to excellence in writing or illustration at the beginning of a career as a published book creator.

The Pura Belpré Award

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. It is co-sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), and the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking ( REFORMA ), an ALA Affiliate.

The award is named after Pura Belpré, the first Latina librarian at the New York Public Library. As a children's librarian, storyteller, and author, she enriched the lives of Puerto Rican children in the U.S.A. through her pioneering work of preserving and disseminating Puerto Rican folklore.

The awards are given biennially.

The Schneider Family Book Award

The Schneider Family Book Awards honor an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences. Three annual awards each consisting of $5000 and a framed plaque, will be given annually in each of the following categories: birth through grade school (age 0-10), middle school (age 11-13) and teens (age 13-18). (Age groupings are approximations).

The book must emphasize the artistic expression of the disability experience for children and or adolescent audiences. The book must portray some aspect of living with a disability or that of a friend or family member, whether the disability is physical, mental or emotional.

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award , established in 2004, is given annually (beginning in 2006) to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished contribution to the body of American children's literature known as beginning reader books published in the United States during the preceding year. The award is to recognize the author(s) and illustrator(s) of a beginning reader book who demonstrate great creativity and imagination in his/her/their literary and artistic achievements to engage children in reading.

The award is named for the world-renowned children's author, Theodor Geisel. "A person's a person no matter how small," Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, would say. "Children want the same things we want: to laugh, to be challenged, to be entertained and delighted." Brilliant, playful, and always respectful of children, Dr. Seuss charmed his way into the consciousness of four generations of youngsters and parents. In the process, he helped them to read.

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal

The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award, established by the Association for Library Service to Children in 2001, is awarded annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished informational book published in English during the preceding year. The award is named in honor of Robert F. Sibert, the long-time President of Bound to Stay Bound Books, Inc. of Jacksonville , Illinois , and is sponsored by the company. ALSC administers the award.

 

The Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Children's Video

The Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Children's Video, supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York , was awarded for the first time in 1991 to honor outstanding video productions for children released during the previous year. The annual award is given to the video's producer by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of ALA , through a Carnegie endowment.

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) may be best-remembered by his establishment of free public libraries meant to make available to everyone a means of self-education. In 1881, when he began the project, very few public libraries existed; he spent over $56 million to build 2,509 libraries throughout the English-speaking world. After the program was terminated in 1917, the Carnegie Corporation continued for about 40 years in providing funds to improve libraries' services. Today the Corporation continues to fund programs for adult education and education in the fine arts.

Video productions that receive the Andrew Carnegie Medal meet criteria that include the following: they show respect for a child's intelligence and imagination, and reflect and encourage children's interests; they take advantage of the special techniques of the medium, including visuals, voices, music, language, and sound effects; and, if adaptations of materials originally produced in other mediums, they remain true to, expand, or complement the work. Only entries originally released in the United States , and produced by a U.S. citizen or resident or by a company headquartered in the U.S. are eligible.

The Mildred L. Batchelder Award

This award honors Mildred L. Batchelder, a former executive director of the Association for Library Service to Children, a believer in the importance of good books for children in translation from all parts of the world. She began her career working at Omaha (NE) Public Library, then as a children's librarian at St. Cloud (MN) State Teachers College , and subsequently as librarian of Haven Elementary School in Evanston , IL . She eventually joined the ranks of the American Library Association in 1936. Batchelder spent 30 years with ALA , working as an ambassador to the world on behalf of children and books, encouraging and promoting the translation of the world's best children's literature. Her life's work was "to eliminate barriers to understanding between people of different cultures, races, nations, and languages."

This award, established in her honor in 1966, is a citation awarded to an American publisher for a children's book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country, and subsequently translated into English and published in the United States . ALSC gives the award to encourage American publishers to seek out superior children's books abroad and to promote communication among the peoples of the world .

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Last updated May 6, 2008.