Coretta Scott King Award facts for kids

The Coretta Scott King Award is an annual award presented by the Ethnic & Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table, part of the American Library Association (ALA). Named for Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr., this award recognizes outstanding books for young adults and children by African Americans that reflect the African-American experience. Awards are given both to authors and to illustrators.

The first author award was given in 1970. In 1974, the award was expanded to honor illustrators as well as authors. Starting in 1978, runner-up Author Honor Books have been recognized. Recognition of runner-up Illustrator Honor Books began in 1981. In addition, the Coretta Scott King Awards committee has given the Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, starting in 2010, and beginning in 1996 an occasional John Steptoe Award for New Talent.

Like the Newbery Medal and Caldecott Medal, the Coretta Scott King Awards have the potential to be used in classroom teaching and projects.

The Coretta Scott King titles represent a wide variety of literary genres at varying reading and interest levels. They not only deserve to be considered by teachers for student projects, but should also be incorporated into the curriculum as a teaching tool. – Claire Gatrell Stephens

Recipients

Steptoe Award for New Talent

From 1996 the Coretta Scott King Awards program includes the occasional John Steptoe Award for New Talent. Through 2012, seventeen new talents have been recognized in 18 years.

• 1995: Sharon Draper, author of Tears of a Tiger (Simon & Schuster)
• 1996: none
• 1997: Martha Southgate, author of Another Way to Dance (Delacorte)
• 1998: none
• 1999: Sharon Flake, author of The Skin I'm In (Jump at the Sun/Hyperion)
• 1999: Eric Velasquez, illustrator of The Piano Man, written by Debbie Chocolate (Walker Books for Young Readers)
• 2000: none
• 2001: none
• 2002: Jerome Lagarrigue, illustrator of Freedom Summer, written by Deborah Wiles (Atheneum)
• 2003: Janet McDonald, author of Chill Wind (Frances Foster Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• 2003: Randy DuBurke, author and illustrator of The Moon Ring (Chronicle Books)
• 2004: Hope Anita Smith, author of The Way a Door Closes, illustrated by Shane W. Evans (Henry Holt)
• 2005: Barbara Hathaway, author of Missy Violet and Me (Houghton Mifflin)
• 2005: Frank Morrison, illustrator of Jazzy Miz Mozetta, written by Brenda C. Roberts (Farrar Straus Giroux)
• 2006: Jaime Adoff, author of Jimi & Me (Jump at the Sun, an imprint of Hyperion Books for Children)
• 2007: Traci L. Jones, author of Standing Against the Wind (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• 2008: Sundee T. Frazier, author of Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything In It (Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children's Books)
• 2009: Shadra Strickland, illustrator of Bird, written by Zetta Elliott (Lee & Low Books)
• 2010: Kekla Magoon, author of The Rock and the River (Aladdin, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division)
• 2011: Victoria Bond and T. R. Simon, authors of Zora and Me (Candlewick Press)
• 2011: Sonia Lynn Sadler, illustrator of Seeds of Change, written by Jen Cullerton Johnson (Lee & Low Books)
• 2012: none
• 2013: none
• 2014: Theodore Taylor III, illustrator of When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop (Roaring Brook Press)
• 2015: Jason Reynolds, author of When I Was the Greatest (Atheneum)
• 2016: Ronald L. Smith, author of Hoodoo (Clarion Books)
• 2016: Ekua Holmes, illustrator of Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement (Candlewick Press)
• 2017: Nicola Yoon, author of The Sun Is Also a Star (Delacorte Press)
• 2018: David Barclay Moore, author of The Stars Beneath Our Feet (Alfred A. Knopf)
• 2018: Charly Palmer, illustrator of Mama Africa! How Miriam Makeba Spread Hope with Her Song (Farrar Straus Giroux Books)
• 2019: Oge Mora, illustrator of Thank You, Omu
• 2019: Tiffany D. Jackson, author of Monday's Not Coming
• 2020: Alicia D. Williams, author of Genesis Begins Again
• 2020: April Harrison, author of What is Given from the Heart
• 2021: Tracy Deonn, author of Legendborn

Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement

From 2010 the Coretta Scott King Awards include the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, or Virginia Hamilton Award. It is presented to creators and practitioners alternately: in even years, to an African American writer or illustrator of books for children or young adults; in odd years, to a practitioner for "active engagement with youth using award-winning African American literature for children and/or young adults, via implementation of reading and reading related activities/programs."

• 2010: Walter Dean Myers, author
• 2011: Dr. Henrietta Mays Smith, professor emerita at the University of South Florida, Tampa, School of Library and Information Science
• 2012: Ashley Bryan, storyteller, artist, author, poet, and musician
• 2013: Demetria Tucker, family and youth services librarian for the Pearl Bailey Library, a branch of the Newport News (Va.) Public Library System
• 2014: Patricia and Fredrick McKissack, children's authors
• 2015: Deborah D. Taylor, young adult librarian
• 2016: Jerry Pinkney, illustrator
• 2017: Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, Professor Emerita of Education at Ohio State University
• 2018: Eloise Greenfield, author
• 2019: Dr. Pauletta Brown Bracy, Professor of Library Science and Director of the Office of University Accreditation at North Carolina Central University
• 2020: Mildred Taylor, author
• 2021: Dorothy L. Guthrie, retired librarian, district administrator, author and school board member