National Book Award for Young People's Literature facts for kids
The National Book Award for Young People's Literature is one of five annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation (NBF) to recognize outstanding literary work by US citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers". The panelists are five "writers who are known to be doing great work in their genre or field".
The category Young People's Literature was established in 1996. From 1969 to 1983, prior to the Foundation, there were some "Children's" categories.
The award recognizes one book written by a US citizen and published in the US from December 1 to November 30. The National Book Foundation accepts nominations from publishers until June 15, requires mailing nominated books to the panelists by August 1, and announces five finalists in October. The winner is announced on the day of the final ceremony in November. The award is $10,000 and a bronze sculpture; other finalists get $1000, a medal, and a citation written by the panel.
There were 230 books nominated for the 2010 award.
Contents
Finalists
Children's books, 1969 to 1979
Books for "children" were first recognized by the National Book Awards in 1969 (publication year 1968). Through 1979, a single award category existed, called either "Children's Literature" or "Children's Books."
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Meindert DeJong | Journey from Peppermint Street | Winner | |
| Lloyd Alexander | The High King | Finalist | ||
| Patricia Clapp | Constance: A Story of Early Plymouth | |||
| Esther Hautzig | The Endless Steppe | |||
| Milton Meltzer | Langston Hughes: A Biography | |||
| 1970 | Isaac Bashevis Singer | A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing up in Warsaw | Winner | |
| Vera and Bill Cleaver | Where the Lilies Bloom | Finalist | ||
| Edna Mitchell Preston | Popcorn and Ma Goodness | |||
| William Steig | Sylvester and the Magic Pebble | |||
| Edwin Tunis | The Young United States, 1783–1830 | |||
| 1971 | Lloyd Alexander | The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian | Winner | |
| Vera and Bill Cleaver | Grover | Finalist | ||
| Paula Fox | Blowfish Live in the Sea | |||
| Arnold Lobel | Frog and Toad are Friends | |||
| E. B. White | The Trumpet of the Swan | |||
| 1972 | Donald Barthelme | The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine or The Hithering Thithering Djinn | Winner | |
| Jan Adkins | The Art and Industry of Sandcastles | Finalist | ||
| John Donovan | Wild in the World | |||
| Ursula K. Le Guin | The Tombs of Atuan | |||
| Virginia Hamilton | The Planet of Junior Brown | |||
| Clyde Watson | Father Fox’s Pennyrhymes | |||
| 1973 | Ursula K. Le Guin | The Farthest Shore | Winner | |
| Betsy Byars | The House of Wings | Finalist | ||
| Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire | d'Aulaires' Trolls | |||
| Jean Craighead George | Julie of the Wolves | |||
| Betty Jean Lifton and Thomas C. Fox | Children of Vietnam | |||
| Georgess McHargue | The Impossible People | |||
| Zilpha Keatley Snyder | The Witches of Worm | |||
| William Steig | Dominic | |||
| 1974 | Eleanor Cameron | The Court of the Stone Children | Winner | |
| Alice Childress | A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich | Finalist | ||
| Vera and Bill Cleaver | The Whys and Wherefores of Littabelle Lee | |||
| Julia Cunningham | The Treasure is the Rose | |||
| Bette Greene | Summer of My German Soldier | |||
| Kristin Hunter | Guests in the Promised Land | |||
| E. L. Konigsburg | A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver | |||
| Norma Fox Mazer | A Figure of Speech | |||
| F.N. Monjo | Poor Richard in France | |||
| Harve Zemach and Margot Zemach | Duffy and the Devil | |||
| 1975 | Virginia Hamilton | M. C. Higgins the Great | Winner | |
| Natalie Babbitt | The Devil's Storybook | Finalist | ||
| Bruce Buchenholz | Doctor in the Zoo | |||
| Bruce Clements | I Tell a Lie Every So Often | |||
| James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier | My Brother Sam is Dead | |||
| Jason Laure with Ettagale Laure | Joi Bangla! The Children of Bangladesh | |||
| Milton Meltzer | World of Our Fathers | |||
| Milton Meltzer | Remember the Days | |||
| Adrienne Richard | Wings | |||
| Mary Stolz | The Edge of Next Year | |||
| 1976 | Walter D. Edmonds | Bert Breen's Barn | Winner | |
| Eleanor Cameron | To the Green Mountains | Finalist | ||
| Norma Farber | As I Was Crossing Boston Common | |||
| Isabelle Holland | Of Love and Death and Other Journeys | |||
| David McCord | The Star in the Pail | |||
| Nicholasa Mohr | El Bronx Remembered | |||
| Brenda Wilkinson | Ludell | |||
| 1977 | Katherine Paterson | The Master Puppeteer | Winner | |
| Milton Meltzer | Never to Forget: The Jews of the Holocaust | Finalist | ||
| John Ney | Ox Under Pressure | |||
| Mildred D. Taylor | Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry | |||
| Barbara Wersba | Tunes for a Small Harmonica | |||
| 1978 | Judith Kohl and Herbert Kohl | The View From the Oak: The Private Worlds of Other Creatures | Winner | |
| Betty Sue Cummings | Hew Against the Grain | Finalist | ||
| Ilse Koehn | Mischling, Second Degree: My Childhood in Nazi Germany | |||
| David McCord | One at a Time | |||
| William Steig | Caleb + Kate | |||
| 1979 | Katherine Paterson | The Great Gilly Hopkins | Winner | |
| Lloyd Alexander | The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha | Finalist | ||
| Vera and Bill Cleaver | Queen of Hearts | |||
| Sid Fleischman | Humbug Mountain | |||
| Paula Fox | The Little Swineherd and Other Tales |
Children's books, 1980 to 1983
In 1980 under the new name The American Book Awards (TABA), the number of literary award categories jumped to 28, including two for Children's Books: hardcover and paperback. In the following three years there were three, five, and five Children's Book award categories—thus fifteen in four years—before the program was revamped with only three annual awards and none for children's books.
| Year | Category | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Hardcover | Joan Blos | A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830–82 | Winner | |
| David Kherdian | The Road from Home | Finalist | |||
| E. L. Konigsburg | Throwing Shadows | ||||
| Ouida Sebestyen | Words by Heart | ||||
| Paperback | Madeleine L'Engle | A Swiftly Tilting Planet | Winner | ||
| Myron Levoy | Alan and Naomi | Finalist | |||
| Arnold Lobel | Frog and Toad Are Friends | ||||
| Maurice Sendak | Higglety Pigglety Pop!: Or There Must Be More to Life | ||||
| Katherine Paterson | The Great Gilly Hopkins | ||||
| 1981 | Fiction, hardcover | Betsy Byars | The Night Swimmers | Winner | |
| Paula Fox | A Place Apart | Finalist | |||
| Ouida Sebestyen | Far From Home | ||||
| Katherine Paterson | Jacob Have I Loved | ||||
| Jan Slepian | The Alfred Summer | ||||
| Fiction, paperback | Beverly Cleary | Ramona and Her Mother | Winner | ||
| Sue Ellen Bridgers | All Together Now | Finalist | |||
| S. E. Hinton | Tex | ||||
| Lloyd Alexander | The High King | ||||
| Ellen Raskin | The Westing Game | ||||
| Nonfiction | Alison Cragin Herzig and Jane Lawrence Mali | Oh, Boy! Babies | Winner | ||
| Milton Meltzer | All Time, All Peoples: A World History of Slavery | Finalist | |||
| Peter Spier | People | ||||
| William Jaspersohn | The Ballpark | ||||
| Jean Fritz | Where Do You Think You're Going, Christopher Columbus? | ||||
| 1982 | Fiction, hardcover | Lloyd Alexander | Westmark | Winner | |
| Cynthia Voigt | Homecoming | Finalist | |||
| Mildred D. Taylor | Let the Circle Be Unbroken | ||||
| Beverly Cleary | Ramona Quimby, Age 8 | ||||
| Deborah Hautzig | Second Star to the Right | ||||
| Fiction, paperback | Ouida Sebestyen | Words by Heart | Winner | ||
| Katherine Paterson | Jacob Have I Loved | Finalist | |||
| Katherine Paterson | The Master Puppeteer | ||||
| Lloyd Alexander | The Wizard in the Tree | ||||
| Nonfiction | Susan Bonners | A Penguin Year | Winner | ||
| Melvin B. Zisfein with Robert Parker (illus.) ' | Flight: A Panorama of Aviation | Finalist | |||
| Patricia Lauber with James Wexler (photos) | Seeds: Pop, Stick and Glide | ||||
| James Howe with Mal Warshaw (photos) | The Hospital Book | ||||
| Jean Fritz | Traitor: The Case of Benedict Arnold | ||||
| 1983 | Fiction, hardcover | Jean Fritz | Homesick: My Own Story | Winner | |
| Zibby Oneal | A Formal Feeling | Finalist | |||
| Virginia Hamilton | Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush | ||||
| Lloyd Alexander | The Kestrel | ||||
| Edward Fenton | The Refugee Summer | ||||
| Fiction, paperback | Paula Fox | A Place Apart | Winner (tie) | ||
| Joyce Carol Thomas | Marked by Fire (original) | ||||
| Lois Lowry | Anastasia Again! | Finalist | |||
| Sue Ellen Bridgers | Notes for Another Life | ||||
| Judy Blume | Tiger Eyes | ||||
| Nonfiction | James Cross Giblin | Chimney Sweeps | Winner | ||
| Patricia Lauber | Journey to the Planets | Finalist | |||
| John Nance | Lobo of the Tasaday | ||||
| Linda Grant DePauw | Seafaring Women | ||||
| Judith St. George | The Brooklyn Bridge | ||||
| Picture books, hardcover | William Steig | Doctor De Soto | Winner (tie) | ||
| Barbara Cooney | Miss Rumphius | ||||
| Marcia Brown (Illus.) | Shadow (translation of a poem by Blaise Cendrars) | Finalist | |||
| Karla Kuskin and Marc Simont (illus.) | The Philharmonic Gets Dressed | ||||
| Cynthia Rylant and Diane Goode (illus.) | When I Was Young in the Mountains | ||||
| Picture books, paper | Mary Ann Hoberman with Betty Fraser (illus.) | A House is a House for Me | Winner | ||
| Peter Koeppen (Illus.) | A Swinger of Birches (poems by Robert Frost) | Finalist | |||
| Steven Kellogg | Pinkerton, Behave! | ||||
| Edward Marshall | Space Case | ||||
| Ellen Shire | The Bungling Ballerinas (original) |
Young people's literature, 1996 to date
From 1984 to 1995, the National Book Foundation did not present awards for young people's literature.
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Victor Martinez | Parrot in the Oven, Mi Vida | Winner | |
| Nancy Farmer | A Girl Named Disaster | Finalist | ||
| Han Nolan | Send Me Down a Miracle | |||
| Helen Kim | The Long Season of Rain | |||
| Carolyn Coman | What Jamie Saw | |||
| 1997 | Han Nolan | Dancing on the Edge | Winner | |
| Tor Seidler | Mean Margaret | Finalist | ||
| Adele Griffin | Sons of Liberty | |||
| Brock Cole | The Facts Speak for Themselves | |||
| Mary Ann McGuigan | Where You Belong | |||
| 1998 | Louis Sachar | Holes | Winner | |
| Richard Peck | A Long Way from Chicago | Finalist | ||
| Jack Gantos | Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key | |||
| Anita Lobel | No Pretty Pictures | |||
| Ann Cameron | The Secret Life of Amanda K. Woods | |||
| 1999 | Kimberly Willis Holt | When Zachary Beaver Came to Town | Winner | |
| Walter Dean Myers | Monster | Finalist | ||
| Laurie Halse Anderson | Speak | |||
| Louise Erdrich | The Birchbark House | |||
| Polly Horvath | The Trolls | |||
| 2000 | Gloria Whelan | Homeless Bird | Winner | |
| Adam Bagdasarian | Forgotten Fire | Finalist | ||
| Jerry Stanley | Hurry Freedom: African Americans in Gold Rush California | |||
| Carolyn Coman | Many Stones | |||
| Michael Cadnum | The Book of the Lion | |||
| 2001 | Virginia Euwer Wolff | True Believer | Winner | |
| Marilyn Nelson | Carver: A Life in Poems | Finalist | ||
| An Na | A Step From Heaven | |||
| Kate DiCamillo | The Tiger Rising | |||
| Phillip Hoose | We Were There Too! Young People in U.S. History | |||
| 2002 | Nancy Farmer | The House of the Scorpion | Winner | |
| Naomi Shihab Nye | 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East | Finalist | ||
| M. T. Anderson | Feed | |||
| Jacqueline Woodson | Hush | |||
| Elizabeth Partridge | This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie | |||
| 2003 | Polly Horvath | The Canning Season | Winner | |
| Jim Murphy | An American Plague: The Time and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 (about the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793) | Finalist | ||
| Paul Fleischman | Breakout | |||
| Jacqueline Woodson | Locomotion | |||
| Richard Peck | The River Between Us | |||
| 2004 | Pete Hautman | Godless | Winner | |
| Laban Carrick Hill | Harlem Stomp!: A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance (about the Harlem Renaissance) | Finalist | ||
| Deb Caletti | Honey, Baby, Sweetheart | |||
| Julie Anne Peters | Luna: A Novel | |||
| Shelia P. Moses | The Legend of Buddy Bush | |||
| 2005 | Jeanne Birdsall | The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy | Winner | |
| Walter Dean Myers | Autobiography of My Dead Brother | Finalist | ||
| Deborah Wiles | Each Little Bird That Sings | |||
| Chris Lynch | Inexcusable | |||
| Adele Griffin | Where I Want to Be | |||
| 2006 | M. T. Anderson | The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party | Winner | |
| Gene Luen Yang | American Born Chinese | Finalist | ||
| Martine Leavitt | Keturah and Lord Death | |||
| Patricia McCormick | Sold | |||
| Nancy Werlin | The Rules of Survival | |||
| 2007 | Sherman Alexie | The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian | Winner | |
| Kathleen Duey | Skin Hunger: A Resurrection of Magic | Finalist | ||
| Sara Zarr | Story of a Girl | |||
| Brian Selznick | The Invention of Hugo Cabret | |||
| M. Sindy Felin | Touching Snow | |||
| 2008 | Judy Blundell | What I Saw and How I Lied | Winner | |
| Laurie Halse Anderson | Chains | Finalist | ||
| E. Lockhart | The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks | |||
| Tim Tharp | The Spectacular Now | |||
| Kathi Appelt | The Underneath | |||
| 2009 | Phillip Hoose | Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice | Winner | |
| Deborah Heiligman | Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith | Finalist | ||
| Rita Williams-Garcia | Jumped | |||
| Laini Taylor | Lips Touch, Three Times | |||
| David Small | Stitches | |||
| 2010 | Kathryn Erskine | Mockingbird | Winner | |
| Laura McNeal | Dark Water | Finalist | ||
| Walter Dean Myers | Lockdown | |||
| Rita Williams-Garcia | One Crazy Summer | |||
| Paolo Bacigalupi | Ship Breaker | |||
| 2011 | Thanhha Lai | Inside Out & Back Again | Winner | |
| Franny Billingsley | Chime | Finalist | ||
| Albert Marrin | Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy (about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire) | |||
| Debby Dahl Edwardson | My Name Is Not Easy | |||
| Gary Schmidt | Okay for Now | |||
| 2012 | William Alexander | Goblin Secrets | Winner | |
| Steve Sheinkin | Bomb: The Race to Build―and Steal―the World's Most Dangerous Weapon | Finalist | ||
| Eliot Schrefer | Endangered | |||
| Patricia McCormick | Never Fall Down | |||
| Carrie Arcos | Out of Reach | |||
| 2013 | Cynthia Kadohata | The Thing About Luck | Winner | |
| Gene Luen Yang | Boxers and Saints | Finalist | ||
| Tom McNeal | Far Far Away | |||
| Meg Rosoff | Picture Me Gone | |||
| Kathi Appelt | The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp | |||
| 2014 | Jacqueline Woodson | Brown Girl Dreaming | Winner | |
| John Corey Whaley | Noggin | Finalist | ||
| Deborah Wiles | Revolution | |||
| Steve Sheinkin | The Port Chicago 50 | |||
| Eliot Schrefer | Threatened | |||
| 2015 | Neal Shusterman | Challenger Deep | Winner | |
| Laura Ruby | Bone Gap | Finalist | ||
| Steve Sheinkin | Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War | |||
| ND Stevenson | Nimona | |||
| Ali Benjamin | The Thing About Jellyfish | |||
| 2016 | John Lewis, Nate Powell, and Andrew Aydin | March: Book Three | Winner | |
| Jason Reynolds | Ghost | Finalist | ||
| Kate DiCamillo | Raymie Nightingale | |||
| Nicola Yoon | The Sun Is Also a Star | |||
| Grace Lin | When the Sea Turned to Silver | |||
| 2017 | Robin Benway | Far from the Tree | Winner | |
| Ibi Zoboi | American Street | Finalist | ||
| Rita Williams-Garcia | Clayton Byrd Goes Underground | |||
| Erika L. Sánchez | I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter | |||
| Elana K. Arnold | What Girls Are Made Of | |||
| 2018 | Elizabeth Acevedo | The Poet X | Winner | |
| Jarrett J. Krosoczka | Hey, Kiddo | Finalist | ||
| M. T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin | The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge | |||
| Christopher Paul Curtis | The Journey of Little Charlie | |||
| Leslie Connor | The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle | |||
| 2019 | Martin W. Sandler | 1919: The Year That Changed America | Winner | |
| Jason Reynolds | Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks | Finalist | ||
| Randy Ribay | Patron Saints of Nothing | |||
| Akwaeke Emezi | Pet | |||
| Laura Ruby | Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All | |||
| 2020 | Kacen Callender | King and the Dragonflies | Winner | |
| Candice Iloh | Every Body Looking | Finalist | ||
| Gavriel Savit | The Way Back | |||
| Traci Chee | We Are Not Free | |||
| Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed | When Stars Are Scattered | |||
| 2021 | Malinda Lo | Last Night at the Telegraph Club | Winner | |
| Amber McBride | Me (Moth) | Finalist | ||
| Kekla Magoon | Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party's Promise to the People | |||
| Shing Yin Khor | The Legend of Auntie Po | |||
| Kyle Lukoff | Too Bright to See | |||
| 2022 | Sabaa Tahir | All My Rage | Winner | |
| Kelly Barnhill | The Ogress and the Orphans | Finalist | ||
| Sonora Reyes | The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School | |||
| Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes and Dawud Anyabwile | Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice | |||
| Lisa Yee | Maizy Chen's Last Chance | |||
| 2023 | Dan Santat | A First Time for Everything | Winner | |
| Kenneth Cadow | Gather | Finalist | ||
| Huda Fahmy | Huda F Cares? | |||
| Vashti Harrison | Big | |||
| Katherine Marsh | The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine |
Authors with two awards
- See Winners of multiple U.S. National Book Awards
Two authors have won two Children's or Young People's awards twice.
- Lloyd Alexander won for The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian (1971) and Westmark (1982), among six titles that were finalists.
- Katherine Paterson won for The Master Puppeteer (1977) and The Great Gilly Hopkins (1979), among three titles that were finalists.
Isaac Bashevis Singer won the Children's Literature award in 1970 for A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing up in Warsaw and shared the Fiction award in 1974 for A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories.
See also
- List of winners of the National Book Award — all categories, winners only
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National Book Award for Young People's Literature Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.