Odyssey Award facts for kids

The Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production is a special prize given each year. It celebrates the "best audiobook for kids and teens" that is available in English in the United States. The award is managed by two groups within the American Library Association (ALA): the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). Booklist magazine helps to sponsor it.

This award looks at how well an audiobook is made. Judges consider things like the narrator's voice, the sound quality, background music, and sound effects. The award is named after Odyssey, a very old epic poem by Homer. This poem was first told by speaking, not by writing. This reminds us that storytelling has been around for a very long time!

The Odyssey Award first started in 2008. The people who created it believed it was important to support audiobooks just as much as printed books. They wanted to make sure the best audiobooks for young people were recognized.

How Audiobooks Win: The Rules

To be considered for the Odyssey Award, audiobooks must meet certain rules. Here are some of the main ones:

• All types of stories can win, including those meant for reading along.
• Audiobooks must have been published in the past year.
• If an audiobook was already released in another audio format, it cannot be considered again.
• The audiobook must be for children or young adults, up to age 18. Books for adults are not allowed.
• Audiobooks can have one narrator or a whole group of actors.
• Audiobooks first published in other countries can be considered if they are also sold in the U.S.
• Only audiobooks in English are judged. However, they can use words or phrases from other languages if it makes sense in the story.
• If no audiobook is good enough in a certain year, no award will be given.
• The award goes to the people who produce the audiobook.

Past Winners and Honorees

Since 2008, at least one audiobook has won the main award or been named an "Honor Audiobook" each year. In some years, up to five audiobooks have received honors. Starting in 2022, two main winners can be chosen: one for children and one for young adults.

Here is a list of the audiobooks that have won the Odyssey Award or received an Honor:

Who Won Multiple Times?

Some audiobook producers and narrators have won or been honored many times.

• Listening Library has won the main award 5 times.
• Live Oak Media and Harper have each won 3 times.
• Katherine Kellgren has narrated the most Honor Audiobooks, with five. Three of these were from the "Jacky Faber" series by L. A. Meyer.

In 2009, Sherman Alexie won the Odyssey Award for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. He also won another big award, the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, for the printed version of that book.

In 2020, Jarrett J. Krosoczka won the Odyssey Award for Hey, Kiddo. He wrote, illustrated, and narrated this audiobook. The print version of his book was also a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.

See also

• Category:Audiobooks