We are fortunate to find ourselves in a golden age of children’s literature. With each year, the stories available to children of all ages are increasingly diverse, capturing a wide-range of experiences while respecting the emotional intelligence of young readers. Each January, the American Library Association (ALA) shares a slate of awards that recognize and amplify books and other outstanding media for youths and teens. Read to Them is proud to acknowledge and celebrate the several authors whose books in our catalog of titles have been recognized for their contributions to children’s literature:
- Emily Jenkins (author of Toys Go Out and co-author of Upside Down Magic) won a Sydney Taylor Award Honor for Whistle which she wrote under the name E. Lockhart
- Grace Lin (author of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and The Year of the Dog) won the Children’s Literature Legacy Award
- Ellen Oh (editor of Flying Lessons and Other Stories) won an Asian/Pacific American Award Honor for Finding Junie Kim
- Jason Reynolds (author of Ghost and Look Both Ways) won a Schneider Family Book Award Honor for Stuntboy in the Meantime
- Gordon Korman (author of Restart) won a Sydney Taylor Award Honor for Linked
In addition to authors in Read to Them’s catalog, several authors and illustrators featured in our 2021 Read Aloud to a Child Week books on Gratitude had their works recognized by the ALA, as well:
- Watercress by Andrea Wang and illustrated by Jason Chin won the Caldecott Medal, the Newbery Honor, and the Asian/Pacific American Honor
- Nikki Grimes (author of Thanks a Million) won the Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement
- Christian Robinson (illustrator of Last Stop on Market Street) won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor for Nina: A Story of Nina Simone
- Traci Sorrell and Fran E. Lessac (author and illustrator of We Are Grateful) won the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award Honor and The American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor for We Are Still Here!: Native American Truths Everyone Should Know
This year’s Newberry Medalist is Donna Barba Higuera’s middle-grade science fiction novel, The Last Cuentista. Though this selection is not in Read to Them’s catalog, several of our staff admire this novel and how it highlights storytelling as an invaluable resource to preserve the past and to forge and maintain one’s identity for the future.
While many awards from the ALA are quite well-known — the Coretta Scott King Award, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Randolph Caldecott Medal— others often fall under the radar. You can click here for a full list of the ALA Youth Media Award winners.
Read to Them would like to extend our appreciation for and our congratulations to all the 2022 winners! We look forward to following this talented roster of authors and illustrators, and cannot wait to see what stories they create in the years to come.
