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In late January, members of the American Library Association met in Phoenix for their final wintertide conference over a long weekend. On Monday morning, the Youth Media Awards were announced. They are known as the “Oscars” of the Children’s & YA book world; however, there is no pre-announcement of nominees: every single children’s and YA book published in 2024 is eligible! The Children’s & YA Librarians have pored over the winning titles and are happy to share that we currently have 60 of the award-winning titles and may add more as we continue to explore these prized words and pictures.
Caldecott Medalist: Chooch Helped illustrated by Rebecca Lee Kunz and written by Andrea L. Rogers 
Caldecott Honors: My Daddy Is a Cowboy illustrated by C.G. Esperanza and written by Stephanie Seales (also winner of the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award)
Home In A Lunchbox illustrated and written by Cherry Mo
Noodles on a Bicycle illustrated by Gracey Zhang and written by Kyo Maclear
Newbery Medalist: The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly
Newbery Honors: Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All by Chanel Miller
The Wrong Way Home by Kate O’Shaughnessy
One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome (also a Coretta Scott King Honor title)
Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar (also a Sydney Taylor Honor title)
Printz Award: Brownstone written by Samuel Teer and illustrated by Mar Julia
Printz Honors: The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag
Bright Red Fruit by Safia Elhillo
Coretta Scott King Author Book Award: Twenty-four Seconds from Now... by Jason Reynolds
Author Honors: One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome (also a Newbery Honor title)
Black Girl You Are Atlas by Renée Watson
Illustrator Book Award: My Daddy Is a Cowboy illustrated by C.G. Esperanza and written by Stephanie Seales (also a Caldecott Honor title)
Illustrator Honors: Go Forth and Tell: The Life of Augusta Baker, Librarian, and Master Storyteller illustrated by April Harrison and written by Breanna J. McDaniel
Coretta: The Autobiography of Mrs. Coretta Scott King illustrated by Ekua Holmes and written by Coretta Scott King with Rev. Barbara Reynolds
Everywhere Beauty Is Harlem: The Vision of Photographer Roy DeCarava illustrated by E.B. Lewis and written by Gary Golio 
Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award: Kwame Crashes the Underworld by Craig Kofi Farmer
Pura Belpré Children’s Author Award: Lola by Karla Arenas Valenti
Illustration Honor: A Maleta Full of Treasures illustrated by Juana Medina and written by Natalia Sylvester
Odyssey
Honor Audiobook: Black Girl You Are Atlas narrated and written by Renée Watson
Batchelder
Honors: Mr. Lepron’s Mystery Soup by Giovanna Zoboli translated from Italian by Denise Muir
Johnny, the Sea, and Me by Melba Escobar translated from Spanish by Sara Lissa Paulson
A Sleepless Night by Micaela Chirif translated from Spanish by Jordan Landsman
Schneider Family
Picture Book Honor: Monster Hands by Karen Kane and Jonaz McMillan
Best Middle Grade: Popcorn by Rob Harrell
Middle Grade Honor: Louder Than Hunger by John Schu
YA Honor: On the Bright Side by Anna Sortino
Sibert Informational Book Award: Life After Whale: The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall by Lynn Brunelle
Honors: The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II by Candace Fleming
The Girl Who Sang: A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival by Estelle Nadel and Sammy Savos with Bethany Strout (also a Sydney Taylor Book Award winner)
Stonewall
YA Honors: Navigating with You by Jeremy Whitley and illustrated by Cassio Ribiero
Most Ardently: A Pride & Prejudice Remix by Gabe Cole Novoa
Children’s Literature Award: Lunar Boy by Jes and Cin Wibowo
Honor: Murray Out of Water by Taylor Tracy
Morris Award: Not Like Other Girls by Meredith Adamo
Finalists: The Wilderness of Girls by Madeline Claire Franklin
Aisle Nine by Ian X. Cho
Geisel Award: Vacation by Ame Dyckman
Geisel Honors: Towed by Toad by Jashar Awan
Fox Versus Fox by Corey Tabor
Sydney Taylor
Picture Book Honor: Joyful Song: A Naming Story by Lesléa Newman and illustrated by Susan Gal
Middle Grade Book Award: The Girl Who Sang: A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival by Estelle Nadel and Sammy Savos with Bethany Strout (also a Sibert Honor title)
Middle Grade Honors: Finn and Ezra’s Bar Mitzvah Time Loop by Joshua S. Levy
Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar (also a Newbery Honor title)
YA Award: Night Owls by A.R. Vishny
YA Honor: Trajectory by Cambria Gordon
Asian Pacific American Literature Awards
Children’s Literature Winner: Continental Drifter by Kathy Macleod
Honor: Clairboyance by Kristiana Kahakauwila
Mabuhay! by Zachary Sterling
YA Honor: Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier
Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and illustrated by LeUyen Pham
YALSA Nonfiction
Honor: Homebody by Theo Parish
The Children's Literature Legacy Award was bestowed upon Carole Boston Weatherford and Tiffany D. Jackson received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults. Author Cynthia Leitich Smith will deliver the 2025 ALSC Children’s Literature Lecture.
Alex Award titles available in print:
Woman, Life, Freedom edited by Marjane Satrapi
available in both print and on Cloud:
Beautiful People: My Thirteen Truths about Disability by Melissa Blake (e-book)
Daughters of Shandong by Eve J. Chung (e-audio)
How To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin (e-audio)
Big Jim and the White Boy: An American Classic Reimagined by David F. Walker and illustrated by Marcus Kwame Anderson (e-book)
Five others were acquired for the Alex Award shelf in the Cloud Library:
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark (e-audio)
The Witch of Colchis by Rosie Hewlett (e-book)
I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones (e-book)
I Feel Awful, Thanks by Lara Pickle (e-book)
The Witchstone by Henry H. Neff (e-audio)
Curious about what else we recently added to the Children's & YA shelves? Our new book lists for Children's are posted monthly, so you can stay current with our most recent acquisitions. And in our seasonal newsletters, you’ll find listings for the new YA titles. Did you spy a beloved book from last year above? Let us know about your current favorites... maybe they will win next year!
