The Carter G. Woodson Book Award is an American literary award created in 1973 by the Racism and Social Justice Committee of the National Council for the Social Studies to promote cultural literacy in children and young adults. [1]
First presented in 1974, the award is named for American historian, author, and journalist Carter G. Woodson. Currently awarded at three levels – elementary, middle, and secondary – middle was added in 2001 after the other two divisions began in 1989. [2]
In addition to announcing winners, the award recognizes honor books, referred to until 1989 as those having "outstanding merit". [2] An accompanying seal, with a likeness of Woodson, was introduced in 1999 with gold seals applied to winning book covers and silver seals on honor books. [2]
As of 2024 [update] , Brent Ashabranner is the only author whose books have received the award three times, as well as the only to have winning books two years in a row. Don Tate, who first had a book win the Woodson award in 2016, illustrated a second title that also (uniquely) won that year.
Year | Author | Title | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
1974 | Eloise Greenfield | Rosa Parks | [3] |
1975 | Jesse C. Jackson | Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord: The Life of Mahalia Jackson, Queen of the Gospel Singers | [4] |
1976 | Laurence Yep | Dragonwings | [5] |
1977 | Dorothy Sterling | The Trouble They Seen | [6] |
1978 | Jane Goodsell | The Biography of Daniel Inouye | [7] |
1979 | Peter Nabokov | Native American Testimony: An Anthology of Indian and White Relations | [8] |
1980 | Nancy Wood | War Cry on a Prayer Feather: Prose and Poetry of the Ute | [9] |
1981 | Milton Meltzer | The Chinese Americans | [10] |
1982 | Susan Carver and Paula McGuire | Coming to North America from Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico | [11] |
1983 | Brent Ashabranner | Morning Star, Black Sun | |
1984 | E.B. Fincher | Mexico and the United States | |
1985 | Brent Ashabranner | To Live in Two Worlds: American Indian Youth Today | |
1986 | Brent Ashabranner | Dark Harvest: Migrant Farmworkers in America | |
1987 | Arlene Hirschfelder | Happily May I Walk | |
1988 | James Haskins | Black Music in America: A History Through Its People |
Year | Author | Title | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
1989 | Charles Patterson | Marian Anderson | |
1990 | Rebecca Larsen | Paul Robeson | |
1991 | Mary E. Lyons | Sorrow's Kitchen: The Life and Folklore of Zora Neale Hurston | |
1992 | Jeri Ferris | Native American Doctor: The Story of Susan LaFlesche Picotte | |
1993 | Mildred Pitts Walter | Mississippi Challenge | |
1994 | James Haskins | The March on Washington | |
1995 | Zak Mettger | Till Victory is Won: Black Soldiers in the Civil War | |
1996 | Ellen Levine | A Fence Away from Freedom: Japanese Americans and World War II | |
1997 | James Haskins | The Harlem Renaissance | |
1998 | Milton Meltzer | Langston Hughes | |
1999 | Rinna Evelyn Wolfe | Edmonia Lewis: Wildfire in Marble | |
2000 | Sharon Linnea | Princess Ka'iulani: Hope of a Nation, Heart of a People | |
2001 | Albert Marrin | Tatan'ka Iyota'ke: Sitting Bull and His World | |
2002 | Barbara C. Cruz | Multiethnic Teens and Cultural Identity | |
2003 | Harvey Fireside | The "Mississippi Burning" Civil Rights Murder Conspiracy Trial: a Headline Court Case | |
2004 | James Tackach | Early Black Reformers | |
2005 | Robert H. Mayer (editor) | The Civil Rights Act of 1964 | |
2006 | Calvin Craig Miller | No Easy Answers: Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement | |
2007 | Joanne Oppenheim | Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese-American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference | |
2008 | Vincent Collin Beach with Anni Beach | Don't Throw Away Your Stick Till You Cross the River: The Journey of an Ordinary Man | |
2009 | Francisco Jiménez | Reaching Out | |
2010 | Ann Bausum | Denied, Detained, Deported: Stories From the Dark Side of American Immigration | |
2011 | Elaine M. Alphin | An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank | |
2012 | Larry Dane Brimner | Black and White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene "Bull" Connors | |
2013 | Judith Fradin and Dennis Fradin | Stolen into Slavery the True Story of Solomon Northup, Free Black Man | |
2014 | no award presented | ||
2015 | Steve Sheinkin | The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights | |
2016 | Winifred Conkling | Passenger on the Pearl: The True Story of Emily Edmonson's Flight from Slavery | |
2017 | John Lewis , Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell | March (Trilogy) | |
2018 | Larry Dane Brimner | Twelve Days in May—Freedom Ride 1961 | |
2019 | Claire Hartfield | A Few Red Drops | |
2020 | Ashley Bryan | Infinite Hope: A Black Artist's Journey from World War II to Peace | |
2021 | Evette Dionne | Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box | |
2022 | Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace | Race Against Time | |
2023 | Lawrence Goldstone | Days of Infamy: How a Century of Bigotry Led to Japanese American Internment | |
2024 | Thien Pham | Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam |
Year | Author | Title | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
2001 | Andrea Davis Pinkney | Let it Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters | |
2002 | Alice Hinkel | Prince Estabrook: Slave and Soldier | |
2003 | Michael L. Cooper | Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp | |
2004 | Kimberly Komatsu and Kaleigh Komatsu | In America's Shadow | |
2005 | Russell Freedman | The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights | |
2006 | Bárbara Cruz | César Chávez: A Voice for Farmworkers | |
2007 | Russell Freedman | Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott | |
2008 | John Fleischman | Black and White Airmen: Their True History | |
2009 | James Haskins and Kathleen Benson with Virginia Schomp | Drama of African-American History: The Rise of Jim Crow | |
2010 | Phillip Hoose | Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice | |
2011 | no award presented | ||
2012 | Susan Goldman Rubin | Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein | |
2013 | Ann Bausum | Marching to the Mountaintop: How Poverty, Labor Fights, and Civil Rights Set the Stage for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Final Hours | |
2014 | Tonya Bolden | Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln and the Dawn of Liberty | |
2015 | Teri Kanefield | The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement | |
2016 | no award presented | ||
2017 | no award presented | ||
2018 | Laura Atkins and Stan Yogi | Fighting for Justice—Fred Korematsu Speaks Up | |
2019 | Wendy Ewald | America Border Culture Dreamer: The Young Immigrant Experience From A to Z | |
2020 | Ashley Bryan | Infinite Hope: A Black Artist's Journey from World War II to Peace | |
2021 | James Otis Smith | Black Heroes of the Wild West | |
2022 | Carole Boston Weatherford | Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre | |
2023 | Candacy Taylor | Overground Railroad: The Green Book and The Roots of Black Travel in America (The Young Adult Adaptation) | |
2024 | Traci Sorell | Contenders: Two Native Baseball Players, One World Series |
Year | Author | Title | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
1989 | Jeri Ferris | Walking the Road to Freedom | |
1990 | Aylette Jenness and Alice Rivers | In Two Worlds: A Yup’ik Eskimo Family | |
1991 | Catherine Scheader | Shirley Chisolm | |
1992 | Fay Stanley | The Last Princess: The Story of Princess Ka’iulani of Hawai’i | |
1993 | Patricia and Fredrick McKissack | Madam C.J. Walker | |
1994 | Mary E. Lyons | Starting Home: The Story of Horace Pippin, Painter | |
1995 | Jeri Ferris | What I Had Was Singing: The Story of Marian Anderson | |
1996 | Monty Roessel | Songs from the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave | |
1997 | Suhaib Hamid Ghazi | Ramadan | |
1998 | Leon Walter Tillage | Leon's Story | |
1999 | John Duggleby | Story Painter: The Life of Jacob Lawrence | |
2000 | Ruby Bridges | Through My Eyes | |
2001 | Carole Boston Weatherford | The Sound that Jazz Makes | |
2002 | Nanette Mellage | Coming Home: A Story of Josh Gibson, Baseball's Greatest Home Run Hitter | |
2003 | Richard Griswold del Castillo | Cesar Chavez: The Struggle for Justice / Cesar Chavez: La lucha por la justicia | |
2004 | Liselotte Erdrich | Sacagawea | |
2005 | Joseph Bruchac | Jim Thorpe's Bright Path | |
2006 | Margot Theis Raven | Let Them Play | |
2007 | Jim Haskins and Kathleen Benson | John Lewis in the Lead: A Story of the Civil Rights Movement | |
2008 | Bill Wise | Louis Sockalexis: Native American Baseball Pioneer | |
2009 | Nikki Giovanni | Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship | |
2010 | Paula Yoo | Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story | |
2011 | Andrea Davis Pinkney | Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down | |
2012 | Gina Capaldi and Q. L. Pearce | Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala-Ša, Native American Author, Musician, and Activist (adapted) | |
2013 | Jabari Asim | Fifty Cents and a Dream: Young Booker T. Washington | |
2014 | Anne Rockwell | Hey Charleston!: The True Story of the Jenkins Orphanage Band | |
2015 | Duncan Tonatiuh | Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation | |
2016 | Don Tate | Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton | |
Chris Barton | The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch | ||
2017 | Annette Bay Pimentel | Mountain Chef: How One Man Lost His Groceries, Changed His Plans, and Helped Cook Up the National Park Service | |
2018 | Cynthia Levinson | The Youngest Marcher—The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist | |
2019 | Mélina Mangal | The Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just | |
2020 | Kwame Alexander | The Undefeated | |
2021 | Don Tate | William Still and His Freedom Stories | |
2022 | Martha Brockenbrough and Grace Lin | I Am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story | |
2023 | Diane Wilson, Sun Yung Shin, Shannon Gibney, and John Coy | Where We Come From | |
2024 | Carole Lindstrom | My Powerful Hair |
Carter Godwin Woodson was an American historian, author, journalist, and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). He was one of the first scholars to study the history of the African diaspora, including African-American history. A founder of The Journal of Negro History in 1916, Woodson has been called the "father of black history." In February 1926, he launched the celebration of "Negro History Week," the precursor of Black History Month. Woodson was an important figure to the movement of Afrocentrism, due to his perspective of placing people of African descent at the center of the study of history and the human experience.
Russell A. Freedman was an American biographer and the author of nearly 50 books for young people. He may be best known for winning the 1988 Newbery Medal with his work Lincoln: A Photobiography.
The Coretta Scott King Award is an annual award presented by the Coretta Scott King Book Award 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 for universal human values.
Patricia C. McKissack was a prolific African American children's writer. She was the author of over 100 books, including Dear America books A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl;Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North; and Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl. She also wrote a novel for The Royal Diaries series: Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba. Notable standalone works include Flossie & the Fox (1986), The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural (1992), and Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman? (1992). What is Given from the Heart was published posthumously in 2019.
Jacqueline Woodson is an American writer of books for children and adolescents. She is best known for Miracle's Boys, and her Newbery Honor-winning titles Brown Girl Dreaming, After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers, and Show Way. After serving as the Young People's Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017, she was named the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, by the Library of Congress, for 2018 to 2019. Her novel Another Brooklyn was shortlisted for the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction. She won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2018. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2020.
Dorothy Sterling was an American writer and historian. After college, she worked as a journalist and writer in New York for several years, including work for the Federal Writers' Project.
James Haskins was an American author with more than 100 books for both adults and children. Many of his books highlight the achievements of African Americans and cover the history and culture of Africa and the African American experience. His work also included many biographical subjects, ranging from Lena Horne and Hank Aaron to Scatman Crothers and Malcolm X. Most of his writings were for young people. He wrote on a great variety of subjects that introduced young people to the language and cultures of other continents, especially Africa.
Andrea Davis Pinkney is an author of numerous books for children and young adults, including picture books, novels, works of historical fiction and nonfiction; she writes about African-American culture. In addition to her work as an author, Pinkney has had a career as a children's book publisher and editor, including as founder of the Jump at the Sun imprint at Hyperion Books for Children, the Disney Book Group. She is vice president and editor-at-large for Scholastic Trade Books.
Ashley Frederick Bryan was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. Most of his subjects are from the African-American experience. He was a U.S. nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2006 and he won the Children's Literature Legacy Award for his contribution to American children's literature in 2009. His picture book Freedom Over Me was short-listed for the 2016 Kirkus Prize and received a Newbery Honor.
Eloise Greenfield was an American children's book and biography author and poet famous for her descriptive, rhythmic style and positive portrayal of the African-American experience.
Fredrick Lemuel "Fred" McKissack, Sr. was an American writer, best known for collaborating with his wife, Patricia C. McKissack, on more than 100 children's books about the history of African-Americans.
Larry Dane Brimner is an American teacher, presenter, and writer of more than 150 children's books. They have ranged from fantasy-style stories for young children to non-fiction books for older children. Many of his books have civil rights themes; his book We Are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin won the 2008 Jane Addams Children's Book Award in the "older children" category. This was followed by Birmingham Sunday, which received the Orbis Pictus Honor Book Award in 2011 from the National Council for Teachers of English and the Eureka! Gold Award from the California Reading Association. His 2011 title, Black & White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene "Bull" Connor, was given the Carter G. Woodson Book Award and named a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book. More recently, Brimner has started writing about the migrant children he once taught with the publication of STRIKE! The Farm Workers' Fight for Their Rights, which received a starred review in Kirkus Reviews.
Francisco Jiménez is a Mexican-American writer and professor at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California.
Don Tate is an American author and illustrator of books for children. Tate creates both fiction and nonfiction picture books, with a focus on the biographies of little-known historical figures. He is also a strong advocate for more literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people. He notes that as a child he had to read the encyclopedia to discover a multicultural world; based on the children's books of his day he "thought the world was white". He co-founded the Brown Bookshelf, a blog designed to push the awareness of African Americans writing and illustrating books for young people. Tate also assisted in the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign to help put more books featuring diverse characters into the hands of readers.
Duncan Tonatiuh is a Mexican-American author and illustrator of several award-winning children's books. The illustrations in his books are influenced by Pre-Columbian art. The themes in his stories relate to the Latino experience, with subjects that include social justice issues, art, history, and immigration. He is an advocate and activist for workers’ rights.
Black Hands, White Sails: The Story of African-American Whalers is a 1999 book by Patricia McKissack and Frederick McKissack about the involvement of African-Americans in the history of whaling in the United States.
Tonya K. Bolden is an American writer best known for her works of children's literature, especially children's nonfiction. Bolden has authored, co-authored, collaborated on, or edited more than forty books. Hillary Rodham Clinton praised her 1998 book 33 Things Every Girl Should Know in a speech at Seneca Falls, NY on the 150th anniversary of the first Women's Rights Convention. Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl (2005), her children's biography of Maritcha Rémond Lyons, was the James Madison Book Award Winner and one of four honor books for the American Library Association’s Coretta Scott King Author Award. M.L.K.: Journey of a King (2007) won the Orbis Pictus award from the National Council of Teachers of English, the organization’s highest award for children’s nonfiction, and the next year, her George Washington Carver (2008) was one of five honor books for the same award. In 2016, the Children’s Book Guild of Washington, D.C. selected Bolden for its Nonfiction Award in recognition of her entire body of work, which, according to the award, has “contributed significantly to the quality of nonfiction for children.”.
A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 is a 2017 book by American author Claire Hartfield, published by Clarion Books.
Claire Hartfield is an American writer of history-inspired novels, best known for her Coretta Scott King Award-winning non-fiction novel A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919.
Evette Dionne is an American culture writer. Her young adult debut Lifting As We Climb (Viking) was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Dionne was editor-in-chief of Bitch from 2018 until 2021.