Carter G. Woodson Book Award

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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]

Contents

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, 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.

Award recipients

General winners (1974–1988)
YearAuthorTitleRef.
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]
1978Jane GoodsellThe Biography of Daniel Inouye [7]
1979Peter NabokovNative 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]
1982Susan Carver and Paula McGuireComing to North America from Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico [11]
1983 Brent Ashabranner Morning Star, Black Sun
1984E.B. FincherMexico 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
1987Arlene HirschfelderHappily May I Walk
1988 James Haskins Black Music in America: A History Through Its People
Secondary level winners (grades 7–12, since 1989)
YearAuthorTitleRef.
1989 Charles Patterson Marian Anderson
1990Rebecca LarsenPaul Robeson
1991Mary E. LyonsSorrow's Kitchen: The Life and Folklore of Zora Neale Hurston
1992Jeri FerrisNative American Doctor: The Story of Susan LaFlesche Picotte
1993Mildred Pitts WalterMississippi Challenge
1994 James Haskins The March on Washington
1995Zak MettgerTill Victory is Won: Black Soldiers in the Civil War
1996Ellen LevineA Fence Away from Freedom: Japanese Americans and World War II
1997 James Haskins The Harlem Renaissance
1998 Milton Meltzer Langston Hughes
1999Rinna Evelyn WolfeEdmonia Lewis: Wildfire in Marble
2000Sharon LinneaPrincess Ka'iulani: Hope of a Nation, Heart of a People
2001 Albert Marrin Tatan'ka Iyota'ke: Sitting Bull and His World
2002Barbara C. CruzMultiethnic Teens and Cultural Identity
2003Harvey FiresideThe "Mississippi Burning" Civil Rights Murder Conspiracy Trial: a Headline Court Case
2004James TackachEarly Black Reformers
2005Robert H. Mayer (editor)The Civil Rights Act of 1964
2006Calvin Craig MillerNo Easy Answers: Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement
2007Joanne OppenheimDear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese-American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference
2008Vincent Collin Beach with Anni BeachDon't Throw Away Your Stick Till You Cross the River: The Journey of an Ordinary Man
2009 Francisco Jiménez Reaching Out
2010Ann BausumDenied, 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
2013Judith Fradin and Dennis FradinStolen into Slavery the True Story of Solomon Northup, Free Black Man
2014no award presented
2015 Steve Sheinkin The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights
2016Winifred ConklingPassenger 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
2022Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich WallaceRace Against Time
2023Lawrence GoldstoneDays of Infamy: How a Century of Bigotry Led to Japanese American Internment
2024Thien PhamFamily Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam
Middle level winners (grades 5–8, since 2001)
YearAuthorTitleRef.
2001 Andrea Davis Pinkney Let it Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters
2002Alice HinkelPrince Estabrook: Slave and Soldier
2003Michael L. CooperRemembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp
2004Kimberly Komatsu and Kaleigh KomatsuIn America's Shadow
2005 Russell Freedman The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights
2006Bárbara CruzCésar Chávez: A Voice for Farmworkers
2007 Russell Freedman Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
2008John FleischmanBlack and White Airmen: Their True History
2009 James Haskins and Kathleen Benson with Virginia SchompDrama of African-American History: The Rise of Jim Crow
2010 Phillip Hoose Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
2011no award presented
2012Susan Goldman RubinMusic Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein
2013Ann BausumMarching 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
2015Teri KanefieldThe Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement
2016no award presented
2017no award presented
2018Laura Atkins and Stan YogiFighting 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
2021James Otis SmithBlack 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
Elementary level winners (grades K–6, since 1989)
YearAuthorTitleRef.
1989Jeri FerrisWalking the Road to Freedom
1990Aylette Jenness and Alice RiversIn Two Worlds: A Yup’ik Eskimo Family
1991Catherine ScheaderShirley Chisolm
1992Fay StanleyThe Last Princess: The Story of Princess Ka’iulani of Hawai’i
1993 Patricia and Fredrick McKissack Madam C.J. Walker
1994Mary E. LyonsStarting Home: The Story of Horace Pippin, Painter
1995Jeri FerrisWhat I Had Was Singing: The Story of Marian Anderson
1996Monty RoesselSongs from the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave
1997Suhaib Hamid GhaziRamadan
1998 Leon Walter Tillage Leon's Story
1999John DugglebyStory Painter: The Life of Jacob Lawrence
2000 Ruby Bridges Through My Eyes
2001 Carole Boston Weatherford The Sound that Jazz Makes
2002Nanette MellageComing Home: A Story of Josh Gibson, Baseball's Greatest Home Run Hitter
2003Richard Griswold del CastilloCesar Chavez: The Struggle for Justice / Cesar Chavez: La lucha por la justicia
2004Liselotte ErdrichSacagawea
2005 Joseph Bruchac Jim Thorpe's Bright Path
2006Margot Theis RavenLet Them Play
2007 Jim Haskins and Kathleen BensonJohn Lewis in the Lead: A Story of the Civil Rights Movement
2008Bill WiseLouis Sockalexis: Native American Baseball Pioneer
2009 Nikki Giovanni Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship
2010Paula YooShining Star: The Anna May Wong Story
2011 Andrea Davis Pinkney Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down
2012Gina Capaldi and Q. L. PearceRed 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
2014Anne RockwellHey 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
2017Annette Bay PimentelMountain Chef: How One Man Lost His Groceries, Changed His Plans, and Helped Cook Up the National Park Service
2018Cynthia LevinsonThe Youngest Marcher—The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist
2019Mélina MangalThe 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
2023Diane Wilson, Sun Yung Shin, Shannon Gibney, and John Coy Where We Come From
2024Carole LindstromMy Powerful Hair

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References

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