TheJosette Frank Award is an American children's literary award for fiction given annually by the Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College of Education. It "honors a book or books of outstanding literary merit in which children or young people deal in a positive and realistic way with difficulties in their world and grow emotionally and morally". [1]
Known as the Children's Book Award from 1943 to 1997, it was renamed in honor of Josette Frank, the editor of many anthologies for children and a former Executive Director of the Child Study Association of America. [1] [2] The prize to the author of the book has been provided by the Florence L. Miller Memorial Fund.
The Josette Frank Award is one of several prominent awards that the Children's Book Committee gives each year. The Flora Stieglitz Straus Award, established in 1994, is presented to "a distinguished work of nonfiction that serves as an inspiration to young people." The Claudia Lewis Award, given for the first time in 1998, honors the best poetry book of the year. The Margaret Wise Brown Board Book Award, is a biennial award, presented to published or adapted board books, will be presented in 2023 with books published in 2021-2022. [3]
Award Title | Award Year | Award Distinction | Book Title (Year Published) | Author | Illustrator | Publisher |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Children's Book Award | 1943 | Keystone Kids (1943) | John R. Tunis | Harcourt Brace | ||
1944 | The House (1944) | Marjorie Hill Allee | Helen Blair | Houghton Mifflin | ||
1945 | The Moved-Outers (1945) | Florence Cranell Means | Houghton Mifflin | |||
1946 | Heart of Danger (1946) | Howard Pease | Doubleday | |||
1947 | Judy's Journey (1947) | Lois Lenski | J. B. Lippincott & Co. | |||
1948 | The Big Wave (1948) | Pearl S. Buck | Utagawa Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai | John Day Company | ||
1949 | Paul Tiber: Forester (1949) | Maria Gleit | Ralph Ray | Charles Scribner's Sons | ||
1950 | Partners: The United Nations and Youth (1950) | Eleanor Roosevelt and Helen Ferris | Junior Literary Guild/Doubleday | |||
1951 | No Award | |||||
1952 | Jareb (1952) | Miriam Powell | Marc Simont | Thomas Y. Crowell | ||
Twenty and Ten (1952); later republished with minor edits as The Secret Cave (1969, 1973 Scholastic) [4] | Claire Huchet Bishop | William Pène du Bois | Puffin | |||
1953 | In a Mirror (1953) | Mary Stolz | Harper | |||
1954 | High Road Home (1954) | William Corbin | Coward-McCann/Junior Literary Guild | |||
The Ordeal of the Young Hunter (1954) | Jonreed Lauritzen | Hoke Denetsosie | Little, Brown and Company | |||
1955 | Crow Boy | Taro Yashima | ||||
Plain Girl | Virginia Sorenson | |||||
1956 | The House of Sixty Fathers | Meindert DeJong | Maurice Sendak | Harper & Row | ||
1957 | Shadow Across the Campus | Helen Roney Sattley | Dodd Mead | |||
1958 | South Town | Lorenz Graham | ||||
1959 | Jennifer | Zoa Sherburne | ||||
1960 | Janine | Robin McKown | Messner | |||
1961 | Winner | The Road to Agra (translated from Norwegian by Evelyn Ramsden) | Aimee Sommerfelt | Ulf Aas | Criterion | |
Special Citation | The Girl From Puerto Rico | Hila Colman | ||||
1962 | The Trouble With Terry | John Lexau | ||||
1963 | Winner | The Peaceable Revolution | Betty Schechter | |||
Special Citation | The Rock and the Willow | Mildred Lee | ||||
1964 | The High Pasture | Ruth Peabody Harnden | Vee Guthrie | |||
1965 | The Empty Schoolhouse | Natalie Savage Carlson | John Kauffman | |||
1966 | Winner | Queenie Peavy | Robert Burch | |||
Special Citation | Curious George Goes to the Hospital | Margret Rey and H.A. Rey | Margret Rey and H.A. Rey | Houghton Mifflin | ||
1967 | The Contender | Robert Lipsyte | ||||
1968 | Winner | What It's All About (translated from Russian by Joseph Barnes) | Vadim Frolic | Macmillan | ||
Special Citation | Where's Daddy? A Story about Divorce | Beth Goff | Susan Perl | Beacon Press | ||
1969 | The Empty Moat | Margaretha Shemin | Coward-McCann | |||
1970 | Migrant Girl | Carli Laklan | ||||
Rock Star | James Lincoln Collier | |||||
1971 | Winner | John Henry McCoy | Lillie D. Chaffin | Emanuel Schongut | ||
Special Citation | The Pair of Shoes | Aline Glasgow | Symeon Shimin | Dial BFYR | ||
1972 | A Sound of Chariots | Mollie Hunter | ||||
1973 | A Taste of Blackberries | Doris Buchanan Smith | ||||
1974 | Luke Was There | Eleanor Clymer | Diane DeGroat | |||
1975 | The Garden is Doing Fine | Carol Farley | Lynn Sweat | |||
1976 | Somebody Else's Child | Roberta Silman | Chris Conover | |||
1977 | The Pinballs | Betsy Byars | ||||
1978 | The Devil in Vienna | Doris Orgel | ||||
1979 | The Whipman is Watching | T.A. Dyer | ||||
1980 | A Boat to Nowhere | Maureen Wartski | ||||
1981 | A Spirit to Ride the Whirlwind | Athena Lord | ||||
1982 | Homesick: My Own Story | Jean Fritz | Margot Tomes | Putnam | ||
1983 | Winner | The Sign of the Beaver | Elizabeth George Speare | |||
Special Citation | The Solomon System | Phyllis Reynolds Naylor | ||||
1984 | One-Eyed Cat | Paula Fox | ||||
1985 | Winner | With Westie and the Tin Man | C.S. Adler | Macmillan | ||
Special Citation | Ain't Gonna Study War No More: The Story of America's Peace Seekers | Milton Meltzer | Harper and Row | |||
1986 | Journey to Jo'burg | Beverley Naidoo | ||||
1987 | Rabble Starkey | Lois Lowry | ||||
1988 | Winner | The Most Beautiful Place in the World | Ann Cameron | Thomas Allen | Knopf | |
Special Citation | December Stillness | Mary Downing Hahn | ||||
1989 | Shades of Gray | Carolyn Reeder | ||||
1990 | Secret City, USA | Felice Holman | ||||
1991 | Shadow Boy | Susan E. Kirby | ||||
1992 | Blue Skin of the Sea | Graham Salisbury | ||||
1993 | Make Lemonade | Virginia Euwer Wolff | ||||
1994 | Earthshine | Theresa Nelson | ||||
1995 | Winner | Music from a Place Called Half Moon | Jerrie Oughton | |||
Special Citation | The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 | Christopher Paul Curtis | Delacorte Press | |||
1996 | The Cuckoo's Child | Suzanne Freeman | ||||
Josette Frank Award | 1997 | No Turning Back: A Novel of South Africa | Beverley Naidoo | |||
1998 | My Louisiana Sky | Kimberly Willis Holt | ||||
1999 | ||||||
2000 | Figuring Out Frances | Gina Willner-Pardo | ||||
2001 | Because of Winn-Dixie | Kate DiCamillo | ||||
2002 | Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart | Vera B. Williams | ||||
2003 | Winner | Goddess of Yesterday | Caroline B. Cooney | |||
Special Citation | Jericho Walls | Kristi Collier | ||||
2004 | The Goose Girl | Shannon Hale | ||||
2005 | Ida B and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World | Katherine Hannigan | ||||
2006 | Each Little Bird That Sings | Deborah Wiles | ||||
2007 | Winner | Clementine | Sara Pennypacker | Marla Frazee | ||
Special Citation | The Manny Files | Christian Burch | ||||
2008 | Home of the Brave | Katherine Applegate | ||||
2009 | After Tupac and D Foster | Jacqueline Woodson | ||||
2010 | Winner | The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate | Jacqueline Kelly | |||
Special Citation | Where the Mountain Meets the Moon | Grace Lin | ||||
2011 | Out of My Mind | Sharon Draper | ||||
2012 | Bluefish | Pat Schmatz | ||||
2013 | Wonder | R. J. Palacio | ||||
2014 | Rose Under Fire | Elizabeth Wein | Little, Brown Books for Young Readers | |||
2015 | for younger readers | Rain Reign | Ann M. Martin | Feiwel & Friends | ||
for older readers | I'll Give You the Sun | Jandy Nelson | Dial BFYR | |||
2016 | The War That Saved My Life (2015) | Kimberly Brubaker Bradley | Dial BFYR | |||
2017 | The Secret Life of Lincoln Jones (2016) | Wendelin van Draanen | Knopf Books for Young Readers | |||
2018 | Piecing Me Together (2017) | Renée Watson | Bloomsbury USA Children's | |||
2019 | A Heart in a Body in the World (2018) | Deb Caletti | Atheneum Books for Young Readers | |||
2020 | When the Ground is Hard (2019) | Malla Nunn | GP Putnams and Sons | |||
2021 | When Stars Are Scattered (2020) | Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed | Victoria Jamieson (illustrator) and Imam Geddy (color) | Dial BFYR | ||
2022 | for younger readers | Milo Imagines the World (2021) | Matt de la Peña | Christian Robinson | GP Putnams and Sons | |
for older readers | Firekeeper's Daughter (2021) | Angeline Boulley | Macmillan | |||
2023 | I Must Betray You (2022) | Ruta Sepetys | Philomel |
The House of Sixty Fathers is a 1956 children's novel by Meindert DeJong. Illustrations were provided by Maurice Sendak. The novel was based on the author's own experiences as a military flier in China during the second world war.
The Sign of the Beaver is a children's historical novel by American author Elizabeth George Speare, which has won numerous literary awards. It was published in February 1983, and has become one of her most famous works.
Deb Caletti is an American writer of young adult and adult fiction. Caletti is a National Book Award finalist, and a Michael L. Printz Honor Book medalist, as well as the recipient of other numerous awards including the PEN USA finalist award, the Josette Frank Award for Fiction, the Washington State Book Award, and SLJ Best Book award. Caletti's books feature the Pacific Northwest, and her young adult work is popular for tackling difficult issues typically reserved for adult fiction. Her first adult fiction novel, He's Gone, was published by Random House in 2013, and was followed by several other books for adults, in addition to her many books for teens.
Children's Book Award is a generic term that has been applied to:
Malla Nunn is a Swaziland-born Australian screenwriter and author. Her works include the murder mysteries A Beautiful Place to Die and Let the Dead Lie, as well as the award-winning young adult novel, When the Ground Is Hard.
Jandy Nelson is an American author. Prior to her career as an author, Nelson worked for 13 years as a literary agent at Manus & Associates Literary Agency. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University as well as several Master of Fine Arts degrees. She later attended Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Matthew de la Peña is an American writer of children's books who specializes in novels for young adults. He won the Newbery Medal in 2016 for his book Last Stop on Market Street.
Ruta Sepetys is a Lithuanian-American writer of historical fiction. As an author, she is a New York Times and international bestseller and winner of the Carnegie Medal and The Josette Frank Award for Fiction.
Kirstin Cronn-Mills is an American author of children's books including the Minnesota Book Award finalist The Sky Always Hears Me And the Hills Don't Mind (2009) and Beautiful Music for Ugly Children (2012) which was a Stonewall Book Award winner and a Lambda Literary Award finalist. Her third novel, Original Fake (2016), was a Minnesota Book Award finalist in 2017, along with her third nonfiction volume for high school libraries, LGBTQ+ Athletes Claim the Field. Her fourth novel, Wreck, will be published in 2019.
Christian Robinson is an American illustrator of children's books and an animator. He is based in Sacramento, California and has worked with The Sesame Street Workshop and Pixar Animation Studios. He graduated from the California Institute of the Arts.
Kimberly Brubaker Bradley is an American children's and young adult book author. In 2016, her children's book The War That Saved My Life received the Newbery Honor Award and was named to the Bank Street Children's Book Committee's Best Books of the Year List with an "Outstanding Merit" distinction and won the Committee's Josette Frank Award for fiction.
Josette Frank was an American children's literature expert and educational consultant. Frank spent most of her adult life working for the Child Study Association of America (CSAA), a leading authority on child development from the 1920s to the 1960s. Frank was engaged as the CSAA's child reading expert and published a parental literary guide titled What Books For Children? in 1937 with a new edition in 1941. Due to her progressive views about parental supervision of children's reading, Frank became one of the significant pro-comics voices during the American anti-comics movement of the 1950s, for which she received praise and criticism.
Pat Schmatz is an American author of young adult fiction and middle grade fiction, best known for their James Tiptree Jr. Award winning novel Lizard Radio. Other of their well-known and award-winning works include Bluefish and The Key to Every Thing.
Renée Watson is an American teaching artist and author of children's books, best known for her award-winning and New York Times bestselling young adult novel Piecing Me Together, for which she received the John Newbery Honor, Coretta Scott King Author Award, and Bank Street Children's Book Committee's Josette Frank Award for fiction. Watson founded the nonprofit I, Too, Arts Collective to provide creative arts programs to the Harlem community.
Piecing Me Together is a 2017 young adult novel written by Renée Watson. The first person novel tells the story of Jade, an ambitious African American high school student. The book, a New York Times best seller, was well reviewed and won several awards.
Crow Boy is a 1955 picture book written and illustrated by Taro Yashima. The book tells the story of a shy Japanese boy named Chibi who hides at school until a new teacher takes notice of him. The book was a recipient of a 1956 Caldecott Honor for its illustrations and shared the 1955 Child Study Association Children's Book Award with Plain Girl by Virginia Sorensen. This book was translated into Japanese by Taro himself and published in Japan in 1979.
Victoria Jamieson is an American author and illustrator of children's books, known for her graphic novels.
Firekeeper's Daughter is a young adult novel by Angeline Boulley, published March 16, 2021, by Henry Holt and Co. The book is a New York Times best seller.
Angeline Boulley is a Chippewa (Ojibwe) author and has worked to improve education for Indigenous children. Her debut work, Firekeeper's Daughter, was named one of the top 100 young adult novels of all time by Time magazine, was a New York Times best seller, and will be adapted into a miniseries by Higher Ground.
When Stars Are Scattered is a nonfiction young adult graphic novel written by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, illustrated by Victoria Jamieson and Iman Geddy, and published April 14, 2020, by Dial Books.