The Sydney Taylor Book Award recognizes the best in Jewishchildren's literature. Medals are awarded annually for outstanding books that authentically portray the Jewish experience. The award was established in 1968 by the Association of Jewish Libraries. It is named in memory of Sydney Taylor, author of the classic All-of-a-Kind Family series. Taylor's were some of the first children's books with Jewish characters that were of literary interest to readers of all backgrounds.
The award was first established by the Association of Jewish Libraries in 1968.[1] It was the first of the identity-based awards as a result of Nancy Larrick's 1965 piece The All-White World of Children's Books, establishing new precedent wherein literary excellence is paired with authentic and well-crafted representation of a particular identity, culture, and experience.[2][3] Originally, it was known as the Shirley Kravitz Children's Book Award and was later renamed in honor of Sydney Taylor in 1978.[4] The award initially recognized books for older children, but in 1981, the award committee started to recognize books for younger readers and in 2007, began to recognize young adult literature.[5] In 1988, Honor Award Winners were added and these books receive a silver seal.[5] The current president is Rebecca Levitan.
About
Awards are presented in three categories: Younger Readers, Older Readers and Teen Readers. In each category, a single gold medalist is named annually. Each year there may also be several silver medalists named in each category. A list of ten to twenty Notable Children's Books of Jewish Content is also named in each category, but these titles do not receive medals.
The award committee is made up of volunteers from the Association of Jewish Libraries.[5] Books are evaluated based on certain criteria one of which is literary merit.[6] Books must also be appropriate to the age level, rooted in "authentic and accurate detail" and have a positive and/or authentic Jewish religious or cultural content.[6] Books nominated are newly published books for the year.[7] Books can be picture books, non-fiction, fiction and poetry.[8]
Criteria
The book has literary merit.
The book has positive and authentic Jewish religious or cultural content.
The book is appropriate for the intended grade level in style, vocabulary, format, and illustration.
Whether fiction or nonfiction, the book is solidly rooted in authentic and accurate detail through scholarship and research by the author.
Particular attention will be paid to titles that demonstrate the broad diversity of the Jewish experience, including diversity of time period and country of origin.
Textbooks, liturgy, and reprints are not eligible. Significantly revised editions and re-illustrated editions are eligible.
Books must be commercially available for purchase in order to be eligible.
Self-published books are not eligible. The author and illustrator must not have paid any money to the publisher. The book must be edited by a professional editor at no cost to the author/illustrator. The publisher must publish books by multiple authors.
Books must be published in English (whether originally in English or in translation)
If the same book is published in English in multiple countries, the first version submitted will be considered for the award. Other versions then become ineligible.[9]
Themes
Most Sydney Taylor Book Award winning titles are universal in theme while Judaic in specific content, highlighting the rich diversity of Jewish lives and experiences, traditions, and values to Jewish and non-Jewish readers alike.[10]
The body-of-work award is given "to recognize an author or entity who has made a substantial contribution over time to the genre of Jewish children's literature."[14] Beginning in 2018, the award became biennial instead of periodic.
The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contributions to American literature for children". The Newbery and the Caldecott Medal are considered the two most prestigious awards for children's literature in the United States. Books selected are widely carried by bookstores and libraries, the authors are interviewed on television, and master's theses and doctoral dissertations are written on them. Named for John Newbery, an 18th-century English publisher of juvenile books, the winner of the Newbery is selected at the ALA's Midwinter Conference by a fifteen-person committee. The Newbery was proposed by Frederic G. Melcher in 1921, making it the first children's book award in the world. The physical bronze medal was designed by Rene Paul Chambellan and is given to the winning author at the next ALA annual conference. Since its founding there have been several changes to the composition of the selection committee, while the physical medal remains the same.
The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The Caldecott and Newbery Medals are considered the most prestigious American children's book awards. Beside the Caldecott Medal, the committee awards a variable number of citations to runners-up they deem worthy, called the Caldecott Honor or Caldecott Honor Books.
The Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) is an international organization dedicated to the production, collection, organization and dissemination of Judaic resources as a library, media, and information service. AJL has members in the United States, Canada, Israel and over 22 other countries.
Gary Mokotoff (born April 26, 1937) is an author, lecturer, and Jewish genealogy researcher. Mokotoff is the publisher of AVOTAYNU, the International Review of Jewish Genealogy, and is the former president of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS). He is the creator of the JewishGen's Jewish Genealogical Family Finder and the Jewish Genealogical People Finder. He co-authored the Daitch–Mokotoff Soundex system. Mokotoff is co-author of Where We Once Walked: A Guide to the Jewish Communities Destroyed in the Holocaust.
The Devil's Arithmetic is a historical fiction time slip novel written by American author Jane Yolen and published in 1988. The book is about Hannah Stern, a Jewish girl who lives in New Rochelle, New York, and is sent back in time to experience the Holocaust. During a Passover Seder, Hannah is transported back in time to 1941 Poland, during World War II, where she is sent to a concentration camp and learns the importance of knowing about the past.
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Hebrew Printing in America, 1735–1926, A History and Annotated Bibliography (ISBN 1-59975-685-4) is a history and bibliography of Hebrew books printed in America between 1735 and 1926 by Ari Kinsberg. It records 1208 items, annotated with bibliographical information, historical context, scholarly references, approbations, and location of copies in libraries worldwide. The bibliography is chronologically arranged within broad subject or format with 13 indexes, including Hebrew and English titles and authors, imprint places and years, publishers, printers, approbations, subscribers, typesetters, music arrangers, and artists; as well as reproductions of most title pages and selected interior pages, and appendices containing reproductions of relevant manuscripts and portraits of early American rabbis.
The Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction is an annual American children's book award that recognizes historical fiction. It was established in 1982 by Scott O'Dell, author of Island of the Blue Dolphins and 25 other children's books, in hopes of increasing young readers' interest in the history that shaped their nation and their world. Eligibility for the award requires that a book be written in English for children or young adults, published by an American publisher, and the author must be a United States citizen. The award is recognized in the United States by publishers of children's literature and young adult literature, the American Library Association, and the Assembly for Literature of Adolescents.
Letters From Rifka is a children's historical novel by Karen Hesse, published by Holt in 1992. The novel is based on the life of Hesse's great-aunt Lucille Avrutin. With an intended young adult audience, the book aims to inform and validate. Letters from Rifka details a Jewish family's emigration from Russia in 1919, to Belgium and ultimately to the U.S. The protagonist's name, Rifka, is the East European Jewish version of Rebecca.
Sydney Taylor was an American writer, known for her series of children's books about a Jewish-American family in New York during the early 20th century. Her first book won the Charles W. Follett Award in children's literature.
The Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production is an annual award conferred by the American Library Association upon the publisher of "the best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States". It is jointly administered by two ALA divisions and sponsored by Booklist magazine. It recognizes production quality in all respects, considering such things as narration, sound quality, background music and sound effects. It is named for Homer's eighth century BCE epic poem Odyssey, which was transmitted orally, to remind us modern people of the ancient roots of storytelling.
The Margaret A. Edwards Award is an American Library Association (ALA) literary award that annually recognizes an author and "a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". It is named after Margaret A. Edwards (1902–1988), the pioneer, longtime director of young adult services at Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore.
The Mildred L. Batchelder Award, or Batchelder Award, is an American Library Association literary award that annually recognizes the publisher of the year's "most outstanding" children's book translated into English and published in the U.S.
All-of-a-Kind Family is a 1951 children's book by Sydney Taylor about a family of five American Jewish girls growing up on the Lower East Side of New York City in 1912. It was followed by four sequels.
The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award is a literary award by the American Library Association (ALA) that annually recognizes the "author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished book for beginning readers published in English in the United States during the preceding year." The winner(s) receive a bronze medal at the ALA Annual Conference, presented by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) division of ALA.
Henrietta M. Smith was an American academic, librarian, and storyteller, who edited four editions of the Coretta Scott King Award collection published by the American Library Association. In 2008, she was honored with the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes significant contributions to library service to children and ALSC. She is also the recipient of the 2011 Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement for her body of work as a significant and lasting literary contribution. She was honored during the 2014 Carle Honors Celebration by the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art for her life's work as a champion of diversity in children's literature.
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Fawzia Gilani-Williams is a British scholar of Islamic children's literature. She is also an author of children's literature as 'mirror books', an approach to writing and storytelling that reflects visibility for readers in story. A significant number of her children's books are Islamic adaptations of Western tales, often featuring Muslim characters in caring interaction with each other and with Hebrew or Hindu characters.
↑ Collins, Anastasia M. (2020). "The Cultural Doings and Undoings of the Sydney Taylor Book Award". Judaica Librarianship. 21: 95–104. doi:10.14263/jl.v21i.539.
↑ Cummins, June (2017). "The Still Almost All-White World of Children's Literature: Theory, Practice, and Identity-Based Children's Book Awards". In Kidd, Kenneth B.; Thomas, Joseph T. (eds.). Prizing Children's Literature: The Cultural Politics of Children's Book Awards. New York: Routledge. pp.87–103. ISBN9781138650541.
↑ Estrin, Heidi; Kamin, Rachel (2007). "The Sydney Taylor Book Award". Book Links. 16 (3): 55–58. Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2019-03-02– via EBSCOhost.
↑ "How to submit books". Sydney Taylor Book Award. Association of Jewish Libraries. Archived from the original on 13 July 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
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