The William Allen White Children's Book Award is a set of two annual awards for books selected by vote of Kansas schoolchildren from lists prepared by committee. As a single award it was established in 1952 by Ruth Garver Gagliardo, a children's literature specialist at Emporia State University, which continues to direct the program. [1] It is named for William Allen White (1868–1944), long-time publisher and editor of The Emporia Gazette . The White Award is the oldest statewide children's choice book award in the United States.
From 2001, two winners have been chosen each year, one by students in grades 3 to 5 and one by students in grades 6 to 8, from separate lists of books. [2] [3] The award website includes an archive of annual Master Lists that is complete back to the list of 18 books for school year 1952–53. [4] Curriculum Guides "designed to be used in teaching or preparing instructional units" are prepared for books on the year's Master List and some past Guides are available. [5] [6]
Currently (as of October 2019), [7] the annual celebration at Emporia early in October includes a Friday evening "Read-Ins and Sleepovers" with space for 100 people. After Saturday morning activities, student representatives present medals to the winning writers at the Awards Ceremony. [8] Travel to Emporia is an incentive in some classroom reading programs. [9] At least once (2011), a writer declined because of a conflict on the celebration date and was replaced as the White Award winner. [a]
There were 49 winners of the single William Allen White Book Children's Book Award in its 48 years through 2000, with two winners in 1974. [2] Nominees are listed below winners.
Indicates the winner |
| Year | Author | Title | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | Elizabeth Yates | Amos Fortune, Free Man | [10] |
| Genevieve Foster | Abraham Lincoln | ||
| Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire | Benjamin Franklin | ||
| Mabel Leigh Hunt | Better Known as Johnny Appleseed | ||
| Doris Shannon Garst | Crazy Horse: Great Warrior of the Sioux | ||
| Elizabeth Coatsworth | Door to the North | ||
| Douglas W. Gorsline | Farm Boy | ||
| Jeanette Eaton | Gandhi, Fighter Without a Sword | ||
| James Daugherty | Landing of the Pilgrims | ||
| Katherine B. Shippen | Lightfoot | ||
| Ann Nolan Clark | Magic Money | ||
| William Penn DuBois | Peter Graves | ||
| Samuel H. Adams | The Pony Express | ||
| Addison Webb | Song of the Seasons | ||
| Marguerite Bro | Su-mei's Golden Year | ||
| Leon Wilson | This Boy Cody | ||
| Meindert DeJong | The Tower by the Sea | ||
| Joseph Wharton Lippincott | The Wahoo Bobcat | ||
| 1954 | Doris Gates | Little Vic | [11] |
| Dorothy Aldis | Lucky Year | ||
| Valenti Angelo | Marble Fountain | ||
| Arna Bontemps | Chariot in the Sky | ||
| Conrad and Mary Buff | The Apple and the Arrow | ||
| Henry S. Commager | America’s Robert E. Lee | ||
| James Daugherty | Of Courage Undaunted | ||
| Eleanor Estes | Ginger Pye | ||
| Genevieve Foster | Andrew Jackson | ||
| Holling C. Holling | Minn of the Mississippi | ||
| Clara I. Judson | George Washington, Leader of the People | ||
| Lois Lenski | Prairie School | ||
| Julia Sauer | Light at Tern Rock | ||
| Katherine Shippen | Leif Eriksson | ||
| Sydney Taylor | All-of-a-Kind Family | ||
| Anne Terry White | Prehistoric America | ||
| Anne H. White | Story of Serapina | ||
| 1955 | Jean Bailey | Cherokee Bill: Oklahoma Pacer | [12] |
| Natalie Savage Carlson | Talking Cat and Other Stories of French Canada | ||
| Ann Nolan Clark | Secret of the Andes | ||
| Elizabeth Coatsworth | The Last Fort | ||
| Alice Dalgliesh | The Bears on Hemlock Mountain | ||
| Loula Grace Erdman | The Wind Blows Free | ||
| Jean Craighead George and John L. George | Meph, the Pet Skunk | ||
| Walter Havighurst | Climb a Lofty Ladder: A Story of Swedish Settlement in Minnesota | ||
| Clara Ingram Judson | Thomas Jefferson: Champion of the People | ||
| Eloise Jarvis McGraw | Moccasin Trail | ||
| Florence Crannell Means | Carvers' George: a biography of George Washington Carver | ||
| Gian Carlo Menotti | Amahl and the Night Visitors | ||
| Reba Paeff Mirsky | Thirty-One Brothers and Sisters | ||
| Miriam Powell | Jareb | ||
| Elizabeth Ripley | Leonardo Da Vinci | ||
| Albert B. Tibbets | The First Book of Bees | ||
| Ann Weil | Red Sails to Capri | ||
| E. B. White | Charlotte's Web | ||
| 1956 | Marguerite Henry | Brighty of the Grand Canyon | [13] |
| Elizabeth Baity | America Before Man | ||
| Joseph Krumgold | ...And Now Miguel | ||
| Jesse Stuart | The Beatinest Boy | ||
| Willis Lindquist | Burma Boy | ||
| Elizabeth Fraser Torjesen | Captain Ramsey’s Daughter | ||
| Oliver La Farge | Cochise of Arizona | ||
| Virginia Sorensen | Curious Missie | ||
| Carolyn Sherwin Bailey | Finnegan II: His Nine Live | ||
| Adele DeLeeuw | Hideaway House | ||
| Mary and Conrad Buff | Magic Maize | ||
| May McNeer | The Mexican Story | ||
| Robert Lawson | Mr. Revere and I | ||
| Emil E. Liers | An Otter's Story | ||
| Helen Acker | The School Train | ||
| Margot Benary-Isbert | The Ark | ||
| Clara Ingram Judson | Theodore Roosevelt | ||
| Evelyn Sibley Lampman | Tree Wagon | ||
| 1957 | Phoebe Erickson | Daniel Coon | [14] |
| Thelma Bell | Snow | ||
| Margot Benary-Isbert | Rowan Farm | ||
| Clyde Bulla | Squanto, Friend of the White Men (ater retitled Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims) | ||
| Rebecca Caudill | The House of the Fifers | ||
| Marchette Chute | The Wonderful Winter | ||
| Elizabeth Coatsworth | The Sod House | ||
| Alice Dalgliesh | The Courage of Sarah Noble | ||
| Meindert DeJong | The Wheel on the School | ||
| Jim Kjelgaard | Haunt Fox | ||
| Jonreed Lauritzen | The Ordeal of the Young Hunter | ||
| Robert Lawson | The Tough Winter | ||
| Beatrice Liu | Little Wu and the Watermelons | ||
| Gladys Malvern | The Foreigner - A Story of Ruth | ||
| Joice NanKivell Loch | Tales of Christophilos | ||
| William O. Steele | Winter Danger | ||
| Dorothy Sterling | Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman | ||
| James Ramsey Ullman | Banner in the Sky | ||
| 1958 | Elliott Arnold | White Falcon | [15] |
| Virginia Eifert | The Buffalo Trace | ||
| Jean Lee Latham | Carry On, Mr. Bowditch | ||
| Alice Dalgliesh | The Columbus Story | ||
| Belle Dorman Rugh | Crystal Mountain | ||
| Jennie Lindquist | The Golden Name Day | ||
| Ronald Syme | Henry Hudson | ||
| Robert Hofsinde | The Indian's Secret World | ||
| Meindert DeJong | The Little Cow and the Turtle | ||
| Yoshiko Uchida | The Magic Listening Cap: More Folk Tales from Japan | ||
| Katherine B. Shippen | Men, Microscopes, and Living Things | ||
| Kate Seredy | Philomena | ||
| Wilma Pitchford Hays | Pilgrim Thanksgiving | ||
| Virginia Sorensen | Plain Girl | ||
| Elizabeth Yates | Prudence Crandall, Woman of Courage | ||
| Stella F. Rapaport | Reindeer Rescue | ||
| Ann Nolan Clark | Santiago | ||
| Reba Paeff Mirsky | Seven Grandmothers | ||
| Beverly Butler | Song of the Voyageur | ||
| Jeanette Eaton | Trumpeter's Tale: The Story of Young Louis Armstrong | ||
| Natalie Savage Carlson | Wings Against the Wind | ||
| 1959 | Fred Gipson | Old Yeller | [16] |
| D. Moreau Barringer | And the Waters Prevailed | ||
| Dorothy Rhoads | The Corn Grows Ripe | ||
| Ruth Sawyer | The Enchanted Schoolhouse | ||
| Oliver Butterworth | The Enormous Egg | ||
| Lee McGiffin | The Fifer of San Jacinto | ||
| Beverly Cleary | Fifteen | ||
| Meindert DeJong | The House of Sixty Fathers | ||
| William O. Steele | Lone Hunt | ||
| Virginia Sorensen | Miracles on Maple Hill | ||
| Clara Ingram Judson | Mr. Justice Holmes | ||
| Elizabeth Ladd | The Night of the Hurricane | ||
| Elizabeth Coatsworth | The Peddler's Cart | ||
| Alice Dalgliesh | Ride on the Wind | ||
| Julie Forsyth Batchelo | Sea Lady | ||
| Mabel Leigh Hunt | Stars for Cristy | ||
| Dorothy Sterling | The Story of Caves | ||
| Harry Behn | The Wizard in the Well | ||
| 1960 | William O. Steele | Flaming Arrows | [17] |
| May McNeer | America's Abraham Lincoln | ||
| Clara Ingram Judson | Benjamin Franklin | ||
| Alice Marriott | Black Stone Knife | ||
| Elizabeth George Speare | Calico Captive | ||
| Eula Mark Phillips | Chucho: The boy with the Good Name | ||
| Hildegarde Swift | The Edge of April: A Biography of John Burroughs | ||
| Elizabeth Enright | Gone-Away Lake | ||
| Mari Sandoz | The Horsecatcher | ||
| Emma Gelders Sterne | Mary McLeod Bethune | ||
| Robert Willis | Molly's Hannibal: a Story of the Erie Canal | ||
| Harold Keith | Rifles for Watie | ||
| Ellis Credle | Tall Tales from the High Hills and Other Stories | ||
| Elspeth Bragdon | That Jud! | ||
| Jean Lee Latham | This Dear-Bought Land | ||
| Leo Gurko | Tom Paine, Freedom's Apostle | ||
| Billy C. Clark | The Trail of the Hunter's Horn | ||
| 1961 | Keith Robertson | Henry Reed, Inc. | [18] |
| Meindert DeJong | Along Came a Dog | ||
| Jeanette Eaton | America's Own Mark Twain | ||
| Jean Fritz | The Cabin Faced West | ||
| Dorothy Sterling | Captain of the Planter: The Story of Robert Smalls | ||
| Elizabeth Coatsworth | The Cave | ||
| Francis Kalnay | Chucaro: Wild Pony of the Pampa | ||
| Mary and Conrad Buff | Elf Owl | ||
| Natalie Savage Carlson | The Family Under the Bridge | ||
| Aylesa Forsee | Louis Agassiz: Pied Piper of Science | ||
| Rafaello Busoni | The Man who was Don Quixote: the story of Miguel Cervantes | ||
| Harold Felton | New Tall Tales of Pecos Bill | ||
| Edith Lambert Sharp | Nkwala | ||
| Elizabeth Yates | Pebble in a Pool: The Widening Circles of Dorothy Canfield Fisher's Life | ||
| William O. Steele | The Perilous Road | ||
| Elizabeth Marie Pope | The Sherwood Ring | ||
| Yoshiko Uchida | Takao and Grandfather's Sword | ||
| Ruth Franchere | Willa: The Story of Willa Cather's Growing Up | ||
| Elizabeth George Speare | The Witch of Blackbird Pond | ||
| Jean Lee Latham | Young Man in a Hurry: the Story of Cyrus W. Field | ||
| 1962 | Catherine Owens Pearen | The Helen Keller Story | [19] |
| Isabella Holt | The Adventures of Rinaldo | ||
| Gerald W. Johnson | America is Born: A History for Peter | ||
| Annabel & Edgar Johnson | The Black Symbol | ||
| Natalie Savage Carlson | A Brother for the Orphelines | ||
| Elizabeth Janet Gray | The Cheerful Heart | ||
| Sidney Rosen | Doctor Paracelsus | ||
| Edgar Parker | The Duke of Sycamore | ||
| Arna Bontemps | Frederick Douglass: Slave, Fighter, Freeman | ||
| Carol Kendall | The Gammage Cup | ||
| Jennie Lindquist | The Little Silver House | ||
| Alberta Wilson Constant | Miss Charity Comes to Stay | ||
| Louise A. Stinetorf | Musa the Shoemaker | ||
| Jean Craighead George | My Side of the Mountain | ||
| Joseph Krumgold | Onion John | ||
| Margaret Mead | People and Places | ||
| John Ciardi | The Reason for the Pelican | ||
| Margery Sharp | The Rescuers | ||
| Harold Courlander | The Tiger's Whisker and Other Tales from Asia and the Pacific | ||
| Harry Behn | The Two Uncles of Pablo | ||
| Genevieve Foster | The World of Captain John Smith | ||
| Robert Frost | You Come Too | ||
| 1962 | Scott O'Dell | Island of the Blue Dolphins | [20] |
| Jean Fritz | Brady | ||
| George Selden | The Cricket in Times Square | ||
| Mary Stolz | A Dog on Barkham Street | ||
| Jean Lee Latham | Drake: The Man They Called a Pirate | ||
| Sorche Nic Leodhas | Heather and Broom: Tales of the Scottish Highland | ||
| William Bixby | The Impossible Journey of Sir Ernest Shackleton | ||
| Peter Burchard | Jed : the Story of a Yankee Soldier and a Southern Boy | ||
| Jack Schaefer | Old Ramon | ||
| Ursula Nordstrom | The Secret Language | ||
| Marjorie Braymer | The Walls of Windy Troy: A Biography of Heinrich Schliemann | ||
| Carl Sandburg | Wind Song | ||
| Ann Nolan Clark | World Song | ||
| Ruth Sawyer | The Year of the Christmas Dragon | ||
| 1964 | Sheila Burnford | The Incredible Journey | [21] |
| Esther M. Douty | America's Fist Woman Chemist: Ellen Richards | ||
| Mary Stolz | Belling the Tiger | ||
| Elizabeth George Speare | The Bronze Bow | ||
| Margot Benary-Isbert | Dangerous Spring | ||
| Margaret L. Coit | The Fight for Union | ||
| Joanne Williamson | The Glorious Conspiracy | ||
| Eloise Jarvis McGraw | The Golden Goblet | ||
| Jonreed Lauritzen | The Legend of Billy Bluesage | ||
| John Ciardi | The Man Who Sang the Sillies | ||
| Russell Davis | Marine at War | ||
| Nardi Reeder Campion | Patrick Henry, Firebrand of the Revolution | ||
| Norton Juster | The Phantom Tollbooth | ||
| Edith Patterson Meyer | Pirate Queen | ||
| Elizabeth Enright | Return to Gone-Away | ||
| Leonard Wibberley | Sea Captain from Salem | ||
| Natalie Savage Carlson | The Song of the Lop-Eared Mule | ||
| Aileen Fisher | Summer of Little Rain | ||
| Jean Merrill | The Superlative Horse: A Tale of Ancient China | ||
| Johanna Johnston | Thomas Jefferson, His Many Talents | ||
| Glen Rounds | Wild Orphan | ||
| 1965 | Zachary Ball | Bristle Face | |
| 1966 | Sterling North | Rascal | |
| 1967 | Annabel and Edgar Johnson | The Grizzly | |
| 1968 | Beverly Cleary | The Mouse and the Motorcycle | |
| 1969 | Keith Robertson | Henry Reed's Baby-Sitting Service | |
| 1970 | E. L. Konigsburg | From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler | |
| 1971 | Walt Morey | Kävik the Wolf Dog | |
| 1972 | Barbara Corcoran | Sasha: My Friend | |
| 1973 | E. B. White | The Trumpet of the Swan | |
| 1974 | Robert C. O'Brien | Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH | |
| Zilpha Keatley Snyder | The Headless Cupid | ||
| 1975 | William Steig | Dominic | |
| 1976 | Beverly Cleary | Socks | |
| 1977 | George Selden | Harry Cat's Pet Puppy | |
| 1978 | Jean Van Leeuwen | The Great Christmas Kidnapping Caper | |
| 1979 | Wilson Rawls | Summer of the Monkeys | |
| 1980 | Betsy Byars | The Pinballs | |
| 1981 | Katherine Paterson | The Great Gilly Hopkins | |
| 1982 | C. S. Adler | The Magic of the Glits | |
| 1983 | Barbara Brooks Wallace | Peppermints in the Parlor | |
| 1984 | Shel Silverstein | A Light in the Attic | |
| 1985 | Quang Nhuong Huynh | The Land I Lost | |
| 1986 | Mary Downing Hahn | Daphne's Book | |
| 1987 | Robert Kimmel Smith | The War with Grandpa | |
| 1988 | Betsy Byars | Cracker Jackson | |
| 1989 | Marion Dane Bauer | On My Honor | |
| 1990 | Gary Paulsen | Hatchet | |
| 1991 | Bill Wallace | Beauty | |
| 1992 | Mary Downing Hahn | The Doll in the Garden: A Ghost Story | |
| 1993 | Jerry Spinelli | Maniac Magee | |
| 1994 | Phyllis Reynolds Naylor | Shiloh | |
| 1995 | June Rae Wood | The Man Who Loved Clowns | |
| 1996 | Lois Lowry | The Giver | |
| 1997 | Mary Downing Hahn | Time For Andrew: A Ghost Story | |
| 1998 | Barbara Park | Mick Harte Was Here | |
| 1999 | Andrew Clements | Frindle | |
| 2000 | P. J. Petersen | White Water |
| Year | Grades 3–5 | Grades 6–8 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Cynthia C. DeFelice | The Ghost of Fossil Glen | Louis Sachar | Holes |
| 2002 | Andrew Clements | The Landry News | Christopher Paul Curtis | Bud, Not Buddy |
| 2003 | Kate DiCamillo | Because of Winn-Dixie | Frances O'Roark Dowell | Dovey Coe |
| 2004 | Peni R. Griffin | Ghost Sitter | Andrea Warren | Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps |
| 2005 | Jerry Spinelli | Loser | Stephanie S. Tolan | Surviving the Applewhites |
| 2006 | Sue Stauffacher | Donuthead | Jeanne DuPrau | The City of Ember |
| 2007 | Andrew Clements | The Report Card | Sarah Weeks | So B. It |
| 2008 | Ann M. Martin | A Dog's Life: The Autobiography of a Stray | L. D. Harkrader | Airball: My Life in Briefs |
| 2009 | Sara Pennypacker | Clementine | Jennifer Roy | Yellow Star |
| 2010 | Barbara O'Connor | How to Steal a Dog | Cynthia Kadohata | Cracker! The Best Dog in Viet Nam |
| 2011 [a] | Patricia Reilly Giff | Eleven | Susan Campbell Bartoletti | The Boy Who Dared |
| 2012 | Wendy Mass | 11 Birthdays | Diana López | Confetti Girl |
| 2013 | Patrick Jennings | Guinea Dog | Peg Kehret | Ghost Dog Secrets |
| 2014 [9] | Don Brown | America is Under Attack: September 11, 2001 | Helen Frost | Hidden |
| 2015 | W. H. Beck | Malcolm at Midnight | M. H. Herlong | Buddy |
| 2016 | Sharon Creech | The Boy on the Porch | Chris Grabenstein | Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library |
| 2017 | Jennifer Brown | Life on Mars | Dianna Dorisi Winget | A Million Ways Home |
| 2018 | Lynda Mullaly Hunt | Fish in a Tree | Mary Downing Hahn | Took |
| 2019 [22] | Sara Pennypacker | Pax | Jason Reynolds | Ghost |
| 2020 [23] | Dusti Bowling | Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus | Gordon Korman | Restart: Lose Your Memory. Find Your Life |
| 2021 [24] | Katherine Arden | Small Spaces | Jewell Parker Rhodes | Ghost Boys |
| 2022 [25] | Rodman Philbrick | Wildfire: A Novel | Dan Gemeinhart | The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise |
| 2023 [26] | Lindsay Currie | Scritch Scratch | J. L. Esplin | 96 Miles |
| 2024 [27] | McCall Hoyle | Stella | Alan Gratz | Ground Zero |
| 2025 [28] | Katherine Applegate | Odder | Gordon Korman | The Fort |
| 2026 | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD |