The YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction, established in 2010, is an annual literary award presented by the Young Adult Library Services Association of the American Library Association that "honors the best nonfiction book published for young adults (ages 12-18)". [1] It was first given in 2010. [2] The award is announced at ALA's Midwinter Meeting. [3]
The judges select nonfiction titles published for young adults that were published the previous year between November 1 and October 31. [4] All print forms that are marked as intended for young adults are eligible for consideration, including graphic formats. [4] To be eligible, "the title must include excellent writing, research, presentation and readability for young adults." [4] The Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults award is one of few that recognizes nonfiction for young adults. [5] [6]
Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
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2010 | Deborah Heiligman | Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith | Winner | [8] |
Tanya Lee Stone | Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream | Finalist | ||
Phillip Hoose | Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice | |||
Candace Fleming | The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P. T. Barnum | |||
Sally M. Walker | Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland | |||
2011 | Ann Angel | Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing | Winner | [9] |
Jill Rubalcaba and Peter Robertshaw | Every Bone Tells a Story: Hominin Discoveries, Deductions, and Debates | Finalist | ||
Rick Bowers | Spies of Mississippi: The True Story of the Spy Network that Tried to Destroy the Civil Rights Movement | |||
Paul Janeczko | The Dark Game: True Spy Stories | |||
Susan Campbell Bartoletti | They Called Themselves the KKK: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group | |||
2012 | Steve Sheinkin | The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, by Treachery | Winner | [10] |
Karen Blumenthal | Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition | Finalist | ||
Susan Goldman Rubin | Music Was IT: Young Leonard Bernstein | |||
Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos | Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom and Science | |||
Sue Macy | Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way) | |||
2013 | Steve Sheinkin | Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon | Winner | [11] |
Phillip Hoose | Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95 | Finalist | ||
Karen Blumenthal | Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different | |||
Deborah Hopkinson | Titanic: Voices from the Disaster | |||
Cynthia Levinson | We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March | |||
2014 | Neal Bascomb | The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World's Most Notorious Nazi | Winner | [12] |
Tanya Lee Stone | Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles, America's First Black Paratroopers | Finalist | ||
Chip Kidd | Go: A Kidd's Guide to Graphic Design | |||
Martin W. Sandler | Imprisoned: The Betrayal of Japanese Americans During World War II | |||
James L. Swanson | The President Has Been Shot! The Assassination of John F. Kennedy | |||
2015 | Maya Van Wagenen | Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek | Winner | [13] |
Emily Arnold McCully | Ida M. Tarbell: The Woman Who Challenged Big Business -- and Won! | Finalist | ||
Shane Burcaw | Laughing at My Nightmare | |||
Candace Fleming | The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia | |||
Steve Sheinkin | The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights | |||
2016 | Steve Sheinkin | Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War | Winner | [14] |
Margarita Engle | Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir | Finalist | ||
M.T. Anderson | Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad | |||
Tim Grove | First Flight Around the World: The Adventures of the American Fliers Who Won the Race | |||
Nancy Plain | This Strange Wilderness: The Life and Art of John James Audubon | |||
2017 | John Lewis and Andrew Aydin with Nate Powell (Illus.) | March: Book Three | Winner | [15] [16] |
Karen Blumenthal | Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Woman Living History | Finalist | ||
Kenneth C. Davis | In the Shadow of Liberty: The Hidden History of Slavery, Four Presidents, and Five Black Lives | |||
Pamela S. Turner with Gareth Hinds (Illus.) | Samurai Rising: The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune | |||
Linda Barrett Osborne | This Land Is Our Land: A History of American Immigration | |||
2018 | Deborah Heiligman | Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers | Winner | [17] |
Mary Beth Leatherdale and Lisa Charleyboy | #NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women | Finalist | ||
Marc Aronson and Marina Tamar Budhos | Eyes of the World: Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and the Invention of Modern Photojournalism | |||
Dashka Slater | The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives | |||
Martin W. Sandler | The Whydah: A Pirate Ship Feared, Wrecked, and Found | |||
2019 | Don Brown | The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees | Winner | [18] [19] |
Elizabeth Partridge | Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam | Finalist | ||
Jarrett Krosoczka | Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt With Family Addiction | |||
Sonia Sotomayor | The Beloved World of Sonia Sotomayor | |||
John Hendrix | The Faithful Spy | |||
2020 | Rex Ogle | Free Lunch | Winner | [20] |
Albert Marrin | A Light in the Darkness: Janusz Korczak, His Orphans, and the Holocaust | Finalist | ||
Elizabeth Wein | A Thousand Sisters: The Heroic Airwomen of the Soviet Union in World War II | |||
Lynn Curlee | The Great Nijinsky: God of Dance | |||
Deborah Heiligman | Torpedoed: The True Story of the World War II Sinking of The Children's Ship | |||
2021 | Candace Fleming | The Rise & Fall of Charles Lindbergh | Winner | [21] |
Christina Soontornvat | All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team | Finalist | ||
Amra Sabic-El-Rayess with Laura L. Sullivan | The Cat I Never Named: A True Story of Love, War, and Survival | |||
John Rocco | How We Got to the Moon: The People, Technology, and Daring Feats of Science Behind Humanity's Greatest Adventure | |||
Elizabeth Rusch | You Call This Democracy?: How to Fix Our Democracy and Deliver Power to the People | |||
2022 | Gail Jarrow | Ambushed!: The Assassination Plot Against President Garfield | Winner | |
Brandy Colbert | Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre | Finalist | ||
Paula Yoo | From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement | |||
Don Brown | In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers: The Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months and Years After the 9/11 Attacks | |||
Amy Butler Greenfield | The Woman All Spies Fear: Code Breaker Elizebeth Smith Friedman and Her Hidden Life | |||
2023 | Tommie Smith and Derrick Barnes with Dawud Anyabwile (Illus.) | Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice | Winner | [22] |
Rex Ogle | Abuela, Don't Forget Me | Finalist | [23] | |
Gail Jarrow | American Murderer: The Parasite that Haunted the South | |||
Ariel Henley | A Face for Picasso: Coming of Age with Crouzon Syndrome | |||
Michael Eric Dyson and Marc Favreau | Unequal: A Story of America | |||
2024 | Dashka Slater | Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed | Finalist | [24] |
Ariel Aberg-Riger | America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History | |||
Thien Pham | Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam |
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