The National Book Award for Young People's Literature is one of five annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation (NBF) to recognize outstanding literary work by US citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers". [1] The panelists are five "writers who are known to be doing great work in their genre or field". [2]
The category Young People's Literature was established in 1996. From 1969 to 1983, prior to the Foundation, there were some "Children's" categories. [3]
The award recognizes one book written by a US citizen and published in the US from December 1 to November 30. The National Book Foundation accepts nominations from publishers until June 15, requires mailing nominated books to the panelists by August 1, and announces five finalists in October. The winner is announced on the day of the final ceremony in November. The award is $10,000 and a bronze sculpture; other finalists get $1000, a medal, and a citation written by the panel. [4] [lower-alpha 1]
There were 230 books nominated for the 2010 award. [5]
Books for "children" were first recognized by the National Book Awards in 1969 (publication year 1968). Through 1979, a single award category existed, called either "Children's Literature" or "Children's Books." [6]
Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1969 | Meindert DeJong | Journey from Peppermint Street | Winner | [7] [8] |
Lloyd Alexander | The High King | Finalist | ||
Patricia Clapp | Constance: A Story of Early Plymouth | |||
Esther Hautzig | The Endless Steppe | |||
Milton Meltzer | Langston Hughes: A Biography | |||
1970 | Isaac Bashevis Singer | A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing up in Warsaw | Winner | [9] |
Vera and Bill Cleaver | Where the Lilies Bloom | Finalist | ||
Edna Mitchell Preston | Popcorn and Ma Goodness | |||
William Steig | Sylvester and the Magic Pebble | |||
Edwin Tunis | The Young United States, 1783–1830 | |||
1971 | Lloyd Alexander | The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian | Winner | [10] |
Vera and Bill Cleaver | Grover | Finalist | ||
Paula Fox | Blowfish Live in the Sea | |||
Arnold Lobel | Frog and Toad are Friends | |||
E. B. White | The Trumpet of the Swan | |||
1972 | Donald Barthelme | The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine or The Hithering Thithering Djinn | Winner | [11] |
Jan Adkins | The Art and Industry of Sandcastles | Finalist | ||
John Donovan | Wild In The World | |||
Ursula K. Le Guin | The Tombs of Atuan | |||
Virginia Hamilton | The Planet of Junior Brown | |||
Clyde Watson | Father Fox’s Pennyrhymes | |||
1973 | Ursula K. Le Guin | The Farthest Shore | Winner | [12] |
Betsy Byars | The House of Wings | Finalist | ||
Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire | d'Aulaires' Trolls | |||
Jean Craighead George | Julie of the Wolves | |||
Betty Jean Lifton and Thomas C. Fox | Children of Vietnam | |||
Georgess McHargue | The Impossible People | |||
Zilpha Keatley Snyder | The Witches of Worm | |||
William Steig | Dominic | |||
1974 | Eleanor Cameron | The Court of the Stone Children | Winner | [13] |
Alice Childress | A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich | Finalist | ||
Vera and Bill Cleaver | The Whys and Wherefores of Littabelle Lee | |||
Julia Cunningham | The Treasure is the Rose | |||
Bette Greene | Summer of My German Soldier | |||
Kristin Hunter | Guests in the Promised Land | |||
E. L. Konigsburg | A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver | |||
Norma Fox Mazer | A Figure of Speech | |||
F.N. Monjo | Poor Richard in France | |||
Harve Zemach and Margot Zemach | Duffy and the Devil | |||
1975 | Virginia Hamilton | M. C. Higgins the Great | Winner | [14] |
Natalie Babbitt | The Devil's Storybook | Finalist | ||
Bruce Buchenholz | Doctor in the Zoo | |||
Bruce Clements | I Tell a Lie Every So Often | |||
James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier | My Brother Sam is Dead | |||
Jason Laure with Ettagale Laure | Joi Bangla! The Children of Bangladesh | |||
Milton Meltzer | World of Our Fathers | |||
Milton Meltzer | Remember the Days | |||
Adrienne Richard | Wings | |||
Mary Stolz | The Edge of Next Year | |||
1976 | Walter D. Edmonds | Bert Breen's Barn | Winner | [15] |
Eleanor Cameron | To the Green Mountains | Finalist | ||
Norma Farber | As I Was Crossing Boston Common | |||
Isabelle Holland | Of Love and Death and Other Journeys | |||
David McCord | The Star in the Pail | |||
Nicholasa Mohr | El Bronx Remembered | |||
Brenda Wilkinson | Ludell | |||
1977 | Katherine Paterson | The Master Puppeteer | Winner | [16] |
Milton Meltzer | Never to Forget: The Jews of the Holocaust | Finalist | ||
John Ney | Ox Under Pressure | |||
Mildred D. Taylor | Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry | |||
Barbara Wersba | Tunes for a Small Harmonica | |||
1978 | Judith Kohl and Herbert Kohl | The View From the Oak: The Private Worlds of Other Creatures | Winner | [17] |
Betty Sue Cummings | Hew Against the Grain | Finalist | ||
Ilse Koehn | Mischling, Second Degree: My Childhood in Nazi Germany | |||
David McCord | One at a Time | |||
William Steig | Caleb + Kate | |||
1979 | Katherine Paterson | The Great Gilly Hopkins | Winner | [18] |
Lloyd Alexander | The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha | Finalist | ||
Vera and Bill Cleaver | Queen of Hearts | |||
Sid Fleischman | Humbug Mountain | |||
Paula Fox | The Little Swineherd and Other Tales |
In 1980 under the new name The American Book Awards (TABA), the number of literary award categories jumped to 28, including two for Children's Books: hardcover and paperback. In the following three years there were three, five, and five Children's Book award categories—thus fifteen in four years—before the program was revamped with only three annual awards and none for children's books. [19]
Year | Category | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1980 | Hardcover | Joan Blos | A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830–82 | Winner | [20] |
David Kherdian | The Road from Home | Finalist | |||
E. L. Konigsburg | Throwing Shadows | ||||
Ouida Sebestyen | Words by Heart | ||||
Paperback | Madeleine L'Engle | A Swiftly Tilting Planet | Winner | [20] | |
Myron Levoy | Alan and Naomi | Finalist | |||
Arnold Lobel | Frog and Toad Are Friends | ||||
Maurice Sendak | Higglety Pigglety Pop!: Or There Must Be More to Life | ||||
Katherine Paterson | The Great Gilly Hopkins | ||||
1981 | Fiction, hardcover | Betsy Byars | The Night Swimmers | Winner | [21] |
Paula Fox | A Place Apart | Finalist | |||
Ouida Sebestyen | Far From Home | ||||
Katherine Paterson | Jacob Have I Loved | ||||
Jan Slepian | The Alfred Summer | ||||
Fiction, paperback | Beverly Cleary | Ramona and Her Mother | Winner | [21] | |
Sue Ellen Bridgers | All Together Now | Finalist | |||
S. E. Hinton | Tex | ||||
Lloyd Alexander | The High King | ||||
Ellen Raskin | The Westing Game | ||||
Nonfiction | Alison Cragin Herzig and Jane Lawrence Mali | Oh, Boy! Babies | Winner | [21] | |
Milton Meltzer | All Time, All Peoples: A World History of Slavery | Finalist | |||
Peter Spier | People | ||||
William Jaspersohn | The Ballpark | ||||
Jean Fritz | Where Do You Think You're Going, Christopher Columbus? | ||||
1982 | Fiction, hardcover | Lloyd Alexander | Westmark | Winner | [22] |
Cynthia Voigt | Homecoming | Finalist | |||
Mildred D. Taylor | Let the Circle Be Unbroken | ||||
Beverly Cleary | Ramona Quimby, Age 8 | ||||
Deborah Hautzig | Second Star to the Right | ||||
Fiction, paperback | Ouida Sebestyen | Words by Heart | Winner | [22] | |
Katherine Paterson | Jacob Have I Loved | Finalist | |||
Katherine Paterson | The Master Puppeteer | ||||
Lloyd Alexander | The Wizard in the Tree | ||||
Nonfiction | Susan Bonners | A Penguin Year | Winner | [22] | |
Melvin B. Zisfein with Robert Parker (illus.) | Flight: A Panorama of Aviation | Finalist | |||
Patricia Lauber with James Wexler (photos) | Seeds: Pop, Stick and Glide | ||||
James Howe with Mal Warshaw (photos) | The Hospital Book | ||||
Jean Fritz | Traitor: The Case of Benedict Arnold | ||||
1983 | Fiction, hardcover [lower-alpha 2] | Jean Fritz | Homesick: My Own Story | Winner | [23] |
Zibby Oneal | A Formal Feeling | Finalist | |||
Virginia Hamilton | Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush | ||||
Lloyd Alexander | The Kestrel | ||||
Edward Fenton | The Refugee Summer | ||||
Fiction, paperback | Paula Fox | A Place Apart | Winner (tie) | [23] | |
Joyce Carol Thomas | Marked by Fire (original) [lower-alpha 3] | ||||
Lois Lowry | Anastasia Again! | Finalist | |||
Sue Ellen Bridgers | Notes for Another Life | ||||
Judy Blume | Tiger Eyes | ||||
Nonfiction | James Cross Giblin | Chimney Sweeps | Winner | [23] | |
Patricia Lauber | Journey to the Planets | Finalist | |||
John Nance | Lobo of the Tasaday | ||||
Linda Grant DePauw | Seafaring Women | ||||
Judith St. George | The Brooklyn Bridge | ||||
Picture books, hardcover | William Steig | Doctor De Soto | Winner (tie) | [23] | |
Barbara Cooney | Miss Rumphius | ||||
Marcia Brown (Illus.) | Shadow (translation of a poem by Blaise Cendrars) | Finalist | |||
Karla Kuskin and Marc Simont (illus.) | The Philharmonic Gets Dressed | ||||
Cynthia Rylant and Diane Goode (illus.) | When I Was Young in the Mountains | ||||
Picture books, paper | Mary Ann Hoberman with Betty Fraser (illus.) | A House is a House for Me | Winner | [23] | |
Peter Koeppen (Illus.) | A Swinger of Birches (poems by Robert Frost) | Finalist | |||
Steven Kellogg | Pinkerton, Behave! | ||||
Edward Marshall | Space Case | ||||
Ellen Shire | The Bungling Ballerinas (original) |
From 1984 to 1995, the National Book Foundation did not present awards for young people's literature. [24]
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