Earlier this month, the American Library Association held its annual midwinter conference in Boston. Following a flurry of meetings and networking, there came the much anticipated announcement of the winners of numerous Youth Media Awards. The Library currently owns nearly twenty of the books lauded and we will add to our collection with other winning titles in the near future. 

Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson both took home prizes for their book, Last Stop on Market Street. De la Peña won the Newbery Medal for his wonderful story and Robinson was awarded both a Caldecott Honor and a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor for the illustrations that accompany the text. Kevin Henkes’ poignant Waiting also received an Honor from the Caldecott committee.

We were early predictors of the prestige found in Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s The War That Saved My Life and Pam Muñoz Ryan’s Echo, which both took home Newbery Honors. We also have some titles that placed in lesser known categories; Alex Gino’s George earned the Stonewall Children’s Award and Lynda Mullaly Hunt’s Fish in a Tree took home the Schneider Family Award for ages 11-13.

Last spring, we acquired advance copies of Rita Williams-Garcia’s Gone Crazy in Alabama and Linier’s graphic novel Written and Drawn by Henrietta. Both books were signed for the NYSL readers, so we are especially pleased that they took home these prizes: Liniers won a Batchelder Honor and Williams-Garcia took home the Coretta Scott King Author’s Medal. As well, Rafael López’s illustrations in Margarita Engle’s Drum Dream Girl earned the Pura Belpré Illustrator Award. 

In the non-fiction category, our recent purchase of Don Brown’s Drowned City, a graphic novel about the Hurricane Katrina tragedy in New Orleans, won a Sibert Honor. And we are thrilled to laud another Sibert Honor recipient, Library member Susan Buckley, who co-wrote Lynda Blackmon Lowery’s tale of Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom with Elspeth Leacock.

The Printz Award winner, Laura Ruby’s Bone Gap, was already on our shelves, as it had earned a National Book Award Honor a few months ago. And another two nonfiction titles for teenagers, available in our 3M e-book catalog, were spotlighted by the YALSA Awards committee: Steve Sheinkin’s Most Dangerous won the top Award, while M.T. Anderson’s Symphony for the City of the Dead received an Honor. 

There are a few awards given to authors for the body of work that have produced so far. This year, author and illustrator Jerry Pinkney received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for his substantial and lasting contribution to children’s literature. 2015 Coretta Scott King Award winner Jacqueline Woodson will give the Mary Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture in 2017. And David Levithan was given the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults. 

As well, the Alex Award, which was named for Margaret Alexander Edwards, is given to 10 books marketed outside the children’s arena, but that may have appeal to young adults. The NYSL presently owns four of the award-winning titles: 

All Involved by Ryan Gattis
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (also available as an e-book)
Girl at War by Sara Novic
Undocumented by Dan-El Padilla Peralta

Our new YA-HS collection continues to grow, including many Printz and Alex Award winners from years past. Read more about the recent YA-HS additions and news concerning this collection here.

If you have any questions about or suggestions for the books in our Children’s and Young Adult collections, please get in touch with the librarians at children@nysoclib.org or ya@nysoclib.org.