Some YA authors won big this year! Whilee they were lesser-known awards, they are still prestigious awards and should be congratulated and celebrated for it!
While Angeline Boulley did not win a Newbery or Caldecott medal, she was honored with the American Indian Youth Literature Awards for her YA novel Firekeeper’s Daughter. It also won the William C. Morris Award for a debut book by a first-time writer for teens. She also got the Michael L. Printz Award for her excellent YA literature. While these awards are not well-renowned, they are three very significant awards.
Author Malinda Lo was only a runner-up for the Printz Award, but she did get a National Book Award for her YA novel Last Night at the Telegraph Club; the ALA awarded it the youth literature prize for Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. Also, it was awarded the Stonewall Book Award — Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature given to young adult books related to the LGBTQ experience.
The book for young people that received the most recognition for the ALA this year is Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre. Author Carole Boston Weatherford and Illustrator Floyd Cooper each won a Coretta Scott King award this year.
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