Youth Media Awards

The ALA Youth Media Awards were announced last Monday. Of course, this would be the day that the shuttle buses were running late! Fortunately, the only award we missed hearing were the Schneider Family awards. The Schneider awards are given to books that "emphasize the artistic expression of the disability experience for children and or adolescent audiences. The book must portray some aspect of living with a disability or that of a friend or family member, whether the disability is physical, mental or emotional." I haven't read Piano Starts Here, but I was lucky enough to review Waiting for Normal for School Library Journal.





There were many cheers when Kadir Nelson won the Coretta Scott King Author Award (and the Illustrator Honor citation) for We Are the Ship. It's a fantastic and fascinating look at the Negro Baseball Leagues. Definitely one of the highlights of the previous publishing year. I was very pleased that Joyce Carol Thomas won an Honor citation and that Floyd Cooper won the Illustrator Award for The Blacker the Berry.





I'm a big fan of the Pinkneys, so was very happy that Jerry Pinkney was named an Honor recipient (The Moon Over Star) for the Illustrator award.



The Batchelder awards are given to books originally published in a language other than English and subsequently translated into English. I haven't read one of the winners, Tiger Moon, but I'm looking forward to doing so.

Not only did We Are the Ship win the CSK Author award, but it won the Sibert Medal, which is awarded to children's nonfiction titles. The two honor books are wildly different but equally fun to read: Bodies From the Ice and What to Do About Alice?





It was no surprise that Mo Willems won the Geisel (for beginning readers) for Are You Ready to Play Outside? Children's librarians and teachers love him, parents love him, and more importantly, children love them (I can name any number of award-winning books that collect dust on our shelves). Don't miss One Boy, which won an Honor.



The Pura Belpre Medal is given to books that portray Latino culture. Yuyi Morales won the Illustrator award (and an Honor citation) for Just in Case. It's also a Spanish counting book, which is pretty cool.



Next up: the awards for an author's body of work, and the major two awards.