Choosing Good Books:
Sources of Award-Winning Children's Books
These sites provide an overview of award-winning children's books:
Each year a committee of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, identifies those children's books deemed worthy of note or notice, important, distinguished, or outstanding.
Awarded since 1967 by the Boston Globe newspaper and the Horn Book Magazine. Since 1976, the awards have been given for outstanding children's fiction and poetry, nonfiction, and picture books.
Awarded by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association. Given to the illustrator of the most distinguished picture book for children published in the United States.
Established in 1998 and administered by the Cooperative Children's Book Center—an examination, study, and research library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Awarded to the author of the best picture book text published in the United States.
Awarded by the Wisconsin Library Association since 1992 to an author/illustrator for distinguished achievement in children's literature.
The American Booksellers Association's Indies Choice Book Awards honor the year's best young adult, middle reader, and picture books, among other categories. Formerly known as the Book Sense Book of the Year Awards (2000–2008) and the American Booksellers Book of the Year (ABBY) Awards (1991–1999).
Awarded for an author's first or second published book by the International Reading Association. Fiction and non-fiction awards are given in three categories: primary, intermediate, and young adult readers. Books from any country and in any language are considered.
Awarded since 1983 by the Children's and Young Adult Round Table of the Virginia Library Association for quality writing in U.S. history, historical fiction, or biography.
Awarded by the National Book Foundation for outstanding contribution to young people's literature.
Awarded by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association. Given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to children's literature published in the United States.
Awarded since 1985 by the Children's Literature Association to a book originally published in English 20 years previously that did not receive a major award at the time of its publication.
The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association, honors the best books for teens each year with its Alex, Edwards, Morris, Odyssey, Printz, and YALSA Nonfiction awards.
Author: Laura J. Colker, Ed.D.
Source: RIF Exchange Show #407.