Research Guides: Children's Literature: Juvenile Literature Awards

This page covers Children's Literature Awards that are housed at the CSU Sacramento University Library.

Award copies can be found in two areas:

1. Award Winner's Alcove

2. Circulating Children's Literature Collection

Collection Discovery in OneSearch
Use the Collections Discovery tool to browse Award Winners.
Children's Collections Layout
Follow this link to see a visual layout of the children's and Curriculum Collections.

Juvenile Literature Awards at Sac State

These awards are recognized in the Award Winner's Alcove. Follow the links to learn more about each award. To find these titles in our catalog (OneSearch), use the browse feature (linked above) or simply look up the title.

American Indian Youth Literature Award
Awarded biennially, the AIYLA identifies and honors the very best writing and illustrations by Native Americans and Indigenous peoples of North America.
Asian Pacific American Award for Literature
The goal of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature is to honor and recognize individual work about Asian/Pacific Americans and their heritage, based on literary and artistic merit.
Coretta Scott King Award
The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are given annually to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values.
Middle East Book Award
The Middle East Outreach Council established the Middle East Book Award in 1999 to recognize books for children and young adults that contribute meaningfully to understanding of the Middle East.
Mildred L. Batchelder Award
This award, established in her honor in 1966, is a citation awarded to a United States publisher for a children’s book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originating in a country other than the United States and in a language other than English and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States during the preceding year.
Newbery Award
The Newbery Medal, established in 1922, is presented annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a Division of the American Library Association, for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published during the preceding year. The award is named for John Newbery (1713-1767), English bookseller and publisher of children's books.
Pura Belpre Award
This award is named after Pura Belpré, the first Latina librarian at the New York Public Library. The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented annually to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.
Randolph Caldecott Medal
The Caldecott Medal, established in 1938, is presented annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to honor the illustrator of the most distinguished American picture book for children published during the preceding year. The award is named for Randolph Caldecott (1846-1886), English artist and illustrator.
Schneider Family Book Award, 2004-2022
The Schneider Family Book Awards honor an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.
Stonewall Book Award
The first and most enduring award for LGBTQIA+ books is the Stonewall Book Awards, sponsored by the American Library Association's Rainbow Round Table. Since Isabel Miller's Patience and Sarah received the first award in 1971, many other books have been honored for exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience.
Sydney Taylor Book Award
The Sydney Taylor Book Award is presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience.

In OneSearch, when looking for award winners tied to a search term (or idea/concept), filter results by "Digital Collections".

Choose the award(s) you are interested in.

Other Juvenile Literature Awards

Americas Award
Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP) founded the Américas Award in 1993 to encourage and commend authors, illustrators and publishers who produce quality children’s and young adult books that portray Latin America, the Caribbean, or Latinx cultures in the United States, and to provide teachers with recommendations for classroom use.
Boston Globe/Horn Book Award
The Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards are a set of American literary awards conferred by The Boston Globe and The Horn Book Magazine annually from 1967. One book is recognized in each of four categories: Fiction and Poetry, Nonfiction, and Picture Book. The official website calls the awards "among the most prestigious honors in children's and young adult literature".
California Young Reader Medal Award
Young people recommend the titles of their favorite books for nomination, or teachers and librarians note repeatedly read or requested titles, and these are submitted to the California Young Reader Medal Committee. Members of the committee read the suggested books, discuss their merits and appeal to children, and then decide upon a well-balanced list of nominees.
CA Reading Association's Eureka! Nonfiction Children’s Book Award
The California Reading Association has established an award to celebrate and honor nonfiction children’s books. The Eureka! Nonfiction Children’s Book Award will assist teachers, librarians, and parents in identifying outstanding nonfiction books for their students and children.
Carter G. Woodson Book Award
The Carter G. Woodson Book Award is presented to exemplary books written for children and young people each year at the NCSS Annual Conference.
Dolly Gray Children's Literature Award
The Dolly Gray Children’s Literature Award recognizes authors, illustrators, and publishers of high quality fictional and biographical children, intermediate, and young adult books that authentically portray individuals with developmental disabilities, such as autism spectrum disorders, intellectual disabilities, and Down syndrome. Two books (one picture & one chapter) are awarded the Dolly Gray Children's Literature Award every two years.
John and Patricia Beatty Award
The California Library Association's John and Patricia Beatty Award honors the authors of distinguished books for children and young adults that best promotes an awareness of California and its people.
Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature
The Michael L. Printz Award annually honors the best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit, each year.
Phoenix Award
The Children's Literature Association Phoenix Award recognizes books of exceptional literary merit.
Youth Media Awards
Each year the American Library Association (ALA) honors books, videos, and other outstanding materials for children and teens. Recognized worldwide for the high quality they represent, the ALA Youth Media Awards (YMA), including the prestigious Newbery, Caldecott, Printz, and Coretta Scott King Book Awards, guide parents, educators, librarians, and others in selecting the best materials for youth.

Juvenile Awards Databases

ALSC - Book & Media Awards Shelf
This collection of nearly 2,000 books, recordings, apps, and websites for children spans 100 years, reflecting the evolution of ALSC’s awards history AND delivering the latest, greatest materials for contemporary readers, listeners, learners, and gamers, as well.
Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature
This is a searchable database of information about the many children's book awards (including international and less familiar awards). Links to lists of award winning books are provided.

Last Updated: Feb 7, 2025 3:32 PM