ILA announced the winners of the ILA Children’s and Young Adults’ Book Awards on Monday at the ILA 2018 Conference in Austin, TX.
The books on this year’s list comprise a wide range of genres and styles, transport readers around the world to places such as Cuba and Iran, and explore edifying themes, including mental illness, family life and tradition, and racial prejudice and police brutality.
In its 43rd year, the awards program recognizes newly published authors who show exceptional promise in the children’s and young adult book fields. Awards were presented for fiction and nonfiction in each of three categories: primary, intermediate, and young adult.
"Notable authors like Laurence Yep (winner of the formerly named Laura Ingalls Wilder Award), Christopher Paul Curtis (three-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Book Award) and Lois Lowry (winner of two Newberry Medals for Number the Stars and The Giver) were recognized with this award early in their illustrious careers,” said teaching and learning specialist and past ILA Board member Julie Scullen, who presented the awards.
The 2018 award winners are:
Primary Fiction
Winner: The Book of Mistakes. Corinna Luyken. 2017. Dial.
Honor: Little Fox in the Forest. Stephanie Graegin. 2017. Schwartz & Wade.
Primary Nonfiction
Winner: This Is How We Do It: One Day in the Lives of Seven Kids From Around the World. Matt Lamothe. 2017. Chronicle.
Intermediate Fiction
Winner: Train I Ride. Paul Mosier. 2017. HarperCollins.
Honor: The Notations of Cooper Cameron. Jane O’Reilly. 2017. Carolrhoda.
Intermediate Nonfiction
Winner: Marti’s Song for Freedom. Emma Otheguy. 2017. Lee & Low.
Young Adult Fiction
Winner: Words on Bathroom Walls. Julia Walton. 2017. Random House.
Honor: The Hate U Give. Angie Thomas. 2017. HarperCollins.
Young Adult Nonfiction
Winner: Obsessed: A Memoir of My Life With OCD. Allison Britz. 2017. Simon & Schuster.
“Congratulations to all of our award winners,” said Scullen. “I’m excited to get all of these books into the hands of young readers.”
Additional information on ILA’s awards can be found here.
Alina O'Donnell is the communications strategist at ILA and the editor of Literacy Daily.