The International Literacy Association (ILA) announced today the winning authors of its 2023 Children’s and Young Adult Book Awards—a unique literary honor that shines a spotlight on newly published authors of both fiction and nonfiction who show exceptional and unusual promise in the field.

This year’s winners (authors who must have published their first or second book in 2022) were selected from more than 300 submissions. Now in its 48th year, the ILA Children’s and Young Adult Book Awards feature several notable names among previous winners including Lois Lowry, Patricia Polacco and Juana Martinez-Neal, to name a few.

Their topics vary and all authors are chosen based on a variety of benchmarks for each age group, but they share commonalities: exemplary writing style and story elements, and the ability to draw in readers through contemporary relevance and engaging themes that make their books must-haves for any diverse classroom and school library collection.

The 2023 award winners are as follows:

Primary Fiction

• Winner: Young Vo for Gibberish
• Honor: Pearl AuYeung for The Best Kind of Mooncake (Page Street Kids)

Primary Nonfiction

• Winner: Shaelyn McDaniel for Hello, Opportunity: The Story of Our Friend on Mars (Page Street Kids)
• Honor: Justin Anderson for Narwhal: The Arctic Unicorn (Candlewick)

Intermediate Fiction

• Winner: Sarah Guillory for Nowhere Better Than Here (Macmillan)
• Honor: C. C. Harrington for Wildoak (Scholastic)

Intermediate Nonfiction

• Winner: Barbara Binns for Unlawful Orders: A Portrait of Dr. James B. Williams, Tuskegee Airman, Surgeon, and Activist (Scholastic)
• Honor: Olivia Meikle and Katie Nelson for The Book of Sisters: Biographies of Incredible Siblings Through History (Macmillan)

Young Adult Fiction

• Winner: Andrea L. Rogers for Man Made Monsters (Levine Querido)
• Honor: Jas Hammonds for We Deserve Monuments (Macmillan)

Young Adult Nonfiction

• Winner: Jetta Grace Martin, Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin, Jr. for Freedom! The Story of the Black Panther Party (Levine Querido)
• Honor: Achut Deng and Keely Hutton for Don’t Look Back: A Memoir of War, Survival, and My Journey From Sudan to America (Macmillan)

“Students will welcome the opportunity to turn the pages of these authors’ unique stories, which seek to build diverse, inclusive and cohesive communities,” said Sonja Ezell, chair of the ILA Children’s and Young Adult Book Awards Committee and a clinical assistant professor at The University of Texas at Arlington. “Representing mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors, their books illuminate the power of kindness, friendship and acceptance, as well as explore the vastness of our planets and a bold accounting of history that will spark discussion, inquiry and passion. The universal themes will contribute to conversations honoring the identities of all.”

Additional information can be found on the ILA Children’s and Young Adults’ Book Awards page.