ALA Announces 2016 Adult, Youth Award Winners

This year, for the first time, along with the top books, videos, and audiobooks for children and young adults, the American Library Association revealed the winners of the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction at its Midwinter Meeting, which was held in Boston, Massachusetts, from Friday, January 8, through Monday, January 11, 2016. The awards will be presented at the ALA Annual Conference, to be held June 23-28 in Orlando, Florida, immediately following the ABC Children’s Institute.

This year’s winners are:

For Adults

• Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, recognizing the best fiction book for adult readers published in the U.S. the previous year: The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Grove Press)
   
• Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, recognizing the best nonfiction book for adult readers published in the U.S. the previous year: Hold Still: A Memoir With Photographs, by Sally Mann (Little, Brown and Company)

For more information regarding the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, including past long- and shortlists and downloadable bookmarks, tabletop posters, read-alike guides, and other resources, visit the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction website.

For Children

• John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature: Last Stop on Market Street, written by Matt de la Peña; illustrated by Christian Robinson (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
   
• Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children: Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear, illustrated by Sophie Blackall; written by Lindsay Mattick (Little, Brown and Company)
   
• Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award, recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults: Gone Crazy in Alabama, written by Rita Williams-Garcia (Amistad)
   
• Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award: Trombone Shorty, illustrated by Bryan Collier; written by Troy Andrews and Bill Taylor (Abrams Books for Young Readers)
   
• Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award: Hoodoo, written by Ronald L. Smith (Clarion Books)
   
• Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award: Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, illustrated by Ekua Holmes; written by Carole Boston Weatherford (Candlewick Press)
   
• Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement: Jerry Pinkney
   
• Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults: Bone Gap, written by Laura Ruby (Balzer + Bray)
   
• Schneider Family Book Award for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience

  For ages 0 to 10: Emmanuel’s Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah, written by Laurie Ann Thompson; illustrated by Sean Qualls (Schwartz & Wade Books)

  For ages 11 to 13: Fish in a Tree, written by Lynda Mullaly Hunt (Nancy Paulsen Books) and The War That Saved My Life, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (Dial Books for Young Readers)

  For ages 13 to 18: The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B, written by Teresa Toten (Delacorte Press)
   

• Alex Awards for the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences:

  All Involved, by Ryan Gattis (Ecco)
  Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Spiegel & Grau)
  Bones & All, by Camille DeAngelis (St. Martin’s Press)
  Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits, by David Wong (Thomas Dunne Books)
  Girl at War, by Sara Novic (Random House)
  Half the World, by Joe Abercrombie (Del Rey)
  Humans of New York: Stories, by Brandon Stanton (St. Martin’s Press)
  Sacred Heart, by Liz Suburbia (Fantagraphics Books)
  Undocumented: A Dominican Boy’s Odyssey From a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League, by Dan-el Padilla Peralta (Penguin Press)
  The Unraveling of Mercy Louis, by Keija Parssinen (Harper)
   

• Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in children’s video: Weston Woods Studios, Inc., producer of That Is NOT a Good Idea
   
• Laura Ingalls Wilder Award honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the U.S., have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children: Jerry Pinkney
   
• Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults: David Levithan
   
• May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award recognizing an author, critic, librarian, historian, or teacher of children’s literature, who then presents a lecture at a winning host site: Jacqueline Woodson
   
• Mildred L. Batchelder Award for an outstanding children’s book translated from a foreign language and subsequently published in the U.S.: The Wonderful Fluffy Little Squishy, originally published in French in 2014 as Le merveilleux Dodu-Velu-Petit; written and illustrated by Beatrice Alemagna; translated by Claudia Zoe Bedrick (Enchanted Lion Books)
   
• Odyssey Award for best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the U.S.: The War That Saved My Life, written by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley; narrated by Jayne Entwistle (Listening Library)
   
• Pura Belpre (Illustrator) Award honoring a Latino writer and illustrator whose children’s books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience: The Drum Dream Girl, illustrated by Rafael Lopez; written by Margarita Engle (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
   
• Pura Belpre (Author) Award: Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir, written by Margarita Engle (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
   
• Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award for most distinguished informational book for children: Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras, written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh (Abrams Books for Young Readers)
   
• Stonewall Book Award – Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award, given annually to English-language children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender experience: George, written by Alex Gino (Scholastic Press), and The Porcupine of Truth, written by Bill Konigsberg (Arthur A. Levine Books)
   
• Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for the most distinguished beginning reader book: Don’t Throw It to Mo!, written by David A. Adler; illustrated by Sam Ricks (Penguin Young Readers)
   
• William C. Morris Award for a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, written by Becky Albertalli (Balzer + Bray)
   
• YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults: Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War, written by Steve Sheinkin (Roaring Brook Press)

More information on the 2016 ALA youth media award winners, as well as this year’s honor books, is available here.