Matt de la Peña has won the 2016 John Newbery Medal for his picture book Last Stop on Market Street (Putnam), edited by Jen Besser. Sophie Blackall has won the 2016 Randolph Caldecott Medal for Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear, written by Lindsay Mattick (Little, Brown), edited by Susan Rich. And Laura Ruby has won the 2016 Michael L. Printz Award for Bone Gap (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray), edited by Jordan Brown. The awards were announced this morning at the American Library Association’s midwinter conference in Boston.
Three Newbery Honor Books were named: Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan (Scholastic Press); Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson (Dial); and The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Baker (Dial).
There were four Caldecott Honor Books: Last Stop on Market Street, illustrated by Christian Robinson, written by Matt de la Peña (Putnam); Trombone Shorty, illustrated by Bryan Collier, written by Troy Andrews (Abrams); Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, illustrated by Ekua Holmes, written by Carole Boston Weatherford (Candlewick); and Waiting, written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow).
Two Printz Honors were awarded: Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez (Carolrhoda Lab); and The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick (Roaring Brook).
It is the second time that a picture book has won the Newbery Medal; A Visit to William Blake’s Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen, won the 1982 Newbery, as well as a Caldecott Honor, just as with Last Stop on Market Street this year. Newbery Honors have gone to Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman (2011), Doctor De Soto by William Steig (1983), and Wanda Gág’s Millions of Cats (1929).
With Finding Winnie’s win, this is Little, Brown’s second Caldecott Medal in a row; Dan Santat’s The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend won the 2015 Medal.
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, which honors an author or illustrator whose books have made a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children, was given to Jerry Pinkney.
The Robert F. Sibert Award for the most distinguished informational book for children went to Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras by Duncan Tonatiuh (Abrams). There were four Sibert Honors: The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club by Phillip Hoose (FSG); Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans by Don Brown (HMH); Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March, by Lynda Blackmon Lowery as told to Elspeth Leacock and Susan Buckley, illus. by P.J. Loughran (Dial); and Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Ekua Holmes (Candlewick).
The Mildred L. Batchelder Award for best work of translation went to The Wonderful Fluffy Little Squishy by Beatrice Alemagna, translated from the French by Claudia Zoe Bedrick (Enchanted Lion). There were three Batchelder Honor Books: Adam and Thomas by Aharon Appelfeld, iIllustrated by Philippe Dumas, translated from the Hebrew by Jeffrey M. Green (Seven Stories Press); Grandma Lives in a Perfume Village by Fang Suzhen, illustrated by Sonja Danowski, translated from the Chinese by Huang Xiumin (NorthSouth Books); and Written and Drawn by Henrietta, written, illustrated and translated from the Spanish by Liniers (Toon Books).
The 2016 Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime contribution in writing for young adults was given to David Levithan, and Jacqueline Woodson was chosen to deliver the 2017 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture.
The William C. Morris Award for a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens was given to Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray). Four other books were finalists for the award: Because You’ll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas (Bloomsbury); Conviction by Kelly Loy Gilbert (Disney-Hyperion); The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes (Dial); and The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore (St. Martin’s/Dunne).
The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for most distinguished beginning reader books went to Don’t Throw It to Mo! by David A. Adler, illus. by Sam Ricks (Penguin Young Readers). There were three Geisel Honor Books: A Pig, a Fox, and a Box by Jonathan Fenske (Penguin Young Readers); Supertruck! by Stephen Savage (Roaring Brook/Porter); and Waiting by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow).
The Stonewall Book Award, given to children’s and YA books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience, went to George by Alex Gino (Scholastic Press). There were two Stonewall Honor Books: Wonders of the Invisible World by Christopher Barzak (Knopf) and Sex Is a Funny Word by Corey Silverberg, illustrated by Fiona Smyth (Seven Stories Press). Porcupine of Truth by Bill Konigsberg (Scholastic/Levine) was the Stonewall Book Award Young Adult winner.
The Schneider Family Book Awards, for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience, went to: Emmanuel’s Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah by Laurie Ann Thomson, illustrated by Sean Qualls (Random House/Schwartz and Wade) for best young children’s book; Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt (Penguin/Paulsen) and The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Baker (Dial) for best middle grade book; and The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Teresa Toten (Delacorte) for best teen book.
Jerry Pinkney won the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Rita Williams-Garcia won the Coretta Scott King Author award for Gone Crazy in Alabama (HarperCollins/Amistad), and the Illustrator award went to Bryan Collier for Trombone Shorty, written by Troy Andrews (Abrams).
Three King Author Honor Books were selected: The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds (S&S/Atheneum), All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely (Atheneum/Dlouhy); and X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon (Candlewick).
Two King Illustrator Honor Books were chosen: The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth & Harlem’s Greatest Bookstore, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson (Carolrhoda); and Last Stop on Market Street, illustrated by Christian Robinson, written by Matt de la Peña (Putnam).
The Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award went to Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith (Clarion). The Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award went to Ekua Holmes won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, written by Carole Boston Weatherford (Candlewick).
Margarita Engle won the Pura Belpré Author Award for Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir (S&S/Atheneum) and Rafael López won the Pura Belpré Illustrator Award for The Drum Dream Girl, written by Margarita Engle (HMH).
There were two Belpré Author Honor books: The Smoking Mirror by David Bowles (IFWG Publishing) and Mango, Abuela, and Me by Meg Medina, illustrated by Angela Dominguez (Candlewick).
Three Belpré Illustrator Honor books were named: My Tata’s Remedies / Los remedios de mi tata, illustrated by Antonio Castro L., written by Roni Capin Rivera-Ashford (Cinco Puntos); Mango, Abuela, and Me, illustrated by Angela Dominguez, written by Meg Medina (Candlewick); and Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras by Duncan Tonatiuh (Abrams).
The YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults went to Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin (Roaring Brook). There were four finalists: Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir by Margarita Engle (S&S/Atheneum); First Flight Around the World: The Adventures of the American Fliers Who Won the Race by Tim Grove (Abrams); Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson (Candlewick); and This Strange Wilderness: The Life and Art of John James Audubon by Nancy Plain (University of Nebraska Press).
The Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production went to The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, narrated by Jayne Entwistle, and produced by Listening Library. There was one Odyssey Honor: Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan, narrated by Mark Bramhall, David de Vries, MacLeod Andrews, and Rebecca Soler, produced by Scholastic Audio/Paul R. Gagne.
The Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in children’s video went to That Is NOT a Good Idea, adapted from the picture book by Mo Willems (Weston Woods Studios).
Click here to read interviews with the newly-minted Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz Medalists.
