The We Need Diverse Books Walter Awards Judging Committee has selected the winners and honorees for the sixth Walter Dean Myers Awards for Outstanding Children’s Literature. One Winner and two Honor Books in each category (Teen and Younger Readers) have been named. The winner in the Teen category is Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam, illus. by Omar T. Pasha. The winner in the Younger Reader category is When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, color by Iman Geddy. The two Honorees in the Teen category are We Are Not Free by Traci Chee and Almost American Girl by Robin Ha. The two Honorees in the Younger Readers category are King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender and Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri. The awards commemorate Myers’s literary legacy, as well as the diversity in children’s literature. For more information, click here.
The award ceremony, emceed by Laurie Halse Anderson, will take place as part of WNDB’s sixth annual symposium on diversity in children’s literature, titled Listening, Learning, Creating Communities, co-hosted by the Library of Congress. The event will be moderated by librarian and educator Deborah D. Taylor, and will include panelists Kacen Callender, Traci Chee, Robin Ha, and Daniel Nayeri. The event will be held virtually on the Library’s Facebook page and its YouTube site on Friday, March 12 at 1 p.m. ET.
