Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos has won the prestigious John Newbery Medal at the American Library Association’s annual youth media awards.
A Ball for Daisy illustrated and written by Chris Raschka won the Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children. In addition, the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults went to Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley.
Finally the Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults: went to Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans, written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson. The rest of the ALA winners follow below…


Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award:
Shane W. Evans, illustrator and author of Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom
Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement:
Ashley Bryan
“Storyteller, artist, author, poet and musician, Bryan created his first children’s book in first grade. He grew up in the Bronx and in 1962, he became the first African American to both write and illustrate a children’s book. After a successful teaching career, Bryan left academia to pursue creation of his own artwork. He has since garnered numerous awards for his significant and lasting literary contribution of poetry, spirituals and story.”
Schneider Family Book Award for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience:
Children ages 0 – 8 “The Jury chose not to award a book in the category for because no submissions were deemed worthy of the award.”
Middle school award (ages 9 – 13) Close to Famous written by Joan Bauer and “Wonderstruck: A Novel in Words and Pictures,” written by Brian Selznick
Teen (ages 14-18) award The Running Dream written by Wendelin Van Draanen
Alex Awards for the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences:
  • “Big Girl Small,” by Rachel DeWoskin, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
  • “In Zanesville,” by Jo Ann Beard, published by Little, Brown & Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
  • “The Lover’s Dictionary,” by David Levithan, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
  • “The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens,” by Brooke Hauser, published by Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
  • “The Night Circus,” by Erin Morgenstern, published by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.
  • “Ready Player One,” by Ernest Cline, published by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
  • “Robopocalypse: A Novel,” by Daniel H. Wilson, published by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.
  • “Salvage the Bones,” by Jesmyn Ward, published by Bloomsbury USA
  • “The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures,” by Caroline Preston, published by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
  • “The Talk-Funny Girl,” by Roland Merullo, published by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.

Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in children’s video: Paul R. Gagne and Melissa Reilly Ellard of Weston Woods Studios, Inc., producers of “Children Make Terrible Pets.” The video is based on the book written by Peter Brown, and is narrated by Emily Eiden, with music by Jack Sundrud and Rusty Young, and animation by Soup2Nuts.

Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults: Susan Cooper, author of The Dark Is Rising Sequence: “Over Sea, Under Stone”; “The Dark Is Rising”; “Greenwitch”; “The Grey King”; and “Silver on the Tree.”
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: Michael Morpurgo
“Born in England, Morpurgo was teaching when he discovered the magic of storytelling and began writing. His books are noted for their imagination, power and grace. In 1976, he and his wife established the charity Farms for City Children. He is an officer of the Order of the British Empire and served as Britain’s third Children’s Laureate. His novel, “War Horse,” has wowed theater audiences in London and New York and movie audiences all over.”

Mildred L. Batchelder Award for an outstanding children’s book translated from a foreign language and subsequently published in the United States: Soldier Bear, written by Bibi Dumon Tak, illustrated by Philip Hopman, translated by Laura Watkinson
Odyssey Award for best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States: Rotters produced Listening Library, an imprint of Random House Audio Publishing Group, Random House, Inc., written by Daniel Kraus and narrated by Kirby Heyborne.
Pura Belpré (Illustrator) Award honoring a Latino writer and illustrator whose children’s books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience:
“Diego Rivera: His World and Ours,” illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh, is the Belpré Illustrator Award winner. The book was written by Duncan Tonatiuh and published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS.
Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award for most distinguished informational book for children: Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade written by Melissa Sweet

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:
“Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy,” written by Bil Wright
Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for the most distinguished beginning reader book: Tales for Very Picky Eaters written and illustrated by Josh Schneider, is the Geisel Award winner. The book is published by Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

William C. Morris Award for a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens: Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley