Live from Philadelphia, it’s the Youth Media Awards!
7:37 a.m: I am here at the Pennsylvania Convention Center waiting for the announcements of the awards to begin. There is anticipation in the air and the crowds are gathering. Who will win? Let’s wait and see.
Follow this link to see photos in real time.
The Coretta Scott King Award Winner: New Kid by Jerry Craft
The Margaret A. Edwards Award
Steve Sheinkin
Odyssey Award Winner
Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Pura Belpre Award Winner
Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez
Robert F. Sibert Award Winner: Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Mallard
Caldecott Medal
The Undefeated illustrated by Kadir Nelson Written by Kwame Alexander
Newbery Award Winner: New Kid by Jerry Craft
Filed under: Book Discussion, Field Report, Intro
About Annisha Jeffries
Annisha Jeffries is the head of the youth services department at Cleveland Public Library. She was a member of the 2007 ALSC Board and served on several selection committees, including the 2018 Caldecott Committee. A 2000-2001 Spectrum Scholarship recipient, Jeffries is currently the Chair of the Norman A, Sugarman Children's Biography Award. She can be reached at annishamj@gmail.com
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I’m at the Ball Room waiting for the announcement to start!
The Heavy Medal Award Committee members DID so well. You nailed it! Woot. Check out all the pictures!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3SLJySMbVofksPmz8
OH YEAH!!
A GRAPHIC NOVEL WINS THE GOLD MEDAL!!!
BEST NEWBERY AWARD DAY EVER!!!
Molly, congrats on OTHER WORDS FOR HOME.
Committee colleagues—-great job!
And…I was so happy to see HEY KIDDO get some more recognition this year.
thanks Steven and Roxanne for letting us do this!
I cried during the CSK awards – so many favorites! And then when Undefeated got more recognition with Newbery and Caldecott! What a testimony to that beautiful book. And New Kid! Wonderful choice, with four great honor books as well!
Winner: New Kid
Honors: The Undefeated, Scary Stories for Young Foxes, Genesis Begins Again, Other Words for Home!
The HMC and the real Newbery Committee got the same winner this year! Honor Books also got some strong support here on HM. I’m especially happy with the Honor for Scary Stories for Young Foxes! And I guess we totally missed our interpretation of the eligibility of The Undefeated. But very cool to see a single poem get recognized. As well as Kadir Nelson finally getting a Caldecott Medal. And the Medal for a graphic novel. Really a satisfying roster of winners!
Here is the complete list of all ALA Youth Media Awards is here:
Great results in the YA awards too, in my opinion at least: A. S. King’s Dig won the Printz! An excellent book by one of the best YA authors. And Steve Sheinkin gets the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement. Well deserved from a leader and innovator of nonfiction writing.
In the Sibert Medal for Nonfiction, This Promise of Change got an Honor! I was disappointed not to see Torpedoed in this one, though…
Torpedoed got a YA Nonfiction honor.
Somehow being a “nominee” for the YA Nonfiction Award doesn’t seem as exciting as being an Honor book in the other awards. Maybe it’s just because we know the finalists in advance…
Wow. Steve. As someone on that very committee, I kinda take issue with this glib comment. We did a lot of work as a committee, and we did not arrive at our winner lightly. Though we announced our finalists, I would hope that there’s *some* excitement about who our “honors” were. They literally were five books out of hundreds. Hundreds.
Yes, as was I…….
A few other books that were discussed on Heavy Medal this year also got recognized at the YMAs: PET by Akwaeke Emezi won a Stonewall Honor. WHITE BIRD by P. J. Palacia was the Sydney Taylor Award Middle Grade winner. Along with the Newbery Honor, GENESIS BEGINS AGAIN was a William C. Morris Honor Book (for debut author/YA) and won the John Steptoe New Talent Award. SAL AND GABI BREAK THE UNIVERSE by Carlos Hernandez won the Pura Belpre Author Award. Corettta Scott King Honor Books include TRISTAN STRONG PUNCHES A HOLE IN THE SKY by Kwame Mbalia and LOOK BOTH WAYS by Jason Reynolds
Isn’t it great that all of the books we discussed were recognized?
I”m so impressed with your predictions this year! Congratulations Heavy Medal Committee!!
I am elated this morning! Hurrah! Hurrah! My Newbery Club kids cheered so loudly (with the traditional doughnuts in hand) when New Kid won! That was their pick, our pick and the Newbery committee’s pick! What an exciting morning for all of us! The first graphic novel winner! I am excited that so many books that we admired this year were recognized. Of coursed I am thrilled for Other Words for Home! I love that Undefeated was recognized in so many categories, including Newbery! Hurrah for the power of picture books! And I will concede that Scary Stories for Young Foxes is a fabulous book–except for the one part I took issue with and since one of my kids loudly (and sincerely!) proclaimed that Beatrix Potter is Harry Potter’s mom, I guess kids won’t be too concerned about the misrepresentation of Peter’s mom! A great day for American literature. Hurrah! Hurrah!
Wahoo! My students are I were *so* delighted to see New Kid take the Newbery. Well done, well done especially those who helped whittle the selection down to those 15 favorites – way to hit the nail on the head. It has been such a pleasure serving on this committee. Wow!
Also, at student request, we started Scary Stories for Young Foxes as a read aloud (5th grade) and they were riveted. The holds lists for that and New Kid in particular are now nearly everyone in class.
Hooray!! So happy to see New Kid win the Newbery Medal and the CSK, so happy for Other Words for Home, and for other awards for This Promise of Change and Sal and Gabi!! And I know the Honor for Genesis Begins Again made a lot of folks here happy.
Also was delighted to see Frankly in Love by David Yoon get an APALA Award – just finished reading it this weekend and thought it was fantastic.
So many wonderful books! I’m so glad Genesis Begins Again was honored in multiple ways, that was one of my faves from last year. I’m bummed that Look Both Ways didn’t get more awards, but I’m happy that it won the CSK Honor. Super excited that New Kid won, I think it was time for a graphic novel to take the gold and this one was truly deserving.
My favorite takeaway was getting to watch most of the announcements with my students in early room and I loved getting to see how excited they were when each book won. Students who weren’t there having been coming to the library asking me who won what. Makes my librarian heart happy.
Yay! Particularly happy about Other Words From Home, Scary Stories for Young Foxes, and Undefeated! (I did *try* to nominate it! 😜 So glad it wound up being eligible!)
These were some wonderful selections, and I’m so impressed with the committee on this blog. I’m also thrilled that Song for a Whale won the middle grade Schneider book award as it was one of my favorite reads this year.
New Kid was truly deserving of the Newbery, and the honor titles are excellent, too.
OK–Friends and fellow librarians. I did say I would be excited to affix a gold medal to New Kid. And I am–in spirit. However I am considerably vexed about WHERE to place the book’s extensive hardware. Anybody else have a good solution to this challenge? It won the CSK, the Newbery and my school’s silver honor (which I also has a sticker) so that’s THREE medals I have to squeeze onto the relatively small (and artfully composed) trim size. What to do? Any suggestions from you wise colleagues? I can fit two medals across the bottom over the Jeff Kinney quote and Jordan’s legs. And I think the best place for the third might be at the top right, slightly covering the title. I’m also having the same problem with Undefeated, but I think I can fit two down the right hand side and another on the left side just under the title. Oh the burdens of so much recognition! Let me know if you have any other great ideas of where to place the bling for these deserving books!