ALA Award Winners

The American Library Association (ALA) announced its awards today for the best children's books of 2009.

Although the Caldecott Award (most distinguished American picture book for children) and the Newbery (most distinguished contribution to American children's literature) are the most famous awards, they also give a number of awards (or have categories within awards) for young adult literature. Here are a few that recognize contributions to YAL:

• Prinz Award for "literary excellence in young adult literature"
• Alex Award for "books written for adults, with particular appeal to younger audiences"
• William Morris Debut YA author award

Additionally, several awards recognize authors who write about traditionally underrepresented cultural and social groups. Here are just a few:

• Coretta Scott King Award for African American literature
• Pura Belpre Award for Latino/a literature
• Schneider Family Award for representations of people with disabilities

Awards aren't the only ways to find books, but they can be a start. (Later in the semester we'll talk about some of the politics and economic consequences of awards. Some argue that awards end up "censoring" non-award winning books as much as challenges!)