The ALA presented their many Youth Media Awards Monday morning on the closing day of their winter meeting in Boston. The Newbery medal went to LAST STOP ON MARKET STREET by Matt de la Pena (Putnam Children’s), the first time a Latino author has won the award and a rare win for a picture book. De la Pena and illustrator Christian Robinson also received a Caldecott honor, with that award going to FINDING WINNIE, illustrated by Sophie Blackall and written by Lindsay Mattick (Little, Brown Children’s).
Among other honorees, Laura Ruby won the Michael L. Printz Award for BONE GAP (Balzer + Bray) and author and Scholastic editorial director David Levithan won the Margaret A. Edwards Award for “significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.”
The Coretta Scott King author award was given to Rita Williams-Garcia for GONE CRAZY IN ALABAMA (Amistad), while Jerry Pinkney received the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.
The three Newbery Honor books were:
Roller Girl, written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson (Dial)
Echo, written by Pam Munoz Ryan (Scholastic Press)
The War That Saved My Life, by Kim Brubaker Bradley (Dial)
The Caldecott Honor books also included:
Waiting, written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow)
Trombone Shorty, illustrated by Bryan Collier, written by Troy Andrews (Abrams Children’s)
Voice of Freedom, illustrated by Ekua Holmes, written by Carole Boston Weatherford (Candlewick)
A full list of all the YMA winners can be found here.
On Sunday night, the Carnegie Medals for adult books were presented to The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen in fiction, and Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs by Sally Mann in nonfiction.