National Book Award for Young People's Literature


The National Book Award for Young People's Literature is one of five annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation to recognize outstanding literary work by US citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers".
The panelists are five "writers who are known to be doing great work in their genre or field".
The category Young People's Literature was established in 1996. From 1969 to 1983, prior to the Foundation, there were some "Children's" categories.
The award recognizes one book written by a US citizen and published in the US from December 1 to November 30. The National Book Foundation accepts nominations from publishers until June 15, requires mailing nominated books to the panelists by August 1, and announces five finalists in October. The winner is announced on the day of the final ceremony in November. The award is $10,000 and a bronze sculpture; other finalists get $1000, a medal, and a citation written by the panel.
There were 230 books nominated for the 2010 award.

Finalists

Children's Books, 1969 to 1979

Books for "children" were first recognized by the National Book Awards in 1969. Through 1979 there was a single award category called either "Children's Literature" or "Children's Books".
1979:
Katherine Paterson, The Great Gilly Hopkins
1978:
Judith and Herbert Kohl, The View From the Oak: The Private Worlds of Other Creatures
1977:
Katherine Paterson, The Master Puppeteer
1976:
Walter D. Edmonds, Bert Breen's Barn
1975:
Virginia Hamilton, M. C. Higgins the Great
1974:
Eleanor Cameron, The Court of the Stone Children
1973:
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore
1972:
Donald Barthelme, The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine or The Hithering Thithering Djinn
1971:
Lloyd Alexander, The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian
1970:
Isaac Bashevis Singer, A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing up in Warsaw
1969: Meindert DeJong, Journey from Peppermint Street
In 1980 under the new name "The American Book Awards", the number of literary award categories jumped to 28 including two for Children's Books, hardcover and paperback. In the next three years there were three, five, and five "Children's" award categories —thus fifteen in four years— before the program was revamped with only three annual awards and none for children's books.
;1983
Nonfiction

James Cross Giblin, Chimney Sweeps
Fiction, hardcover

Jean Fritz, Homesick: My Own Story
Picture Books, hard

Barbara Cooney, Miss Rumphius

William Steig, Doctor De Soto
;1982
Nonfiction

Susan Bonners, A Penguin Year
Fiction, hardcover

Lloyd Alexander, Westmark
Picture Books, hard

Maurice Sendak, Outside Over There
;1981
Nonfiction

Alison Cragin Herzig and Jane Lawrence Mali, Oh, Boy! Babies
Fiction, hardcover

Betsy Byars, The Night Swimmers
;1980
Hardcover

Joan Blos, A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830–82
The winner is listed first followed by the four other finalists.
2019: Martin W. Sandler, 1919 The Year That Changed America
  • Akwaeke Emezi, Pet
  • Jason Reynolds, Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks
  • Randy Ribay, Patron Saints of Nothing
  • Laura Ruby, Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All
2018: Elizabeth Acevedo, The Poet X
2017: Robin Benway, Far from the Tree
2016: John Lewis, Nate Powell, and Andrew Aydin, March: Book Three
2015: Neal Shusterman, Challenger Deep
2014: Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming
2013: Cynthia Kadohata, The Thing About Luck
2012: William Alexander, Goblin Secrets
  • Carrie Arcos, Out of Reach
  • Patricia McCormick, Never Fall Down
  • Eliot Schrefer, Endangered
  • Steve Sheinkin, Bomb: The Race to Build―and Steal―the World's Most Dangerous Weapon
2011: Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again
2010: Kathryn Erskine, Mockingbird
  • Laura McNeal, Dark Water
  • Paolo Bacigalupi, Ship Breaker
  • Rita Williams-Garcia, One Crazy Summer
  • Walter Dean Myers, Lockdown
2009: Phillip Hoose,
2008: Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied
  • Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains
  • Kathi Appelt, The Underneath
  • E. Lockhart, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
  • Tim Tharp, The Spectacular Now
2007: Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
2006: M. T. Anderson,
2005: Jeanne Birdsall,
2004: Pete Hautman, Godless
2003: Polly Horvath, The Canning Season
2002: Nancy Farmer, The House of the Scorpion
  • M. T. Anderson, Feed
  • Naomi Shihab Nye, '
  • Elizabeth Partridge, This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie
  • Jacqueline Woodson, Hush
2001: Virginia Euwer Wolff, True Believer
2000: Gloria Whelan, Homeless Bird
1999: Kimberly Willis Holt, When Zachary Beaver Came to Town
1998: Louis Sachar, Holes
  • Ann Cameron, The Secret Life of Amanda K. Woods
  • Jack Gantos, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key
  • Anita Lobel, No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War
  • Richard Peck, A Long Way from Chicago: A Novel in Stories
1997: Han Nolan, Dancing on the Edge
  • Brock Cole, The Facts Speak for Themselves
  • Adele Griffin, Sons of Liberty
  • Mary Ann McGuigan, Where You Belong
  • Tor Seidler, Mean Margaret
1996: Victor Martinez, Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida
  • Carolyn Coman, What Jamie Saw
  • Nancy Farmer, A Girl Named Disaster
  • Helen Kim, The Long Season of Rain
  • Han Nolan, Send Me Down a Miracle
1984 to 1995': no awards

Authors with two awards

Two authors have won two Children's or Young People's awards twice.
Isaac Bashevis Singer won the Children's Literature award in 1970 for A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing up in Warsaw and shared the Fiction award in 1974 for A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories.