2023 ALA Awards

The American Library Association (ALA) announced the results of the Youth Media Awards during their LibLearnX conference, held January 27-30, 2023 in New Orleans, including some works of genre interest.

Jason Reynolds won the Margaret A. Edwards Award “for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults.”

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir (Razorbill) is the 2023 Michael L. Printz Award winner. Scout’s Honor by Lily Anderson (Henry Holt), When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb (Arthur A. Levine), and The Natural World of Animal Sexuality by Eliot Schrefer (Katherine Tegen) are all Printz Honor books. When the Angels Left the Old Country also won the 2023 Stonewall Book award for Young Adult Literature, as well as the Sydney Taylor Young Adult award.

Maizy Chen’s Last Chance by Lisa Yee (Random House) is the Children’s Literature winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award, and also one of the Newbery Honor books. The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat (Candlewick) is another one of the Newbery Honor books.

Ain’t Burned All the Bright, written by Jason Reynolds and illustrated by Jason Griffin (Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/Atheneum) is one of four Caldecott Honor books.

Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler by Ibi Zoboi (Dutton Children’s) is a King Author Honor book.

Hummingbird by Natalie Llyod (Scholastic) was named one of the Honor Books for the Schneider Family Book Award middle grade award. Breathe and Count Back from Ten by Natalia Sylvester (Clarion) was named an Honor book for the teen category, as well as being part of the Belpré Young Adult Author Honor list.

Several books of genre interest won Alex Awards, given to “the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences”:

• Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager)
• Daughter of the Moon Goddess, Sue Lynn Tan (Harper Voyager)
• The Kaiju Preservation Society, John Scalzi (Tor)

A Land of Books: Dreams of Young Mexihcah Word Painters written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh (Abrams) and Magic: Once Upon a Faraway Land written and illustrated by Mirelle Ortega (Cameron) are both Belpré Youth Illustration Honor books.

The Pura Belpré Young Adult Author Award winner is Burn Down, Rise Up, written by Vincent Tirado (Sourcebooks Fire). High Spirits by Camille Gomera-Tavarez (Arthur A. Levine) was one of the Honor books.

The William C. Morris award had two finalists of genre interest, including Wake the Bones by Elizabeth Kilcoyne (Wednesday) and Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White (Peachtree Teen).