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Coretta Scott King Awards Celebrate Forty Years
"Where the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Meet YALSA's Best Books for Young Adults and the
Michael L. Printz Award"
View selected winners from:
This year, the Coretta Scott King Book Awards will celebrate forty years of recognizing outstanding books by African American writers and illustrators. Many of those honored especially for text were also important contributions to young adult literature.
As we mark this milestone year, it is interesting to take a look at some of the unique and trailblazing titles that resonated with the Coretta Scott King Committee and YALSA's Best Books for Young Adults (BBYA) and Michael L. Printz Award Committees. While this selection does not include all of the titles recognized by multiple committees, it does seek to highlight some of the works that represent the scope and variety of the choices over the years.
The Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee also seek to encourage new African American writers and illustrators in the world of publishing for young readers. The establishment of the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent gives the awards a way to spotlight promising writers and artists.
Below you will find a list of 21 books honored by both the Coretta Scott King and the Michael L. Printz awards. To view all previous Coretta Scott King award-winners and honorees, please visit the ALA website.
2000-2009
The life of the legendary jazz singer began and continued in difficult circumstances. Despite her troubles, Eleanora Fagan Gough, aka, Billie Holiday, turned to her musical talent as a way to cope and give voice to her pain and joy. This elegantly illustrated biography in verse captures the spirit and mood of the early years of the young song stylist.
(2009 Coretta Scott King
Honor, 2009 BBYA)
A heroic crown of sonnets, breathtaking in its poetic form and language, serves as a memorial to the teenage martyr who served as a catalyst for the movement that changed America and the world. (2006 Coretta Scott King Author Honor, 2006 Michael L. Printz Honor, 2006 BBYA)
Sam is distraught when his father leaves him and his mother for a new life and ultimately with a new family. As Sam searches for answers in his religious faith, the parallel biblical story of Ishmael and Abraham also explores the dimensions of love between father and sons. (2006 Coretta Scott King Author Honor, 2006 BBYA)
Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl
Author Tonya Bolden uses an unpublished autobiography as the centerpiece of her research into the life and times of a free African American girl and her activist family in pre-Civil War New York. (2006 Coretta Scott King Author Honor, 2006 BBYA)
Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue
The voices of the enslaved and their masters are powerfully imagined in this series of dialogues set on the day of the largest slave auction held in United States history, in 1859 Savannah, Georgia. (2006 Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner, 2006 BBYA)
Bobby learns he is to be a father on his sixteenth birthday and that is just the first of many surprises and changes he has to endure that year. He finds himself the custodial parent of baby Feather and is quickly plunged into the concerns and responsibilities of parenthood. This literary tour-de-force became the first to receive both the Coretta Scott King Author Award and the Michael L. Printz Award. (2004 Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner, 2004 Michael L. Printz Award, 2004 BBYA)
The power of poetry to illuminate and heal is skillfully revealed in this novel in verse about a high school class that first resists and then embraces poetry as a way to understand and cope with the difficulties and questions in their young lives. (2003 Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner, 2003 BBYA)
With language both elegant and spare, Woodson examines the determination of three orphaned brothers to remain a family in the face of the emotional pain of loss and the middle brother's struggles with the lure of the streets and the ensuing confrontations with the justice system. (2001 Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner, 2001 BBYA)
The power of poetry to illuminate and heal is skillfully revealed in this novel in verse about a high school class that first resists and then embraces poetry as a way to understand and cope with the difficulties and questions in their young lives. (2003 Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner, 2003 BBYA)
The 1990s
Flake boldly tackles the sensitive issue of the role skin hue plays within the African American community and its impact on the self-esteem of African American girls. Maleeka Madison is like most middle school girls, desperate to fit in but sure her dark skin will make her a target of her peers. (1999 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent, 1999 BBYA)
Fourteen-year-old Vicki Harris must navigate the equally difficult waters of competition and racial tensions as she becomes one of two African American teens at the prestigious summer program of the New York School of American Ballet. (1997 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent, 1997 BBYA)
From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun
Issues of family, race, and sexual orientation are on full display in this compelling story of thirteen-year-old Melanin Sun, who must confront the knowledge that his mother is gay at the same time he is coming to grips with his own identity. (1996 Coretta Scott King Author Honor, 1996 BBYA)
Gayle's tough bravado, so effective on the streets of New York, is severely challenged when she is shipped off, with her toddler son, Jose, to stay with her minister uncle and his family. The power of family to reclaim a young life on the wrong path is fully explored in this novel. (1996 Coretta Scott King Author Honor, 1996 BBYA)
The Watsons Go to Birmingham — 1963
Curtis' debut novel successfully manages the difficult task of weaving a humorous family story with the poignancy of one of the hallmark tragedies of the Civil Rights era. (1996 Coretta Scott King Author Honor, 1996 BBYA)
This completely authenticated collection of tales from many genres celebrates the powerful voices of women while providing highly entertaining storytelling. The collection is enhanced by the affecting illustrations of Leo and Diane Dillon, who received illustrator honor recognition. (1996 Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner and Illustrator Honor, 1996 BBYA)
The Middle Passage: White Ships/ Black Cargo
Feelings' stunning black and white illustrations provide one of the most dramatic depictions of the horrors of the Middle Passage. Determined to let the images tell the story, Feelings uses words only when absolutely necessary to add more power to his visual narrative. (1996 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Winner, 1996 BBYA)
Cassie Logan's story, begun in the Newbery award-winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, concludes with this dramatic depiction of the South during World War II. Here readers watch Cassie on the verge of adulthood and see glimpses of the struggles that will develop into the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement a decade and a half later. (1991 Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner, 1991 BBYA)
The 1970s and 1980s
Myers continues to demonstrate his mastery of the young adult novel in this work many still consider to be among his best. Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry has to grow up quickly as he confronts the brutality of the war in Vietnam. (1989 Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner, 1988 BBYA)
Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave
This decade in publishing for teen readers included a number of powerful novels by Virginia Hamilton that received recognition from both the Coretta Scott King Book Awards and BBYA. However, Hamilton delivers equally powerful storytelling skills in this nonfiction title that relates the dramatic tale of the 1854 resistance of Boston's antislavery community to returning runaway Anthony Burns to slavery. Her use of primary source documentation and source notes provide immediacy to the work. (1989 Coretta Scott King Author Honor, 1988 BBYA)
This collection of thoughtful photographs of life in South Africa before the end of apartheid was a rare illustrator award winner to find a place on the BBYA list. Magubane's arresting shots illuminate the hope and despair of young people during this difficult period in history. (1983 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, 1982 BBYA)
Childress effectively uses multiple points of view in this affecting novel of a teen struggling with the difficulties brought on by a parent unable or unwilling to provide the guidance young Rainbow needs. (1982 Coretta Scott King Author Honor, 1981 BBYA)
This early novel by Myers was the first of many from this trailblazing author to receive recognition by both committees. This humorous novel celebrates the ability of inner city teens to face and triumph over community challenges. (1980 Coretta Scott King Author Award, 1979 BBYA)
About the author
Deborah Taylor is the Coordinator of School and Student Services for the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Ms. Taylor is the current chair of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee. She was a member of the 2004 Michael L. Printz Award Committee, the 2006 Printz Committee, and the 2007 Best Books for Young Adults Committee. She was a member of the 2002 Newbery Award Committee and Chair of the 2000 Coretta Scott King Award Jury. She has also served on the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Committee and has reviewed for Horn Book. She was the 1996-1997 President of YALSA.
© 2009 YALSA. Coretta Scott King Awards Celebrate Forty Years. Young Adult Library Services; 7, 3. Reprinted with permission.
AdLit.org is funded by the Ann B. and Thomas L. Friedman Family Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York. The statements and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the author(s).
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