2022 ALA Youth Media Awards

On Monday, January 24, the American Library Association (ALA) announced the top books, digital media, video and audio books for children and young adults – including the Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Newbery and Printz awards – at its LibLearnX: The Library Learning Experience, taking place virtually from Chicago.

A list of the 2022 award winners and honor selections from the Young Adult category follows:

Newbery Honor Book: A Snake Falls to Earth, written by Darcie Little Badger

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award: Me (Moth), written by Amber McBride

• Coretta Scott King Author Honor Books: Home Is Not a Country, written by Safia Elhillo; Revolution in Our Time, written by Kekla Magoon; The People Remember, written by Ibi Zoboi

Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults: Firekeeper’s Daughter, written by Angeline Boulley

• Printz Honor Books: Concrete Rose, written by Angie Thomas; Last Night at the Telegraph Club, written by Malinda Lo; Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People, written by Kekla Magoon; Starfish, written by Lisa Fipps

Schneider Family Book Award for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience: Words in My Hands, written and illustrated by Asphyxia

• Schneider Family Honor Book: A Face for Picasso: Coming of Age with Crouzon Syndrome, written by Ariel Henley

Odyssey Award for the best audiobooks produced for young adults: When You Look Like Us, written by Pamela N. Harris and narrated by Preston Butler III

• Odyssey Honor Audiobook: Perfectly Parvin, written by Olivia Abtahi and narrated by Mitra Jouhari

Pura Belpré Awards honoring Latinx writers and illustrators whose young adult books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience: How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe, written by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

• Belpré Young Adult Author Honor Books: Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun, written by Jonny Garza Villa; Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet, written by Laekan Zea Kemp; Where I Belong, written by Marcia Argueta Mickelson

Robert F. Sibert Honor Book: Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown, written by Steve Sheinkin

Stonewall Book Award given annually to English-language young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience: Last Night at the Telegraph Club, written by Malinda Lo

• Stonewall Honor Book: The Darkness Outside Us, written by Eliot Schrefer

William C. Morris Award for a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens: Firekeeper’s Daughter, written by Angeline Boulley

• Morris Award Finalists: Ace of Spades, written by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé; Vampires, Hearts & Other Dead Things, written by Margie Fuston; Me (Moth), written by Amber McBride;  What Beauty There Is, written by Cory Anderson

YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults: Ambushed!: The Assassination Plot Against President Garfield, written by Gail Jarrow

• Finalists: Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, written by Brandy Colbert; From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement, written by Paula Yoo; In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers: The Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months and Years after the 9/11 Attacks, written and illustrated by Don Brown; The Woman All Spies Fear: Code Breaker Elizebeth Smith Friedman and Her Hidden Life, written by Amy Butler Greenfield

American Indian Youth Literature Awards, which were established to identify and honor the very best writing and illustrations by and about American Indians and Alaska Natives: Apple (Skin to the Core), written by Eric Gansworth [Onondaga]

• Honor Books: Elatsoe, by Darcie Little Badger [Lipan Apache Tribe]; Firekeeper’s Daughter, by Angeline Boulley [Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians]; Hunting by Stars, by Cherie Dimaline [Métis Nation of Ontario]; Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present, by Adrienne Keene [Cherokee Nation]; Soldiers Unknown, by Chag Lowry [Yurok, Maidu and Achumawi]

Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, which promotes Asian/Pacific American culture and heritage and is awarded based on literary and artistic merit: Last Night at the Telegraph Club, written by Malinda Lo

• Youth Literature honor title: We Are Not Free, written by Traci Chee

The Sydney Taylor Book Award, presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience: The City Beautiful, by Aden Polydoros 

• Young Adult honors: The Last Words We Said, by Leah Scheier; Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero, by E. Lockhart, illustrated by Manuel Preitano; and The Summer of Lost Letters, by Hannah Reynolds