American Library Association Youth Media Awards 2021

Created on April 27, 2021, 8:49 am

Last Updated September 17, 2021, 9:12 am

Every year at this time the American Library Association recognizes what it considers to be the "best of the best" in children's and teen's literature for the year. Children's librarians geek out over the titles and watch to see if their favorite books get picked. Here are the winners from this year. There's a link at the bottom if you aren't familiar with all of the different awards and want to read more. From picture books to books published for adults with teen appeal and everything in between, there are a lot of great reads in this list!

1) I talk like a river

Author

Notes

Schneider Family Book Award Winner (Young Children)

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

When a child has a "bad speech day" at school, his father gives him a new perspective on his stuttering.

2) Sharuko: el arqueologo Peruano Julio C. Tello = Sharuko : Peruvian archaelogist Julio C. Tello

Author

Notes

Belpre Illustrator Honor

Description

"A picture biography of Julio C. Tello, considered to be the founder of modern Peruvian archaeology, that traces his life from an early interest in Peru's ancient cultures to his rise as the most distinguished Indigenous social scientist of the twentieth century. A map and an afterword with additional information, photograph, and source list are included."--

3) All the way to the top: how one girl's fight for Americans with disabilities changed everything

Author

Pimentel, Annette Bay

Notes

Schneider Family Book Award Honor (Young Children)

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

Publisher Annotation: Jennifer Keelan was determined to make a change?even if she was just a kid. She never thought her wheelchair could slow her down, but the way the world around her was built made it hard to do even simple things. Like going to school, or eating lunch in the cafeteria. Jennifer knew that everyone deserves a voice! Then the Americans with Disabilities Act, a law that would make public spaces much more accessible to people with disabilities,...

4) Efrén Divided : a novel

Author

Cisneros, Ernesto

Notes

Belpre Children's Author Winner

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook, eBook

Description

While his father works two jobs, seventh-grader Efr?n Nava must take care of his twin siblings, kindergartners Max and Mia, after their mother is deported to Mexico. Includes glossary of Spanish words.

5) Show me a sign

Author

LeZotte, Ann Clare

Series

Show me a sign volume 1

Notes

Schneider Family Book Award Winner (Middle Grade)

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook

Description

It is 1805 and Mary Lambert has always felt safe among the deaf community of Chilmark on Martha's Vineyard where practically everyone communicates in a shared sign language, but recent events have shattered her life; her brother George has died, land disputes between English settlers and the Wampanoag people are becoming increasingly bitter, and a "scientist" determined to discover the origins of the islands' widespread deafness has decided she makes...

6) Lupe Wong won't dance

Author

Higuera, Donna Barba

Notes

Belpre Children's Author Honor

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

My gym shorts burrow into my butt crack like a frightened groundhog. Don't you want to read a book that starts like that?? Lupe Wong is going to be the first female pitcher in the Major Leagues. She's also championed causes her whole young life. Some worthylike expanding the options for race on school tests beyond just a few bubbles. And some not so muchlike complaining to the BBC about the length between Doctor Who seasons. Lupe needs an A in all...

7) When stars are scattered

Author

Jamieson, Victoria

Notes

Schneider Family Book Award Honor (Middle Grade)

Formats:

Book - Hardback, eAudiobook

Description

"Omar and his younger brother Hassan live in a refugee camp, and when an opportunity for Omar to get an education comes along, he must decide between going to school every day or caring for his nonverbal brother in this intimate and touching portrayal of family and daily life in a refugee camp"--

Author

Méndez, Yamile Saied

Notes

Belpre Young Audlt Author Winner

Formats:

Book, Book - Paperback, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

Seventeen-year-old Camila Hassan, a rising soccer star in Rosario, Argentina, dreams of playing professionally, in defiance of her fathers' wishes and at the risk of her budding romance with Diego. The Reese's YA Book Club pick and 2021 Pura Belpre Award-winning, powerful, #ownvoices contemporary YA for fans of The Poet X and I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter about a rising soccer star who must put everything on the line--even her blooming love...

9) Never look back

Author

Rivera, Lilliam

Notes

Belpre Young Adult Author Honor

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

A modern retelling of the myth, Orpheus and Eurydice, in which Eury leaves Puerto Rico for the Bronx, haunted by losing all to Hurricane Maria and by evil spirit Ato, and meets a bachata-singing charmer, Pheus.

10) We are not from here

Author

Torres Sanchez, Jenny

Notes

Belpre Young Adult Author Honor

Description

Publisher Annotation: A poignant novel of desperation, escape, and survival across the U.S.-Mexico border, inspired by current events.

11) Darius the Great deserves better

Author

Series

Darius the Great volume 2

Notes

Stonewall Honor

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

"Darius Kellner has everything he thought he wanted--a new boyfriend, a new internship, and a spot on the soccer team--but growing up makes him question everything"--

12) Felix ever after

Author

Callender, Kacen

Notes

Stonewall Honor

Formats:

Description

Felix Love, a transgender seventeen-year-old, attempts to get revenge by catfishing his anonymous bully, but lands in a quasi-love triangle with his former enemy and his best friend.

13) Box: Henry Brown mails himself to freedom

Author

Weatherford, Carole Boston

Notes

Newbery Honor

Formats:

Book, Book - Paperback, eAudiobook

Description

Publisher Annotation: In a moving, lyrical tale about the cost and fragility of freedom, a New York Times best-selling author and an acclaimed artist follow the life of a man who courageously shipped himself out of slavery. 56pp.

14) Fighting words

Author

Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker

Notes

Newbery Honor

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

Publisher Annotation: In this powerful novel that explodes the stigma around child sexual abuse and leavens an intense tale with compassion and humor, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley tells a story about two sisters, linked by love and trauma, who must find their own voices before they can find their way back to each other.

15) We dream of space

Author

Kelly, Erin Entrada

Notes

Newbery Honor

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eBook

Description

Publisher Annotation: Cash, Fitch, and Bird Nelson Thomas are three siblings in seventh grade together in Park, Delaware. In 1986, as the nation waits expectantly for the launch of the space shuttle Challenger, they each struggle with their own personal anxieties. Cash, who loves basketball but has a newly broken wrist, is in danger of failing seventh grade for the second time. Fitch spends every afternoon playing Major Havoc at the arcade on Main...

16) The cat man of Aleppo

Author

Notes

Caldecott Honor

Description

"In the midst of the Syrian Civil War, Alaa takes care of Aleppo's abandoned cats"--

Author

Underwood, Deborah

Notes

Caldecott Honor

Formats:

Book, Book - Hardback, eBook

Description

From the New York Times best-selling author behind The Quiet Book comes a mindful contemplation on the many ways nature affects our everyday lives, even when we're stuck inside. Five starred reviews! Perfect for fans of Joyce Sidman and Julie Fogliano, Outside In reminds emerging readers of the ways nature creates and touches our lives in homes, apartments, and cars, and is the perfect homeschooling tool to reflect on the world's connectedness. Outside...

18) Dragon hoops

Author

Yang, Gene Luen

Notes

Printz Honor

Description

In his latest graphic novel, Dragon Hoops, New York Times bestselling author Gene Luen Yang turns the spotlight on his life, his family, and the high school where he teaches.

19) We are not free

Author

Series

Thorndike Press youth large print young adult

Notes

Printz Honor

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eBook, Large Print - Hardback

Description

For fourteen-year-old budding artist Minoru Ito, her two brothers, her friends, and the other members of the Japanese-American community in southern California, the three months since Pearl Harbor was attacked have become a waking nightmare: attacked, spat on, and abused with no way to retaliate--and now things are about to get worse, their lives forever changed by the mass incarcerations in the relocation camps.

20) Before the ever after

Author

Woodson, Jacqueline

Notes

Coretta Scott King Author Winner

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook

Description

ZJ's friends Ollie, Darry and Daniel help him cope when his father, a beloved professional football player, suffers severe headaches and memory loss that spell the end of his career.-- "National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson's stirring novel-in-verse explores how a family moves forward when their glory days have passed and the cost of professional sports on Black bodies. For as long as ZJ can remember, his dad has been everyone's hero. As...