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Award Winning Books for Kids

Created on October 14, 2021, 7:56 am

Last Updated April 25, 2022, 7:22 am

This list contains many of the books that have received the top or honor prize for the Caldecott, Newbery, Pura Belpre, Sibert Family, Dr. Seuss Geisel, and Coretta Scott King Awards. The titles included on this site vary widely as to their intended audience—children anywhere from birth up to 14 years of age. We encourage parents and caregivers to actively engage in the selection of media with their children, as reading skills, cognitive and maturity levels, and interests vary from child to child. When looking at older winners especially, please remember that they were selected as the best of THEIR time, not necessarily the best of ALL time, and may be quite dated for today's young readers.

1) We are water protectors

Author

Lindstrom, Carole

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

Water is the first medicine. It affects and connects us all... When a black snake threatens to destroy the Earth and poison her people's water, one young water protector takes a stand to defend Earth's most sacred resource. Inspired by the many indigenous-led movements across North America, this bold and lyrical picture book issues an urgent rallying cry to safeguard the Earth's water from harm and corruption.

2) A place inside of me: a poem to heal the heart

Author

Description

Illustrations and easy-to-read text express a child's awareness of being filled with deep emotions, from joy to sorrow and anger to compassion, but above all, love.

Author

Underwood, Deborah

Description

Illustrations and easy-to-read text reveal ways nature affects our everyday lives, such as providing food and clothing, and showing when to go to bed and when to get up.

4) The undefeated

Author

Alexander, Kwame

Formats:

Description

"The Newbery Award-winning author of The Crossover pens an ode to black American triumph and tribulation, with art from a two-time Caldecott Honoree"-- Provided by publisher.

5) Bear came along

Author

Morris, Richard T

Formats:

Description

An assortment of animals living separate lives discover they need each other when they have a chance encounter on a river.

6) The double bass blues

Author

Loney, Andrea J

Description

After school orchestra practice, young Nic carries his double bass through rough neighborhoods to his grandfather's home, where he and Grandaddy Nic play jazz music with friends, delighting the neighbors.

7) Going down home with daddy

Author

Lyons, Kelly Starling

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

Alan looks forward to the annual family reunion at the farm where Daddy grew up, but everyone is supposed to share something special and Alan worries about arriving with empty hands.

8) Hello Lighthouse

Author

Blackall, Sophie

Formats:

Description

"Explores the life of one lighthouse as it beams its message out to sea through shifting seasons, changeable weather, and the tenure of its final keeper."-- Provided by publisher.

9) A big mooncake for Little Star

Author

Formats:

Description

Reimagines the cycles of the moon as a mother bakes a Big Moon Cake and, despite Mama's request to wait, Little Star begins nibbling at it every night.

10) Thank you, Omu!

Author

Formats:

Description

When the aroma of Omu's homemade stew fills the air, her neighbors arrive, one by one, for a taste until all is gone except for her generous spirit.

11) Crown: an ode to the fresh cut

Author

Barnes, Derrick

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook

Description

Celebrates the magnificent feeling that comes from walking out of a barber shop with newly-cut hair.

12) Big cat, little cat

Author

Description

"A moving tale about friendship, new beginnings, and cats"-- Provided by publisher.

13) A different pond

Author

Series

Fiction Picture Books

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"As a young boy, Bao Phi awoke early, hours before his father's long workday began, to fish on the shores of a small pond in Minneapolis. Unlike many other anglers, Bao and his father fished for food, not recreation. Between hope-filled casts, Bao's father told him about a different pond in their homeland of Vietnam"-- Provided by publisher.

14) Grand Canyon

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

"An exploration of the Grand Canyon on a grand scale, as only Jason Chin can illustrate and explain"-- Provided by publisher.

15) Radiant child: the story of young artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

Author

Steptoe, Javaka

Formats:

Book, Read-along

Description

Jean-Michel Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocketed to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art world had ever seen. But before that, he was a little boy who saw art everywhere: in poetry books and museums, in games and in the words that we speak, and in the pulsing energy of New York City. Now, award-winning illustrator Javaka Steptoe's vivid text and bold artwork echoing Basquiat's own introduce young...

16) Freedom in Congo Square

Author

Weatherford, Carole Boston

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

Six days a week, slaves labor from sunup to sundown and beyond, but on Sunday afternoons, they gather with free blacks at Congo Square outside New Orleans, free from oppression. Includes foreword about Congo Square by Freddi Williams Evans, glossary, and historical notes.

17) Hello hello

Author

Wenzel, Brendan

Formats:

Description

In simple text a set of animals, each one linked to the previous one by some trait of shape, color, or pattern, greet and interact with one another.

18) Finding Winnie: the true story of the world's most famous bear

Author

Mattick, Lindsay

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, Read-along

Description

A woman tells her young son the true story of how his great-great-grandfather, Captain Harry Colebourn, rescued and learned to love a bear cub in 1914 as he was on his way to take care of soldiers' horses during World War I, and the bear became the inspiration for A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh.

19) Trombone Shorty

Author

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

Hailing from the Tremé neighborhood in New Orleans, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews got his nickname by wielding a trombone twice as long as he was high. A prodigy, he was leading his own band by age six, and today this Grammy-nominated artist headlines the legendary New Orleans Jazz Fest.

Author

Description

Five friends sit happily on a windowsill, waiting for something amazing to happen. The owl is waiting for the moon. The pig is waiting for the rain. The bear is waiting for the wind. The puppy is waiting for the snow. And the rabbit is just looking out the window because he likes to wait! What will happen? Will patience win in the end? Or someday will the friends stop waiting and do something unexpected?--Publisher.