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Youth Media Awards


Happy new semester, everyone! For those of you who don't know, and in case it wasn't obvious, I love YA literature. It has come a long way in recent years as far as the variety and sheer amount of what's available, as well as its sophistication. So, it should come as no surprise that I always get excited when it's time for the Youth Media Awards. What are the Youth Media Awards? Basically, they're the Oscars for books, audiobooks, and videos that are aimed at children and young adult audiences.

The Youth Media Awards are a big deal in library-land. Librarians sit on the committees that choose the winners and "honor" books (being on one of these committees involves a lot of reading), and the winners are revealed at the American Library Association's (ALA) annual mid-winter conference. The announcements happened on Monday, January 23rd - and for future reference, are live-streamed in case you ever feel like you might want to watch them with your students.

The most talked about awards are always the John Newbery Medal and the Randolph Caldecott Medal, but there are many other winners which represent various different aspects of books and other media to be honored. This year, the most talked about book has actually been one that did not win the Newbery or the Caldecott - but it did win four (seriously four - that's practically unheard of) awards! Oh, AND it won the National Book Award in November. So...wow.  That book is March: Book 3 by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin. March: Book 3 is the last of a trilogy of graphic novels that chronicle the Civil Rights Movement as experienced by John Lewis. This truly speaks to the power of graphic novels as a medium for non-fiction, as it joins the ranks for Art Spiegelman's Maus and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis.

All that being said, this librarian is currently reading the Newbery winner, The Girl who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill, and it is an absolute fantastical treat so far.

To find out more about each of the awards, click here.

To see a complete list of the winners from this year- including archived footage of cheering librarians, click here.

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