2024 Youth Media Award Winners

Praised for acting like a big girl when she is small, as a young girl grows, "big" becomes a word of criticism, until the girl realizes that she is fine just the way she is. "Once there was a girl. She had a big heart and very big dreams. And it was good. Until it wasn't. The first picture book written and illustrated by award-winning and bestselling creator Vashti Harrison traces a child's journey to self-love and shows the power of words to both...

A picture book celebrating both the highs and lows that everyone experiences in the course of a life.

Back in the day, there was a heckuva party, a jam, for a word-making man. The King of Letters. Langston Hughes. His ABCs became drums, bumping jumping thumping like a heart the size of the whole country. They sent some people yelling and others, his word-children, to write their own glory.--Amazon.com

"A sixteen-year-old girl whose father is the leader of a Black liberation group discovers her own place in the world"-- Warrior Princess. That's what Nigeria's father calls her. He's raised her as part of the Movement, a Black separatist group based in Philadelphia. Nigeria is homeschooled and vegan and participates in traditional rituals that connect her and other kids from the group to their ancestors. But when her mother--the perfect matriarch...

"A picture book in verse that threads together past and present to explore the legacy of slavery during a classroom lesson"-- From the fireside tales in an African village, through the unspeakable passage across the Atlantic, to the backbreaking work in the fields of the South, this is a story of a people's struggle and strength, horror and hope. This is the story of American slavery, a story that needs to be told and understood by all of us. A testament...

"In order to stop the destructive forces of gentrification, three best friends use social media to create a fake gang and get justice for their South L.A. community"-- Rhea and her friends Zeke and Malachi are South L.A. born and raised. The old neighborhood is fading away, and more white people are flocking to this little urban paradise for its cheap rent, transforming the place they call home. When an eviction notice from a greedy landlord threatens...

Erin Powers navigates growing up as a mixed-Black transracial adoptee being raised by a white, closeted lesbian mother. Based on the author's experience. Two girls on different timelines-- each growing up as a mixed-Black transracial adoptee-- find their lives bridged by a mysterious portal. Part memoir, part speculative fiction, Gibney examines the absurdities of the adoptee experience through her own adoption experiences. -- adapted from jacket...

Imagine you were asked the same question again and again throughout your life... Imagine if it was a question that didn't bring about the happiest of memories... This is the experience of one-legged Joe, a child who just wants to have fun in the playground... Constantly seen first for his disability, Joe is fed up of only ever being asked about his leg. All he wants to do is play Pirates. But as usual, one after the other, all the children ask him...

Neurodivergent Maudie is ready to spend an amazing summer with her dad, but will she find the courage to tell him a terrible secret about life with her mom and new stepdad? This contemporary novel is a must-read for fans of Leslie Connor and Ali Standish. A Schneider Family Book Award winner!

Maudie always looks forward to the summers she spends in California with her dad. But this year, she must keep a troubling secret about

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Two years after a tragedy saddles him with viral fame, twelve-year-old Simon O'Keeffe and his family move to Grin And Bear It, Nebraska, where the internet and cell phones are banned so astrophysicists can scan the sky for signs of alien life, and where, with the help of two new friends, a puppy, and a giant radio telescope, Simon plans to restart the narrative of his life.