2024 Youth Media Awards
January 31, 2024
The American Library Association recently announced the top books, digital media, video, and audiobooks for children and young adults—including the Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Newbery, and Printz awards. We’re proud to be the audiobook publisher for 16 of the 2024 Youth Media Award winners and honor books, including the Stonewall Award winner and the Sydney Taylor Award winning Middle Grade title.
Caldecott Honor Book
Written by Jason Reynolds, Jerome Pumphrey – illustrator, Jarrett Pumphrey – illustrator
Performed by Jason Reynolds
Published by Recorded Books
New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Jason Reynolds’s debut picture book is a snappy, joyous ode to Word King, literary genius, and glass-ceiling smasher Langston Hughes and the luminaries he inspired.
Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book
Written by Jason Reynolds, Jerome Pumphrey – illustrator, Jarrett Pumphrey – illustrator
Performed by Jason Reynolds
Published by Recorded Books
New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Jason Reynolds’s debut picture book is a snappy, joyous ode to Word King, literary genius, and glass-ceiling smasher Langston Hughes and the luminaries he inspired.
Printz Honor Book
Written by Moa Backe Åstot, translated by Eva Apelqvist
Performed by Michael Crouch
Published by Recorded Books
From 23-year-old Sámi debut novelist and reindeer owner Moa Backe Åstot, Fire From the Sky is a queer coming-of-age story about heritage, family ties and age-old commitments to the past.
Schneider Teen Honor Book
Written by Mazey Eddings
Performed by Justis Bolding and Chris Nelson
Published by Recorded Books
Tilly in Technicolor is Mazey Eddings’s sparkling YA debut about two neurodivergent teens who form a connection over the course of a summer.
Alex Award
Written by Rebecca Yarros
Performed by Rebecca Soler and Teddy Hamilton
Published by Recorded Books
Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Yarros. Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general―also known as her tough-as-talons mother―has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
Mildred L. Batchelder Honor Book
Written by Joana Estrela and translated by Lyn Miller-Lachmann
Performed by Irene Vazquez
Published by Recorded Books
A beautiful slice-of-life story that is This One Summer meets Ursula K. Le Guin’s Very Far Away from Anywhere Else, told in flashbacks.
Pura Belpré Youth Illustration Honor Book
Written by Jesús Trejo
Performed by Jesús Trejo
Published by Recorded Books
In Mexican American comedian Jesús Trejo’s debut picture book, a little boy makes a big, funny mistake and learns the value of resources like time and water—both of which have a magic all their own.
Pura Belpré Children’s Author Honor Books
Written by Donna Barba Higuera
Performed by Cisco Fernandez and Frankie Corzo
Published by Recorded Books
The next stunning novel from Donna Barba Higuera, author of Newbery and Pura Belpré Award-winning The Last Cuentista. For 400 years, Earth has been a barren wasteland. The few humans that survive scrape together an existence in the cruel city of Pocatel – or go it alone in the wilderness beyond, filled with wandering spirits and wyrms. They don’t last long.
Written by Jesús Trejo
Performed by Jesús Trejo
Published by Recorded Books
In Mexican American comedian Jesús Trejo’s debut picture book, a little boy makes a big, funny mistake and learns the value of resources like time and water—both of which have a magic all their own.
Pura Belpré Young Adult Author Honor Book
Written by David Bowles
Performed by Johnny Rey Diaz
Published by Recorded Books
This action-packed tale blends prose and poetry – including translations of surviving poems by Nezahualcoytl himself, translated from classical Nahuatl by the author. And the book is packed with queer rep: queer love stories, and a thoughtful exploration of pre-columbian understandings of gender that defy the contemporary Western gender binary.
Sibert Honor Book
Written by Martin W. Sandler
Performed by Jonathan Todd Ross
Published by Recorded Books
From National Book Award–winning author Martin W. Sandler, here is a fascinating look at what shipwrecks reveal about our world’s past—and how exploring them led to the development of a whole new field of science: marine archaeology.
Stonewall Book Award Winner
Written by Nora Dåsnes, translated by Matt Bagguley
Performed by Laura Knight Keating
Published by Recorded Books
In this fresh, sensitive, diary-style graphic novel, 12-year-old Tuva’s questions about becoming a teenager are confusing—so when her first crush turns out to be on another girl, it feels absolutely wonderful–so why does it become so complicated?
Stonewall Children’s Honor Book
Written by Jyoti Rajan Gopal
Performed by Neil Shah
Published by Recorded Books
From village gatherings to Bollywood stages, Queen Harish twirls her way into hearts, leaving a trail of shattered stereotypes and empowering others to embrace their true selves. This is a celebration of courage, finding your inner queen, and dancing to your own rhythm.
William C. Morris Award Finalist
Written by Hannah V. Sawyerr
Performed by Hannah V. Sawyerr
Published by Recorded Books
In the vein of Grown and The Poet X, Hannah V. Sawyerr’s All the Fighting Parts is a searing and defiant young adult novel in verse about reclaiming agency after a sexual assault within the church community.
American Indian Youth Literature Awards Young Adult Honor Book
Written by Andrea L. Rogers
Performed by Lane Factor and DeLanna Studi
Published by Recorded Books
Tsalagi should never have to live on human blood, but sometimes things just happen to sixteen-year-old girls. Her YA debut, Cherokee writer Andrea L. Rogers takes her place as one of the most striking voices of the horror renaissance that has swept the last decade.
Sydney Taylor Book Award Middle Grade Winner
Written by Mari Lowe
Performed by Merissa Czyz
Published by Recorded Books
Shaindy is a twelve-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl who struggles in school and has no good friends. She watches with envy as her next-door neighbor, Gayil, excels socially and academically. They have little to do with each other, and it comes as a surprise when Shaindy looks out her window one September evening and sees Gayil staring out at her from her own window with a sign reading: want to know a secret?