The Carter G. Woodson Book Award is an American literary award created in 1973 by the Racism and Social Justice Committee of the National Council for the Social Studies to promote cultural literacy in children and young adults.[1]
First presented in 1974, the award is named for American historian, author, and journalist Carter G. Woodson. Currently awarded at three levels – elementary, middle, and secondary – middle was added in 2001 after the other two divisions began in 1989.[2]
In addition to announcing winners, the award recognizes honor books, referred to from 1980 to 1996 as those having "outstanding merit".[2] An accompanying seal, with a likeness of Woodson, was introduced in 1999 with gold seals applied to winning book covers and silver seals on honor books.[2]
As of 2024[update], Brent Ashabranner is the only author whose books have received the award three times, as well as the only to have winning books two years in a row. Don Tate, who first had a book win the Woodson award in 2016, illustrated a second title that also (uniquely) won that year.
Award recipients
edit| Year | Author | Title | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Eloise Greenfield | Rosa Parks | [3] |
| 1975 | Jesse C. Jackson | Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord: The Life of Mahalia Jackson, Queen of the Gospel Singers | [4] |
| 1976 | Laurence Yep | Dragonwings | [5] |
| 1977 | Dorothy Sterling | The Trouble They Seen | [6] |
| 1978 | Jane Goodsell | The Biography of Daniel Inouye | [7] |
| 1979 | Peter Nabokov | Native American Testimony: An Anthology of Indian and White Relations | [8] |
| 1980 | Nancy Wood | War Cry on a Prayer Feather: Prose and Poetry of the Ute | [9] |
| 1981 | Milton Meltzer | The Chinese Americans | [10] |
| 1982 | Susan Carver and Paula McGuire | Coming to North America from Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico | [11] |
| 1983 | Brent Ashabranner | Morning Star, Black Sun | [12] |
| 1984 | E.B. Fincher | Mexico and the United States | [13] |
| 1985 | Brent Ashabranner | To Live in Two Worlds: American Indian Youth Today | [12] |
| 1986 | Brent Ashabranner | Dark Harvest: Migrant Farmworkers in America | [12] |
| 1987 | Arlene Hirschfelder | Happily May I Walk | [14] |
| 1988 | James Haskins | Black Music in America: A History Through Its People | [15] |
| Year | Author | Title | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Charles Patterson | Marian Anderson | [16] |
| 1990 | Rebecca Larsen | Paul Robeson | [17] |
| 1991 | Mary E. Lyons | Sorrow's Kitchen: The Life and Folklore of Zora Neale Hurston | [18] |
| 1992 | Jeri Ferris | Native American Doctor: The Story of Susan LaFlesche Picotte | [19] |
| 1993 | Mildred Pitts Walter | Mississippi Challenge | |
| 1994 | James Haskins | The March on Washington | |
| 1995 | Zak Mettger | Till Victory is Won: Black Soldiers in the Civil War | |
| 1996 | Ellen Levine | A Fence Away from Freedom: Japanese Americans and World War II | |
| 1997 | James Haskins | The Harlem Renaissance | |
| 1998 | Milton Meltzer | Langston Hughes | |
| 1999 | Rinna Evelyn Wolfe | Edmonia Lewis: Wildfire in Marble | |
| 2000 | Sharon Linnea | Princess Ka'iulani: Hope of a Nation, Heart of a People | |
| 2001 | Albert Marrin | Tatan'ka Iyota'ke: Sitting Bull and His World | |
| 2002 | Barbara C. Cruz | Multiethnic Teens and Cultural Identity | |
| 2003 | Harvey Fireside | The "Mississippi Burning" Civil Rights Murder Conspiracy Trial: a Headline Court Case | |
| 2004 | James Tackach | Early Black Reformers | |
| 2005 | Robert H. Mayer (editor) | The Civil Rights Act of 1964 | |
| 2006 | Calvin Craig Miller | No Easy Answers: Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement | |
| 2007 | Joanne Oppenheim | Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese-American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference | |
| 2008 | Vincent Collin Beach with Anni Beach | Don't Throw Away Your Stick Till You Cross the River: The Journey of an Ordinary Man | |
| 2009 | Francisco Jiménez | Reaching Out | |
| 2010 | Ann Bausum | Denied, Detained, Deported: Stories From the Dark Side of American Immigration | |
| 2011 | Elaine M. Alphin | An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank | |
| 2012 | Larry Dane Brimner | Black and White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene "Bull" Connors | |
| 2013 | Judith Fradin and Dennis Fradin | Stolen into Slavery the True Story of Solomon Northup, Free Black Man | |
| 2014 | no award presented | ||
| 2015 | Steve Sheinkin | The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights | |
| 2016 | Winifred Conkling | Passenger on the Pearl: The True Story of Emily Edmonson's Flight from Slavery | |
| 2017 | John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell | March (Trilogy) | |
| 2018 | Larry Dane Brimner | Twelve Days in May—Freedom Ride 1961 | |
| 2019 | Claire Hartfield | A Few Red Drops | |
| 2020 | Ashley Bryan | Infinite Hope: A Black Artist's Journey from World War II to Peace | |
| 2021 | Evette Dionne | Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box | |
| 2022 | Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace | Race Against Time | |
| 2023 | Lawrence Goldstone | Days of Infamy: How a Century of Bigotry Led to Japanese American Internment | |
| 2024 | Thien Pham | Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam | |
| Year | Author | Title | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Andrea Davis Pinkney | Let it Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters | |
| 2002 | Alice Hinkel | Prince Estabrook: Slave and Soldier | |
| 2003 | Michael L. Cooper | Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp | |
| 2004 | Kimberly Komatsu and Kaleigh Komatsu | In America's Shadow | |
| 2005 | Russell Freedman | The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights | |
| 2006 | Bárbara Cruz | César Chávez: A Voice for Farmworkers | |
| 2007 | Russell Freedman | Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott | |
| 2008 | John Fleischman | Black and White Airmen: Their True History | |
| 2009 | James Haskins and Kathleen Benson with Virginia Schomp | Drama of African-American History: The Rise of Jim Crow | |
| 2010 | Phillip Hoose | Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice | |
| 2011 | no award presented | ||
| 2012 | Susan Goldman Rubin | Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein | |
| 2013 | Ann Bausum | Marching to the Mountaintop: How Poverty, Labor Fights, and Civil Rights Set the Stage for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Final Hours | |
| 2014 | Tonya Bolden | Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln and the Dawn of Liberty | |
| 2015 | Teri Kanefield | The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement | |
| 2016 | no award presented | ||
| 2017 | no award presented | ||
| 2018 | Laura Atkins and Stan Yogi | Fighting for Justice—Fred Korematsu Speaks Up | |
| 2019 | Wendy Ewald | America Border Culture Dreamer: The Young Immigrant Experience From A to Z | |
| 2020 | Ashley Bryan | Infinite Hope: A Black Artist's Journey from World War II to Peace | |
| 2021 | James Otis Smith | Black Heroes of the Wild West | |
| 2022 | Carole Boston Weatherford | Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre | |
| 2023 | Candacy Taylor | Overground Railroad: The Green Book and The Roots of Black Travel in America (The Young Adult Adaptation) | |
| 2024 | Traci Sorell | Contenders: Two Native Baseball Players, One World Series | |
| Year | Author | Title | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Jeri Ferris | Walking the Road to Freedom | |
| 1990 | Aylette Jenness and Alice Rivers | In Two Worlds: A Yup’ik Eskimo Family | |
| 1991 | Catherine Scheader | Shirley Chisolm | |
| 1992 | Fay Stanley | The Last Princess: The Story of Princess Ka’iulani of Hawai’i | |
| 1993 | Patricia and Fredrick McKissack | Madam C.J. Walker | |
| 1994 | Mary E. Lyons | Starting Home: The Story of Horace Pippin, Painter | |
| 1995 | Jeri Ferris | What I Had Was Singing: The Story of Marian Anderson | |
| 1996 | Monty Roessel | Songs from the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave | |
| 1997 | Suhaib Hamid Ghazi | Ramadan | |
| 1998 | Leon Walter Tillage | Leon's Story | |
| 1999 | John Duggleby | Story Painter: The Life of Jacob Lawrence | |
| 2000 | Ruby Bridges | Through My Eyes | |
| 2001 | Carole Boston Weatherford | The Sound that Jazz Makes | |
| 2002 | Nanette Mellage | Coming Home: A Story of Josh Gibson, Baseball's Greatest Home Run Hitter | |
| 2003 | Richard Griswold del Castillo | Cesar Chavez: The Struggle for Justice / Cesar Chavez: La lucha por la justicia | |
| 2004 | Liselotte Erdrich | Sacagawea | |
| 2005 | Joseph Bruchac | Jim Thorpe's Bright Path | |
| 2006 | Margot Theis Raven | Let Them Play | |
| 2007 | Jim Haskins and Kathleen Benson | John Lewis in the Lead: A Story of the Civil Rights Movement | |
| 2008 | Bill Wise | Louis Sockalexis: Native American Baseball Pioneer | |
| 2009 | Nikki Giovanni | Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship | |
| 2010 | Paula Yoo | Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story | |
| 2011 | Andrea Davis Pinkney | Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down | |
| 2012 | Gina Capaldi and Q. L. Pearce | Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala-Ša, Native American Author, Musician, and Activist (adapted) | |
| 2013 | Jabari Asim | Fifty Cents and a Dream: Young Booker T. Washington | |
| 2014 | Anne Rockwell | Hey Charleston!: The True Story of the Jenkins Orphanage Band | |
| 2015 | Duncan Tonatiuh | Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation | |
| 2016 | Don Tate | Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton | |
| Chris Barton | The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch | ||
| 2017 | Annette Bay Pimentel | Mountain Chef: How One Man Lost His Groceries, Changed His Plans, and Helped Cook Up the National Park Service | |
| 2018 | Cynthia Levinson | The Youngest Marcher—The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist | |
| 2019 | Mélina Mangal | The Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just | |
| 2020 | Kwame Alexander | The Undefeated | |
| 2021 | Don Tate | William Still and His Freedom Stories | |
| 2022 | Martha Brockenbrough and Grace Lin | I Am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story | |
| 2023 | Diane Wilson, Sun Yung Shin, Shannon Gibney, and John Coy | Where We Come From | |
| 2024 | Carole Lindstrom | My Powerful Hair |
References
edit- ^ "Carter G. Woodson Book Awards, 2009". ERIC. 2010. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
- ^ a b c "About the Awards". Carter G. Woodson Awards. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
- ^ Maughan, Shannon (August 10, 2021). "Obituary: Eloise Greenfield". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved December 19, 2024.
- ^ "Jesse Jackson". Oxford Reference. Oxford University Press. Retrieved December 19, 2024.
- ^ Huimin Liu (2021). "Literature Review on 'Dragonwings'" (PDF). Frontiers in Art Research. 3 (6). doi:10.25236/FAR.2021.030611. Retrieved December 19, 2024.
- ^ "Dorothy Sterling". Contemporary Authors Online. 2003. Retrieved December 19, 2024 – via Dorothy Sterling papers, Archives West.
- ^ "Daniel Inouye (Crowell Biographies)". African American Literature Book Club. Retrieved December 19, 2024.
- ^ Towne, Peter. "Nabokov, Peter (Francis) 1940–". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved December 19, 2024.
- ^ "War Cry on a Prayer Feather: Prose and Poetry of the Ute". Teaching Books. Retrieved December 19, 2024.
- ^ "The Chinese Americans". African American Literature Book Club. Retrieved December 19, 2024.
- ^ "Coming to North America from Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico". Teaching Books. Retrieved December 19, 2024.
- ^ a b c "Carter G. Woodson Book Award and Honor Winners: 1974–2000". National Council for the Social Studies. Retrieved December 20, 2024.
- ^ "Mexico and the United States". Teaching Books. Retrieved December 20, 2024.
- ^ "Happily May I Walk". Teaching Books. Retrieved December 20, 2024.
- ^ "Black Music in America". Teaching Books. Retrieved December 20, 2024.
- ^ "Marian Anderson". African American Literature Book Club. Retrieved December 21, 2024.
- ^ "Paul Robeson: Hero Before His Time". African American Literature Book Club. Retrieved December 21, 2024.
- ^ "Sorrow's Kitchen: The Life and Folklore of Zora Neale Hurston". African American Literature Book Club. Retrieved December 21, 2024.
- ^ "Native American Doctor: The Story of Susan LaFlesche Picotte". African American Literature Book Club. Retrieved December 21, 2024.