The Envelope, Please! ALA Youth Media Awards Announced

The American Library Association has revealed their book and media winners for 2016.

Taking the prestigious John Newbery Award for the most outstanding contribution for children's literature was Matt de la Pena, for Last Stop on Market Street (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2015). Pena becomes the first Hispanic author to win this award.

Newbery Honor Awards go to Kimberly Brubaker Bradley for The War that Saved My Life (Dial Books, 2015) (see my review here), Roller Girl, (Dial Books 2015) by Victoria Jamieson, and Echo (Scholastic Press, 2015) by Pam Munoz Ryan.

The Randolph Caldecott Medal is awarded for the best illustrated book published in the United States. Winning the 2016 Caldecott for Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear (Little, Brown and Company, 2015), the story of the search for the toy bear who became famous as "Winnie-The-Pooh," is illustrator Sophie Blackall. The author was Lindsay Mattick.

Caldecott Honor Medals went to Trombone Shorty(Abrams Books, 2015), illustrated by Bryan Collier and authored by Troy Andrews; Waiting (Greenwillow Books, 2015) written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes, (see my review here); Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement (Candlewick Press, 2015), illustrated by Ekua Holmes and written by Carole Boston Weatherford; and the Newbery winner, Last Stop on Market Street (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2015), illustrated by Christian Robinson.

The 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Award, recognizing an African American author, went to Rita Williams-Garcia for Gone Crazy in Alabama (Harper-Collins, 2015) (see my review here). Illustrator Bryan Collier also took the King Illustrator Award for his work on Trombone Shorty (Abrams Books, 2015). The Coretta Scott King New Talent Author Award went to Ronald L. Smith for Hoodoo (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2015) (see my review here).

The Michael L. Printz Award for Young Adult literature was won by Laura Ruby for Bone Gap (Balzer & Bray, 2015).

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for life achievement went to Caldecott Award-winning author-illustrator Jerry Pinkney.

The Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) Award for the most distinguished beginning reader book went to David Adler's Don't Throw It to Mo! (Mo Jackson) (Penguin Young Readers, 2015),illustrated by Sam Ricks.

The Andrew Carnegie Medal for children's video went to Weston Woods Studio for its adaptation of Mo Willems' This Is NOT A Good Idea. (See my review of the book here).

Read the complete list of ALA's awards and winners here.