The Josette Frank Award
This award for fiction honors a book or books of outstanding literary merit in which children or young people deal in a positive and realistic way with difficulties in their world and grow emotionally and morally. The award has been given annually since 1943. Josette Frank, the editor of anthologies for children, served for many years as the Executive Director of the Child Study Association of America of which this committee was a part.
The Flora Stieglitz Straus Award
Established in 1994 to honor Flora Straus, who led the Children’s Book Committee for many years, is presented annually for a distinguished work of nonfiction that serves as an inspiration to young people. Flora Straus stood for the values of courage, hard work, truth, and beauty while adapting to a changing world. She believed that books about varying cultures enrich and help all children in their growth. She championed diverse opinions and points of view and was a person of high principles, unfailing courtesy, and deep understanding.
The Claudia Lewis Award
The Claudia Lewis Award, given for the first time in 1998, honors the best poetry book of the year. The award commemorates the late Claudia Lewis, distinguished children’s book expert and longtime member of the Bank Street College faculty and Children’s Book Committee. She conveyed her love and understanding of poetry with humor and grace.
2018 Award Winners
Past Award Winners 1943-2017
2010
Josette Frank Award
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly (Henry Holt)
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (Little, Brown)
Flora Stieglitz Straus Award
Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone (Candlewick)
Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca (Richard Jackson/ S&S)
Claudia Lewis Award
Red Sings from the Treetops: A Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski (Houghton Mifflin)
2009
Josette Frank Award
After Tupac & D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Flora Stieglitz Straus Award
The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary by Candace Fleming (Schwartz & Wade)
Claudia Lewis Award
The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle (Henry Holt)
2008
Josette Frank Award
Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate (Fiewel and Friends)
Flora Stieglitz Straus Award
Ballerina Dreams by Lauren Thompson, photos by James Estrin
(Fiewel and Friends)
Who Was First?: Discovering the Americas by Russell Freedman (Holiday)
Claudia Lewis Award
Here’s a Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry collected by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters, illustrated by Polly Dunbar (Candlewick)
This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Pamela Zagaenski (Houghton Mifflin)
2007
Josette Frank Award
Clementine by Sara Pennypacker, illustrated by Marla Frazee (Hyperion Books for Children)
The Manny Files
by Christian Burch (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
Flora Stieglitz Straus Award
Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman (Holiday House)
2006
Josette Frank Award
Each little bird that sings by Deborah Wiles (Gulliver Books, Harcourt)
Flora Stieglitz Straus Award
Gorilla Doctors: Saving Endangered Great Apes by Pamela S. Turner (Houghton Mifflin Company)
Claudia Lewis Award
A Kick In The Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms selected by Paul B. Janeczko illustrated by Chris Raschka (Candlewick Press)
2005
Josette Frank Award
Ida B: and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World by Katherine Hannigan (Greenwillow Books, HarperCollins Publishers)
Flora Stieglitz Straus Award
The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq written and illustrated by Jeanette Winter (Harcourt)
The Race to Save the Lord God Bird by Phillip Hoose (FSG)
Claudia Lewis Award
Here in Harlem: poems in many voices by Walter Dean Myers (Holiday House)
Hummingbird Nest: A Journal of Poems by Kristine O’Connell George
illustrated by Barry Moser (Tricycle Press)
2004
Josette Frank Award
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
(Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books)
Claudia Lewis Award
The Way a Door Closes by Hope Anita Smith, ill. by Shane W. Evans (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers)
Yesterday I Had the Blues by Jeron Ashford Frame, ill. by R. Gregory Christie (Tricycle Press)
Flora Stieglitz Straus Award
Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine (Albert Whitman & Co.)
A Lifetime Achievement Award
Karla Kuskin
as exhibited in a collection of her work,
Moon, Have You Met My Mother? (Laura Geringer Books, an imprint of HarperCollins)
2003
Josette Frank Award
Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline B. Cooney (Delacorte Press)
Jericho Walls by Kristi Collier (Henry Holt & Co.)
Claudia Lewis Award
Little Dog and Duncan by Kristine O’Connell George, ill. by June Otani (Clarion Books)
Flora Stieglitz Straus Award
No More! Stories and Songs of Slave Resistance by Doreen Rappaport, ill. by Shane W. Evans (Candlewick Press)
When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson by Pam Muñoz Ryan , ill. by Brian Selznick (Scholastic Press)
2002
Josette Frank Award
Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart by Vera B. Williams (Greenwillow Books, HarperCollins Publishers)
Flora Stieglitz Straus Award
Carver: a life in poems by Marilyn Nelson (Front Street Books)
Claudia Lewis Award
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech (Joanna Cotler Books, HarperCollins Publishers)
Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart by Vera B. Williams (Greenwillow Books, HarperCollins Publishers)
2001
Josette Frank Award
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick)
Flora Stieglitz Straus Award
Ida B. Wells: Mother of the Civil Rights Movement by Dennis Brindell Fradin and Judith Bloom Fradin (Clarion)
Claudia Lewis Award
Mammalabilia by Douglas Florian (Harcourt)
2000
1998
1997
1996
The Cuckoo’s Child by Suzanne Freeman (Greenwillow Books)
1995
1994
Earthshine by Theresa Nelson (Orchard)
1993
1992
Blue Skin of the Sea by Graham Salisbury (Delacorte)
1991
Shadow Boy by Susan E. Kirby (Orchard)
1990
Secret City, USA by Felice Holman (Scribner’s)
1989
Shades of Gray by Carolyn Reeder (Macmillan)
1988
The Most Beautiful Place in the World by Ann Cameron (Knopf)
December Stillness by Mary Downing Hahn (Clarion)
1987
Rabble Starkey by Lois Lowry (Houghton Mifflin)
1986
Journey to Jo’burg by Beverley Naidoo (Lippincott)
1985
With Westie and the Tin Man by C.S. Adler (Macmillan)
Special Citation
Ain’t Gonna Study War No More by Milton Meltzer (Harper & Row)
1984
One-Eyed Cat by Paula Fox (Bradbury)
1983
The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton Mifflin)
The Solomon System by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Atheneum)
1982
Homesick: My Own Story by Jean Fritz (Putnam)
1981
A Spirit to Ride the Whirlwind by Athena Lord (Macmillan)
1980
A Boat to Nowhere by Maureen C. Wartski (Westminster)
1979
The Whipman is Watching by T.A. Dyer (Houghton Mifflin)
1978
The Devil in Vienna by Doris Orgel (Dial)
1977
The Pinballs by Betsy Byars (Harper)
1976
Somebody Else’s Child by Roberta Silman (Warne)
1975
The Garden is Doing Fine by Carol Farley (Atheneum)
1974
Luke Was There by Eleanor Clymer (Holt/Rinehart & Winston)
1973
A Taste of Blackberries by Doris Buchanan Smith (T.Y. Crowell)
1972
A Sound of Chariots by Mollie Hunter (Harper)
1971
John Henry McCoy by Lillie D. Chafin (Macmillan)
Special Citation
The Pair of Shoes by Aline Glasgow (Dial)
1970
Rock Star by James Lincoln Collier (Four Winds)
Migrant Girl by Carli Laklan (McGraw-Hill)
1969
The Empty Moat by Margaretha Shemin (Coward-McCann)
1968
What It’s All About by Vadim Frolov (Doubleday)
Special Citation
Where Is Daddy? The Story About Divorce by Beth Goff (Beacon)
1967
The Contender by Robert Lipsyte (Harper)
1966
Queenie Peavy by Robert Burch (Viking)
Special Citation
Curious George Goes to the Hospital by Margaret and H.A. Rey (Houghton Mifflin)
1965
The Empty Schoolhouse by Natalie Savage Carlson (Harper)
1964
The High Pasture by Ruth Harnden (Houghton Mifflin)
1963
The Peaceable Revolution by Betty Schechter (Houghton Mifflin)
The Rock and the Willow by Mildred Lee (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard)
1962
The Trouble With Terry by John Lexau (Dial)
1961
The Road to Agra by Aimee Sommerfelt (Criterion)
The Girl From Puerto Rico by Hila Colman (Morrow)
1960
Janine by Robin McKown (Messner)
1959
Jennifer by Zoa Sherburne (Morrow)
1958
South Town by Lorenz Graham (Follett)
1957
Shadow Across the Campus by Helen R Sattler (Dodd Mead)
1956
The House of Sixty Fathers by Meindert de Jong (Harper)
1955
Plain Girl by Virginia Sorenson (Harcourt Brace & World)
Crow Boy by Taro Yashima (Viking)
1954
The Ordeal of the Young Hunter by Jonreed Lauritzen
(Little Brown)
High Road Home by William Corbin (Coward-McCann)
1953
In a Mirror by Mary Stolz (Harper)
1952
Jareb by Miriam Powell (T.Y. Crowell)
Twenty and Ten by Claire Huchet Bishop (Viking)
1951
No Award
1950
Partners: The United Nations and Youth by Eleanor Roosevelt & Helen Ferris (Doubleday)
1949
Paul Tiber: Forester by Maria Gleit (Scribner)
1948
The Big Wave by Pearl Buck (John Day)
1947
Judy’s Journey by Lois Lenski (Lippincott)
1946
Heart of Danger by Howard Pease (Doubleday)
1945
The Moved-Outers by Florence Cranell Means (Houghton Mifflin)
1944
The House by Margorie Hill Alee (Houghton Mifflin)
1943
Keystone Kids by John R Tunis (Harcourt, Brace & World)