Children’s Book Committee

Past Winners

Children’s Book Committee Awards 2023

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
Josette Frank 2023		 Choosing Brave
Flora Stieglitz Straus 2023		 Augusta Savage: The Shape of a Sculptor's Life
Claudia Lewis 2023

Josette Frank Award
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys (Penguin Young Readers Group).

Flora Stieglitz Straus Award
Choosing Brave: How Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Sparked a Civil Rights Movement by Angela Joy; illustrated by Janelle Washington (Roaring Brook Press).

Claudia Lewis Award
Augusta Savage: The Shape of a Sculptor’s Life by Marilyn Nelson (Christy Ottaviano Books; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers).

Past Award Winners 1943-2023

  • 2020s

    Children’s Book Committee Awards 2020 – 2029


    Josette Frank
    (younger readers) 2022
    Josette Frank
    (older readers) 2022
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2022
    Claudia Lewis 2022

    Josette Frank
    2021
    Flora Stieglitz Straus
    (older readers)
    2021
    Flora Stieglitz Straus
    (younger readers)
    2021
    Claudia Lewis
    (older readers) 2021
    Claudia Lewis
    (younger readers)
    2021
    When the Ground is Hard
    Josette Frank 2020
    Flora Stieglitz Straus
    (co-recipient) 2020
    Flora Stieglitz Straus
    (co-recipient) 2020
    Claudia Lewis 2020
  • 2010s

    Children’s Book Committee Awards 2010 – 2019

    A Heart in a Body in the World
    Josette Frank 2019    		 Just Mercy
    Flora Stieglitz Straus
    (older readers) 2019
    		 Dreamers
    Flora Stieglitz Straus
    (younger readers) 2019    		 They Call Me Güero
    Claudia Lewis 2019
    Piecing me together
    Josette Frank 2018
    		 Hawk Mother
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2018
    		 One last word
    Claudia Lewis 2018
    The secret life of Lincoln JOnes
    Josette Frank 2017    		 March: Book three
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2017
    (older readers)
    		 Sachiko: A Nagasaki bomb survivor story
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2017
    (older readers)
    		 Ada's violin
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2017
    (younger readers)    		 When green becomes tomatoes
    Claudia Lewis 2017
    The war that saved my life
    Josette Frank 2016    		 voice of freedom: Fannie Lou Hammer
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2016    		 My Seneca village
    Claudia Lewis 2016
    I'll give you the sun
    Josette Frank 2015
    (older readers)
    		 Rain reign
    Josette Frank 2015
    (younger readers)
    		 Beyond Magenta transgender teens speak out
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2015
    		 Brown girl dreaming
    Claudia Lewis 2015
    (older readers)
    		 Winter bees and other poems of the cold
    Claudia Lewis 2015
    (younger readers)
    Rose under fire
    Josette Frank 2014    		 Brave girl: Clara and the shirtwaist makers's strike
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2014    		 What the heart knows: chants, charms, blessings
    Claudia Lewis 2014
    Wonder (R.J. Palacio)
    Josette Frank 2013    		 Beyond Courage
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2013    		 National Geographic book of animal poetry
    Claudia Lewis 2013
    Bluefish
    Josette Frank 2012    		 Flesh and blood so cheap
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2012
    (older readers)
    		 Balloons over Broadway
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2012
    (younger readers)
    		 The watch that ends the night
    Claudia Lewis 2012
    (older readers)
    		 Emma dilemma: big sister poems
    Claudia Lewis 2012
    (younger readers)
    Out of my mind
    Josette Frank 2011    		 Sit in: how four friends stood up by sitting down
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2011    		 Guyku: a year of haiku for boys
    Claudia Lewis 2011
    The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
    Josette Frank 2010    		 Where the mountain meets the moon
    Special Citation 2010
    		 Almost astronauts 13 women who dared to read
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2010    		 Moonshot the flight of apollo 11
    Special Citation 2010    		 Red sings from the tree tops
    Claudia Lewis 2010
  • 2000s

    Children’s Book Committee Awards 2000 – 2009

    After Tupac and D Foster
    Josette Frank 2009    		 The Lincolns a scrapbook look at Abraham and Mary
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2009    		 The Surrender Tree
    Claudia Lewis 2009
    Home of the brave
    Josette Frank 2008    		 Ballerina dreams
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2008
    		 Who was first discovering the Americas
    Special Citation 2008    		 Here's a little poem
    Claudia Lewis 2008    		 This is just to say
    Special Citation 2008
    Clementine
    Josette Frank 2007    		 The Manny files
    Special Citation 2007    		 Freedom walkers: the story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2007

    Josette Frank 2006    		 Gorilla doctors saving endangered apes
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2006    		 A kick in the head an everyday guide to poetic forms
    Claudia Lewis 2006
    Ida B: and her plans to maximize fun, avoid disaster...
    Josette Frank 2005    		 The Librarian of Basra
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2005
    		 The race to save the Lord God bird
    Special Citation 2005    		 Here in Harlem
    Claudia Lewis 2005    		 Hummingbird nest
    Special Citation 2005
    The Goose Girl
    Josette Frank 2004    		 Hana's suitcase
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2004
    		 Moon have you met my mother?
    Lifetime Achievement Award
    		 The way a door closes
    Claudia Lewis 2004    		 Yesterday I had the blues
    Special Citation 2004
    Goddess of yesterday
    Josette Frank 2003    		 Jericho walls
    Special Citation 2003
    		 No more! Stories and songs of slave resistance
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2003    		 When Marian sang
    Special Citation 2003
    		 Little Dog and Duncan
    Claudia Lewis 2003
    Amber was brave, Essie was smart
    Josette Frank 2002    		 Love that dog: a novel
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2002    		 Carver a life in poems
    Claudia Lewis 2002
    Because of Winn-Dixie
    Josette Frank 2001    		 Ida B. Wells: Mother of the civil rights movement
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2001    		 Mammalabilia
    Claudia Lewis 2001
    Figuring out Frances
    Josette Frank 2000    		 Through my eyes
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 2000    		 Stop pretending what happened when my big sister went crazy
    Claudia Lewis 2000
  • 1990s

    Children’s Book Committee Awards 1990 – 1999

    My Louisana Sky
    Josette Frank 1998    		 Iqbal Masih and the Crusaders Against Child Slavery
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 1998
    		 I Too Sing America
    Claudia Lewis 1998    		 No Turning Back
    Josette Frank 1997
    Oh, Freedom
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 1997    		 The Invisible Ladder
    Claudia Lewis 1997
    		 The Cuckoo's Child
    Josette Frank 1996    		 Music From a Place Called Half Moon
    Josette Frank 1995
    The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963
    Special Citation 1995
    		 Parallel Journeys
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 1995    		 Earthshine
    Josette Frank 1994    		 Make Lemonade
    Josette Frank 1993
    Eleanor Roosevelt Life of Discovery
    Flora Stieglitz Straus 1993
    		 Blue Skin of the Sea
    Josette Frank 1992
    		 Shadow Boy
    Josette Frank 1991    		 Secret City , USA
    Josette Frank 1990
  • 1980s

    The Josette Frank Award 1980 – 1989

    Shades of Gray
    1989    		 The Most Beautiful Place in the World
    1988
    		 December Stillness
    Special Citation 1988    		 Rabble Starkey
    1987
    Journey to Jo'burg
    1986    		 Ain't Gonna Study War No More
    Special Citation 1985
    		 One-Eyed Cat
    1984    		 Sign of the Beaver
    1983
    The Solomon System
    Special Citation 1983    		 Homesick: My Own Story
    1982
    		 A Spirit to Ride the Whirlwind
    1981    		 A Boat to Nowhere
    1980

    1985

    With Westie and the Tin Man by C.S. Adler (Macmillan)

  • 1970s

    The Josette Frank Award 1970 – 1979

    The Whipman is Watching
    1979    		 The Devil in Vienna
    1978
    		 The Pinballs
    1977    		 Somebody Else's Child
    1976
    The Garden is Doing Fine
    1975    		 luke Was there
    1974
    		 A Taste of Blackberries
    1973    		 A Sound of Chariots
    1972
    John Henry McCoy
    1971    		 The Pair of Shoes
    Special Citation 1971
    		 Rock Star
    1970    		 Migrant Girl
    Special Citation 1970
  • 1960s

    The Josette Frank Award 1961 – 1969

    What's It All About
    1968    		 Where Is Daddy? The Story of a Divorce
    Special Citation 1968
    		 The Contender
    1967    		 Queenie Peavy
    1966
    CuriousGeorge Goes to Hospital
    Special Citation 1966    		 The Empty Schoolhouse
    1965
    		 The High Pasture
    1964    		 The Peaceful Revolution
    1963
    The Rock and the Willow
    Special Citation 1963    		 The Trouble With Terry
    1962
    		 The Road to Agra
    1961    		 The Girl From Puerto Rico
    Special Citation 1961

    1969

    The Empty Moat by Margaretha Shemin (Coward-McCann)

    1960

    Janine by Robin McKown (Messner)

  • 1950s

    The Josette Frank Award 1950 – 1959

    Jennifer
    1959    		 South Town
    1958    		 The House of Sixty Fathers
    1956
    Plain Girl
    1955
    1955    		 In a Mirror
    1953
    Jareb
    1952    		 Twenty and Ten
    1952    		 Partners: United Nations and Youth
    1950

    1957

    Shadow Across the Campus by Helen R Sattler (Dodd Mead)

    1954

    The Ordeal of the Young Hunter by Jonreed Lauritzen
    (Little Brown)

    High Road Home by William Corbin (Coward-McCann)

    1951

    No Award

  • 1940s

    The Josette Frank Award 1943 – 1949

    Paul Tiber: Forester
    1949
    1948    		 Judy's Journey
    1947    		 Heart of Danger
    1946
    The Moved Outers
    1945    		 The House
    1944    		 Keystone Kids
    1943