On Monday, February 12, in Denver, Dr. Claudette McLinn, Chair of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee, rose from her seat at the dais to announce the 2018 Coretta Scott King Book Awards. The crowd erupted as the following awards were announced:
The Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement: Eloise Greenfield
The Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Author Award for New Talent: David Barclay Moore for The Stars Beneath Our Feet (Alfred A. Knopf)
The Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Illustrator Award for New Talent: Charly Palmer for Mama Africa!: How Miriam Makeba Spread Hope with Her Song (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Coretta Scott King Book Awards Illustrator Honor Book: Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut, illustrated by Gordon C. James and written by Derrick Barnes (Bolden, an Agate Imprint, a Denene Millner Book)
Coretta Scott King Book Awards Illustrator Honor Book: Before She Was Harriet: The Story of Harriet Tubman, illustrated by James E. Ransome and written by Lesa Cline-Ransome (Holiday House)
Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award: Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets, illustrated by Euka Holmes, written by Kwame Alexander with Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth (Candlewick)
Coretta Scott King Book Awards Author Honor Book: Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut, written by Derrick Barnes and illustrated by Gordon C. James (Bolden, an Agate Imprint, a Denene Millner Book)
Coretta Scott King Book Awards Author Honor Book: Long Way Down, written by Jason Reynolds (Atheneum, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, a Caitlyn Dlouhy Book)
Coretta Scott King Book Awards Author Honor Book: The Hate U Give, written by Angela Thomas (Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)
Coretta Scott King Author Award: Piecing Me Together, written by Renée Watson (Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books)
In addition, CSK Award-winning author Angela Johnson was the recipient of the YALSA 2018 Margaret A. Edwards Award honoring significant and lasting contribution to writing for teens
CSK Award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson received the ALSC 2018 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award which honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children
Many thanks to the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Jury: Kacie Armstrong, Jessica Anne Bratt, LaKeshia Darden, Dr. Sujin Bernadette Huggins, Erica Marks, Martha Parravano, and Sam Bloom (Chair)
Many thanks to the CSK-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement Award Jury: Therese G. Bigelow, Patricia Ann Carleton, Dr. Rosalie B. Kiah (not pictured), Ida W. Thompson, and Deborah Denise Taylor (Chair)
Post by Susan Polos
Susan Polos works as a school librarian in Bedford, NY. She is Chair of the CSK Book Awards Technology Committee.