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ILA
The Social Justice Literature Award
 |
ILA’s
Literacy and Social Responsibility Special Interest Group (L-SR SIG)
is pleased to announce the 2023 winners of The Social Justice Book Award, presented first in 2013 (all winning titles are listed below). This year Honor books were named in addition to the winning title in each of the four categories. Click on the winning title in each group to find links to the books, authors, illustrators, publishers, plus
• images of the book jackets and
• additional recommended titles
The award committee members are listed at the bottom of the linked page.
This award is presented to honor books that address social responsibility towards individuals, communities, societies, and/or the environment as well as invite reflection and socially responsible action by the reader. Criteria for book selection as well as the selection process are included at the bottom of this page.
The inaugural committee was co-chaired by Carolyn Cook, Kenny Fasching-Varner, and Aimee Rogers. See our Leadership section to identify chairs for the next award cycle. The winning books have also been recognized at the ILA’s annual conference as part of the L-SR SIG Program when the convention has been held.
| Recipients | |
|---|---|
| 2023 | Fiction Picturebook Winner:
Fiction Winner:
Nonfiction Picturebook Winner:
Nonfiction Winner:
|
| 2022 | Fiction Picturebook: Fiction: Nonfiction Picturebook: Nonfiction (2 winners): Good Girls Don't Make History by Elizabeth Kiehner, creator and author; Keith Olwell, creator; Kara Doyle, author; Micaela Dawn, illustrator, and Mary Sanche, illustrator (Wise Eyed Editiions / Quarto) |
| 2021 | Fiction Picturebook (2 winners): Lulu and the Hunger Monster by Erik Talkin, author, and Sheryl Murray, illustrator (Free Spirit Publishing) Fiction: Nonfiction Picturebook (2 winners): Sometimes People March by Tessa Allen, author and illustrator (HarperCollins Publishers) Nonfiction:
|
| 2020 | Fiction Picturebook: Fiction (2 winners): Take the Mic edited by Bethany C. Morrow and art by Richie Pope (Arthur A. LevineBooks, an imprint of Scholastic) Nonfiction Picturebook: Nonfiction: |
|
|
Fiction Picturebook: |
| 2018 | Fiction Picturebook: The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quietby Carmen Agra Deedy, illustrated by Eugene Yelchin (Scholastic Press) Fiction Novel: Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu (Roaring Brook) Nonfiction Picturebook: Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston, illustrated by Eric Velasquez (Candlewick Press) Nonfiction: Fred Korematsu Speaks Upby Laura Atkins and Stan Yogi, illustrated by Yutaka Houlette (Heyday) |
| 2017 | Fiction Picturebook: Splashdance by Liz Starin (Farrar Strau Giroux) Fiction Novel: Book Uncle and Me by Uma Krishnaswami (Groundwood Books) Nonfiction Picturebook: Growing Peace: A Story of Farming, Music, and Religious Harmony by Richard Sobol (Lee & Low Books Inc.) Nonfiction: Blood Brother: Jonathan Daniels and His Sacrifice for Civil Rights by Rich Wallace and Sandra Neil Wallace (Calkins Creek) |
| 2016 | Nonfiction: Fiction: |
| 2015 | Nonfiction: Fiction: Voices from the March on Washingtonby J. Patrick Lewis and George Ella Lyon (Lucky Sky Press) |
| 2014 | The Garden of My Imannby Farhana Zia (Peachtree) Razia's Ray of Hope: One Girl's Dream of an Education by Elizabeth Suneby and illustrated by Suana Verelst (Kids Can Press) Looks Like Daylight: Voices of Indigenous Kidsby Deborah Ellis (Groundwood Books) |
| 2013 | The House on Dirty-Third Street by Jo Kittinger and illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez (Peachtree) Summer on the Moon by Adrian Fogelin (Peachtree) |
A committee ofSIG members who are education and literature professionals select the books. Letters are sent to publishers to submit books that meet the criteria. Members read and vote on the books. The top books are discussed electronically and a final vote is taken, with no more than 10% of the total books submitted for consideration in a given year selected annually. Interested individuals may submit suggestions for a book to be considered, and the nomination is complete when the publisher sends copies to each member of the committee.
Selected books include picture books and non-picture books, with poetry, narrative, and nonfiction titles appropriate for each category. Books selected for a given year must be published in the United States by the end of the preceeding year (so 2024 books are published in 2023). They must meet the following criteria:
- Strong Literary and Artistic Qualities, including but not limited to:
- Fostering respect and understanding of a diverse population
- Promoting equity, justice, peace, and/or social responsibility
- Presenting social issues in their complexity
- Addressing social responsibility towards individuals, communities, societies, and/or the environment
- Reader Response:
- Appealing to the intended audience
- Inviting reflection and socially responsible action by the reader
- Analyzing causes of injustice and revealing alternatives and/or challenges to the injustice, opening the imagination to other possibilities
©
The Literacy and Social Responsibility SIG of the International Literacy
Association
(ILA L-SR SIG)
Kaye West, Ph.D., Website Manager
Date Modified:
October 20, 2023
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