Coretta Scott King Author Award

The Coretta Scott King Author Award is presented annually to outstanding African American authors of books for children and young adults that demonstrate appreciation of African American culture and universal human values.

160 books

2026

4 books

Will's Race for Home

Jewell Parker Rhodes

Split the Sky

Marie Arnold

The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze

Derrick Barnes

The Library in the Woods

Calvin Alexander Ramsey, R. Gregory Christie

2025

4 books

Twenty-Four Seconds from Now . . .: A LOVE Story

Jason Reynolds

Black Girl You Are Atlas

Renée Watson, Ekua Holmes

Black Star

Kwame Alexander

One Big Open Sky

Lesa Cline-Ransome

2024

4 books

Nigeria Jones

Ibi Zoboi

Big

Vashti Harrison

How Do You Spell Unfair?: MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee

Carole Boston Weatherford, Frank Morrison

Kin: Rooted in Hope

Carole Boston Weatherford, Jeffery Boston Weatherford

2023

3 books

Freewater

Amina Luqman-Dawson

Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler

Ibi Zoboi

Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice

Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, Dawud Anyabwile

2022

3 books

Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre

Carole Boston Weatherford, Floyd Cooper

Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People

Kekla Magoon

The People Remember

Ibi Zoboi, Loveis Wise

2021

3 books

Before the Ever After

Jacqueline Woodson

All the Days Past, All the Days to Come

Mildred D. Taylor

Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box

Evette Dionne

2020

2 books

New Kid: A Story About Fitting In, School Diversity, and Friendship

Jerry Craft

The Stars and the Blackness Between Them

Junauda Petrus, Bahni Turpin

2019

3 books

A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 – A Coretta Scott King Award Winner on Black History and Urban Violence

Claire Hartfield

The Parker Inheritance

Varian Johnson

The Season of Styx Malone

Kekla Magoon

2018

3 books

Piecing Me Together

Renée Watson

Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut

Derrick Barnes, Gordon C. James

Long Way Down

Jason Reynolds

2017

3 books

March: Book Three

John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell

As Brave As You

Jason Reynolds

Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life by Ashley Bryan

Ashley Bryan

2016

4 books

Gone Crazy in Alabama: A Coretta Scott King Award-Winning Novel About Three African American Sisters in the 1960s South for Kids

Rita Williams-Garcia

The Boy in the Black Suit

Jason Reynolds

All American Boys

Jason Reynolds, Brendan Kiely

X: A Novel

Ilyasah Shabazz, Kekla Magoon

2015

4 books

Brown Girl Dreaming

Jacqueline Woodson

How I Discovered Poetry

Marilyn Nelson

How It Went Down

Kekla Magoon

The Crossover Tie-in Edition: A Newbery Award Winner―A Slam-Dunk Sports Book for Boys and Girls Ages 8-12

Kwame Alexander, Dawud Anyabwile

2014

4 books

P.S. Be Eleven: A Coretta Scott King Award Winner About Three Sisters and Family in 1960s America for Kids

Rita Williams-Garcia

March: Book One

John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell

Darius & Twig

Walter Dean Myers

Words with Wings

Nikki Grimes

2013

2 books

Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America

Andrea Pinkney, Brian Pinkney

Each Kindness

Jacqueline Woodson, E. B. Lewis

2012

3 books

Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans

Kadir Nelson

Never Forgotten

Patricia C. McKissack

The Great Migration: Journey to the North

Eloise Greenfield, Jan Spivey Gilchrist

2011

3 books

One Crazy Summer: A Newbery Honor Winner―A Moving Novel About Family, Activism, and Self-Discovery in 1960s America―An Exciting Summer Reading Book for Children

Rita Williams-Garcia

Ninth Ward

Jewell Parker Rhodes

Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty

G. Neri, Randy Duburke

2010

2 books

Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal

Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, R. Gregory Christie

Mare's War

Tanita S. Davis

2009

3 books

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball

Kadir Nelson

Keeping the Night Watch

Hope Anita Smith, E. B. Lewis

Becoming Billie Holiday

Carole Boston Weatherford, Floyd Cooper

2008

2 books

Elijah of Buxton

Christopher Paul Curtis

November Blues

Sharon M. Draper

2007

2 books

Copper Sun

Sharon M. Draper

The Road to Paris

Nikki Grimes

2006

3 books

Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue

Julius Lester

A Wreath for Emmett Till: A Printz Award Winner

Marilyn Nelson, Philippe Lardy

Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl

Tonya Bolden

2005

4 books

Remember: The Journey to School Integration (Bccb Blue Ribbon Nonfiction Book Award (Awards))

Toni Morrison

Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem

Marilyn Nelson

The Legend of Buddy Bush

Shelia P. Moses

Who Am I Without Him?

Sharon Flake

2004

3 books

The First Part Last

Angela Johnson

Locomotion

Jacqueline Woodson

The Battle of Jericho

Sharon M. Draper

2003

3 books

Bronx Masquerade

Nikki Grimes

Talkin' About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman

Nikki Grimes, E. B. Lewis

The Red Rose Box

Brenda Woods

2002

2 books

The Land

Mildred D. Taylor

Carver: A Life in Poems

Marilyn Nelson

2001

4 books

Miracle's Boys

Jacqueline Woodson

Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters

Andrea Davis Pinkney, Stephen Alcorn

Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth

Anne Rockwell, R. Gregory Christie

Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys

Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard, E.B. Lewis

2000

4 books

Bud, Not Buddy

Christopher Paul Curtis

Black Hands, White Sails

Patricia C. McKissack, Fredrick McKissack

Francie

Karen English

Monster

Walter Dean Myers

1999

3 books

Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence: The Story of New York's African Burial Ground

Joyce Hansen

Jazmin's Notebook

Nikki Grimes

The Other Side: Shorter Poems

Angela Johnson

1998

2 books

Forged by Fire

Sharon M. Draper, Thomas Penny, Recorded Books

Bayard Rustin: Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movement

James Haskins

1997

2 books

Slam!

Walter Dean Myers

Rebels Against Slavery: American Slave Revolts

Patricia C McKissack, Fredrick L McKissack

1996

3 books

From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun

Jacqueline Woodson

Like Sisters on the Homefront

Rita Williams-Garcia

The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963

Christopher Paul Curtis

1995

3 books

Black Diamond: The Story of the Negro Baseball Leagues

Patricia C. McKissack, Fredrick McKissack

I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This

Jacqueline Woodson

The Captive

Joyce Hansen

1994

2 books

Toning The Sweep

Angela Johnson

Malcom X By Any Means Necessary

Walter Dean Myers

1993

3 books

Mississippi Challenge

Mildred Pitts Walter

Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman?

Patricia C. McKissack, Fredrick McKissack

Somewhere in the Darkness

Walter Dean Myers

1992

1 book

Night on Neighborhood Street

Eloise Greenfield, Jan Spivey Gilchrist

1991

1 book

Black Dance in America: A History Through Its People

James Haskins

1990

3 books

A Long Hard Journey: The Story of the Pullman Porter

Pat McKissack, Fredrick McKissack

Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Freedom Movement

Lillie Patterson

Nathaniel Talking

Eloise Greenfield

1989

3 books

Fallen Angels

Walter Dean Myers, JD Jackson, Recorded Books

A Thief in the Village and Other Stories

James Berry

Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave

Virginia Hamilton

1988

2 books

The Friendship

Mildred D. Taylor, Max Ginsburg

An Enchanted Hair Tale

Alexis De Veaux

1987

3 books

Lion and the ostrich chicks, and other African folk tales

Ashley Bryan

Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Freedom Movement

Lillie Patterson

Which Way Freedom?: The Coretta Scott King Honor Book About an Enslaved Young Man's Daring Escape for Kids (Obi and Easter Trilogy (Paperback))

Joyce Hansen

1986

3 books

The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales

Virginia Hamilton, Leo Dillon, Diane Dillon Ph.D.

Junius over far

Virginia Hamilton

Trouble's Child

Mildred Pitts Walter

1985

3 books

Motown and Didi

Walter Dean Myers

A Little Love

Virginia Hamilton

Circle of Gold

Candy Dawson Boyd

1984

5 books

Everett Anderson's Goodbye

Lucille Clifton, Ann Grifalconi

Because We Are

Mildred Pitts Walter

Bright Shadow

Joyce Carol Thomas

Lena Horne

James Haskins

THE MAGICAL ADVENTURES OF PRETTY PEARL.

Virginia. Hamilton

1983

1 book

This Strange New Feeling

Julius Lester

1982

3 books

Let the Circle Be Unbroken

Mildred D. Taylor

Lou in the Limelight

Kristin Hunter Lattany, Kristin Hunter

Rainbow Jordan

Alice Childress

1981

2 books

This Life

Sidney Poitier

Don't Explain: A Song of Billie Holiday

Alexis De Veaux

1980

4 books

The Young Landlords

Walter Dean Myers

Andrew Young, Man With a Mission

James Haskins

Childtimes: A Three-Generation Memoir

Eloise Greenfield, Lessie Jones Little, Jerry Pinkney

Pop Gordy Tells His Story: Movin' Up

Berry Gordy

1979

2 books

Escape to Freedom

Ossie Davis

Benjamin Banneker, Genius of Early America

Lillie Patterson

1978

3 books

Coretta Scott King

Lillie Patterson

Marvin and Tige

Frankcina Glass

Portia: The Life of Portia Washington Pittman, the Daughter of Booker t Washington

Ruth Ann Stewart

1977

4 books

The Story of Stevie Wonder

James Haskins

Everett Anderson's Friend

Lucille Clifton, Ann Grifalconi

Quiz Book on Black America

Clarence N. Blake

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Mildred D. Taylor, Lynne Thigpen, Jacqueline Woodson, Listening Library

1976

5 books

Duey's Tale

Pearl Bailey

Fast Sam, Cool Clyde, and Stuff

Walter Dean Myers

Julius K. Nyerere: Teacher of Africa

Shirley Graham Du Bois

Paul Robeson

Eloise Greenfield, George Ford

Song of the Trees

Mildred D. Taylor, Allyson Johnson, Listening Library

1974

3 books

Ray Charles

Sharon Bell Mathis, George Ford

A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich

Alice Childress

Ms. Africa: Profiles of Modern African Women

Louise Crane

1971

6 books

The Ebony Book of Black Achievement

Margaret Peters

I am a Black woman

Mari Evans

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou, Oprah Winfrey

Mary Jo's Grandmother

Janice May Udry

The Voice of the Children

Terri Bush, June Jordan

Unbought and Unbossed

Shirley Chisholm

1970

1 book

Martin Luther King Jr.: Man of Peace

Lillie Patterson

More awards

Browse the rest of the awards collection.

Newbery

165 titles

Given to the most distinguished contribution to American children's literature, awarded annually by the ALA since 1922.

The Undefeated: A Powerful Poem Celebrating Strength and Black Excellence for Children

Splendors and Glooms (Booklist Editor's Choice. Books for Youth (Awards))

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village

Sibert

67 titles

Recognizes the most distinguished informational book for children published in the U.S., honoring nonfiction excellence.

Choosing Brave: How Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Sparked the Civil Rights Movement

Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement

Pura Belpré

64 titles

Celebrates Latino/Latina writers and illustrators whose work best portrays and affirms the Latino cultural experience.

Ezra Jack Keats

53 titles

Nurtures emerging authors and illustrators creating extraordinary books that reflect diverse childhood experiences.

Theodor Seuss Geisel

Honors the most distinguished American book for beginning readers, named after the beloved Dr. Seuss.

No books yet

Caldecott

375 titles

Awarded to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children, given annually by the ALA.