Books On Tape

Awards & Recognition Your Ultimate Audiobook Guide to 2020 ALA Award Winners Submitted by Jennifer Rubins on February 21, 2020

Overwhelmed by awards news this year? Here’s the ultimate guide to make sure your audio offerings include the year’s top ALA Awards for kids and teens—that adults will love, too!
Click here to download the flyer!

*UPDATE* Watch the 2020 Odyssey Award Ceremony on ALA’s YouTube Page on June 28th, 2020 at 4:30 pm ET!

The Odyssey Awards celebrate the best audiobooks produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States. View our Odyssey post here.

The Notable Children’s Recordings list includes recordings for children 14 years of age and younger of especially commendable quality that demonstrate respect for young people’s intelligence and imagination; exhibit venturesome creativity; and reflect and encourage the interests of children and young adolescents in exemplary ways. View our ALSC post here.

Also includes our Odyssey Honors SONG FOR A WHALE and WE’RE NOT FROM HERE.

Each year, YALSA’s Amazing Audiobooks Blogging Team selects and annotates an annual list of notable audio recordings significant to young adults from those released in the past two years. View our YALSA post here.

Also includes our ALSC pick ROLLER GIRL, shown above!

The final juried list of thirteen titles highlights extraordinary narrators and listening experiences that merit special attention by a general adult audience and the librarians who advise them. Learn more about our picks here.

Also includes BECOMING, DAISY JONES & THE SIX, and NOTES FROM A YOUNG BLACK CHEF, already shown above.

The Schneider Family Book Awards honor an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.

The winners also include our Odyssey Honor, SONG FOR A WHALE, shown above.

WINNER

HONOR

The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are given annually to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values.

Honors also include TRISTAN STRONG PUNCHES A HOLE IN THE SKY, shown above!

HONOR

The award is named after Pura Belpré, the first Latina librarian at the New York Public Library. The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented annually to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.

WINNER

The first and most enduring award for GLBT books recognize books of exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience.

HONOR

YALSA’s Award for Excellence in Nonfiction honors the best nonfiction book published for young adults (ages 12-18).

HONOR

The Sydney Taylor Book Award recognizes the best in Jewish children’s literature. Medals are awarded annually for outstanding books that authentically portray the Jewish experience.

Gold medalists also include WHITE BIRD, shown above.

WINNER

HONOR

The Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement is named in memory of beloved children’s author Virginia Hamilton. In even years, the award is presented to an African American author, illustrator or author/illustrator for a body of his or her published books for children and/or young adults, and who has made a significant and lasting literary contribution.

Congratulations to author MILDRED D. TAYLOR!

The Margaret A. Edwards Award, established in 1988, honors an author, as well as a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.

Congratulations to author STEVE SHEINKIN!

The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.

Click here to view our ALA Award Winners collection which also allows you to download an excel of the titles.