Books On Tape

Your Ultimate Audiobook Guide to 2021 ALA Award Winners Submitted by Sydney Czech on February 5, 2021

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!

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 ALSC 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.”

Join us in celebrating the 11 outstanding Listening Library picks on our blog!

Check your collections for the 2021 YALSA Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults list! We are thrilled to celebrate our 31 winning BOT titles, including 28 Listening Library recordings and 2 adult audiobooks. Click here to view our YALSA winners.

The John Newbery Medal awards the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature. We are delighted to have both the Newbury Medal winner and honor on audio.

WINNER

HONOR

The Randolph Caldecott Medal is given to the most distinguished American picture book for children. We are honored to share our Caldecott Honor with you!

HONOR

The Michael L. Printz Award annually honors the best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit, each year. Encourage patrons to experience this year’s winner and honor titles on audio.

WINNER

HONOR

We’re thrilled to celebrate our 2021 RUSA Listen List Winners! As the committee explains on their page: “The final deliberation produced a list of 12 winners. This award highlights extraordinary narrators and listening experiences that merit special attention by a general adult audience and the librarians who advise them.” Click here to learn more about our 5 outstanding winners.

The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, established in 2012, recognize the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. in the previous year and serve as a guide to help adults select quality reading material. They are the first single-book awards for adult books given by the American Library Association and reflect the expert judgment and insight of library professionals who work closely with adult readers.  Encourage patrons to experience this year’s fiction winner on audio!

In addition to our Odyssey Honor, WHEN STARS ARE SCATTERED being named the Schneider Family Book Award Honor for Middle Grade, we are thrilled to recognize another honor on audio that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience.

Coretta Scott King Book Awards recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults.

The Stonewall Book Award – Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award is given annually to English-language children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience.

HONOR

The goal of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature is to honor and recognize individual work about Asian/Pacific Americans and their heritage, based on literary and artistic merit.

WINNER

HONOR

The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18. Don’t miss this enthralling listen on audio!

The Children’s Literature Legacy Award 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 through books that demonstrate integrity and respect for all children’s lives and experiences. Congratulations to Mildred D. Taylor for this win! Click here to view a collection of titles by Mildred D. Taylor.