Coretta Scott King Book Award Winners 1970 to Present
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The CSK Book Awards seal and award names are owned by the American Library Association.
The Coretta Scott King Awards are presented annually by the American Library Association to honor African-American authors and illustrators who create outstanding books for children and young adults. “… an excellent start on your quest for the best in African-American literature for children.”
The award was established in 1969 to recognize authors. In 1979 it was expanded to include a separate award for illustrators. There are now five categories for book awards; Author, Author Honor, Illustrator, Illustrator Honor, and the John Steptoe Award for New Talent.
These awards are given to commemorate the life and work of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and to honor Mrs. Coretta Scott King for her continuing efforts in working for peace and civil rights issues. In 2015 The Coretta Scott King Awards became part of the Youth Media Awards. Here is a printable list of all the award winning books.
You may learn more about this award at the American Library Association’s website. Also check out our list of Top 100+ Recommended African-American Children’s Books, some are also CSK Award winning titles.
7 Coretta Scott King Award Winning and Honored Books for 2006
Day of Tears
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Fiction, Paperback, 192 pages
Age Range: Middle Grade
Publisher: Disney Publishing Worldwide
ISBN: 9781423104094
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On March 2 and 3, 1859, the largest auction of slaves in American history took place in Savannah, Georgia. More than 400 slaves were sold. On the first day of the auction, the skies darkened and torrential rain began falling. The rain continued throughout the two days, stopping only when the auction had ended. The simultaneity of the rain storm with the auction led to these two days being called "the weeping time." Master storyteller Julius Lester has taken this footnote of history and created the crowning achievement of his literary career.
A Wreath for Emmett Till
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Fiction, Paperback, 48 pages
Age Range: Young Adult
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780547076362
A Coretta Scott King and Printz honor book now in paperback. A Wreath for Emmett Till is "A moving elegy," says The Bulletin.
In 1955 people all over the United States knew that Emmett Louis Till was a fourteen-year-old African American boy lynched for supposedly whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. The brutality of his murder, the open-casket funeral held by his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, and the acquittal of the men tried for the crime drew wide media attention. In a profound and chilling poem, award-winning poet Marilyn Nelson reminds us of the boy whose fate helped spark the civil rights movement.
Dark Sons
by Nikki Grimes
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Fiction, Prebound-Glued
Age Range: Young Adult
Publisher: Turtleback
ISBN: 9781663606419
A guy whose father ripped his heart out too.
You and me, Ishmael, we re brothers, two dark sons.
Destroyed, lost, and isolated, the perspectives of two teenage boys modern-day Sam, and biblical Ishmael unite over millennia to illustrate the power of forgiveness.
Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl
by Tonya Bolden
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Nonfiction, Hardcover, 48 pages
Age Range: Picture Book
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 9780810950450
This Coretta Scott King Honor Book provides a much-needed window into a little-documented time in black history. The poignant story, based on the memoir of Maritcha Rémond Lyons, shows what it was like to be a black child born free and living in New York City in the mid-1800s.
Rosa
by Nikki Giovanni, Illustrated by Bryan Collier
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Nonfiction, Paperback, 40 pages
Age Range: Picture Book
Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
ISBN: 9780312376024
Fifty years after her refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus, Mrs. Rosa Parks is still one of the most important figures in the American civil rights movement. This tribute to Mrs. Parks is a celebration of her courageous action and the events that followed.Award-winning poet, writer, and activist Nikki Giovanni s evocative text combines with Bryan Collier s striking cut-paper images to retell the story of this historic event from a wholly unique and original perspective.
Brothers In Hope
by Mary Williams, Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
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Fiction, Hardcover, 32 pages
Age Range: Picture Book
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
ISBN: 9781584302322
Eight-year-old Garang is tending cattle far from his family s home in southern Sudan when war comes to his villa
Jimi & Me
by Jaime Adoff
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Fiction, Paperback, 329 pages
Age Range: Middle Grade
Publisher: Jump At The Sun
ISBN: 9781423104001
After the sudden and violent death of his father, there remains only one certainty in Keith James s life: everything is going to be different now. Barely a month has passed, and Keith is being forced to move from big-city Brooklyn, New York, to small-town Hollow Falls, Ohio.
Keith enters the eighth grade at his new school, not surprised to find he s the only one with an Afro, a wardrobe straight out of the 60s, and a zealous appreciation of Jimi Hendrix, the greatest guitarist who ever lived. Struggling to start over, Keith finds comfort in Jimi s music, wisdom in his lyrics, and a connection to the man himself Jimi was a left-hander who loved to write music and poetry, just like Keith. Through the storm of his tragic loss, Keith begins to see the few rays of happiness in this tiny new town especially when the beautiful Veronica, long blond hair falling everywhere, looks his way.
Soon, however, Keith discovers there may be a journey even more painful than coming to peace with his father s death coming to peace with his father s life. As powerful secrets from his dad s past come to light, the man Keith once worshipped suddenly becomes the man he hardly knew. Everything is going to be different now.
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