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.
9 Coretta Scott King Award Winning and Honored Books for 2021
Before the Ever After
National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson s stirring novel explores how a family moves forward when their glory days have passed. For as long as ZJ can remember, his dad has been everyone s hero. As a charming, talented pro football star, he s as beloved to the neighborhood kids he plays with as he is to his millions of adoring sports fans. But lately life at ZJ s house is anything but charming. His dad is having trouble remembering things and seems to be angry all the time. ZJ s mom explains it s because of all the head injuries his dad sustained during his career. ZJ can understand that but it doesn t make the sting any less real when his own father forgets his name. As ZJ contemplates his new reality, he has to figure out how to hold on tight to family traditions and recollections of the glory days, all the while wondering what their past amounts to if his father can t remember it. And most importantly, can those happy feelings ever be reclaimed when they are all so busy aching for the past?
All the Days Past, All the Days to Come
The saga of the Logan family made famous in the Newbery Medal-winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry concludes in a long-awaited and deeply fulfilling story. In her tenth book, Mildred Taylor completes her sweeping saga about the Logan family of Mississippi, which is also the story of the civil rights movement in America of the 20th century. Cassie Logan, first met in Song of the Trees and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, is a young woman now, searching for her place in the world, a journey that takes her from Toledo to California, to law school in Boston, and, ultimately, in the 60s, home to Mississippi for voter registration. She is witness to the now-historic events of the century: the Great Migration north, the rise of the movement, preceded and precipitated by the racist society of America, and the often violent confrontations that brought about change. Rich, compelling storytelling is Ms. Taylor s hallmark, and she fulfills expectations as she brings to a close the stirring family story that has absorbed her for over forty years. It is a story she was born to tell.
King and the Dragonflies
In a small but turbulent Louisiana town, one boy s grief takes him beyond the bayous of his backyard, to learn that there is no right way to be yourself.
Twelve-year-old Kingston James is sure his brother Khalid has turned into a dragonfly. When Khalid unexpectedly passed away, he shed what was his first skin for another to live down by the bayou in their small Louisiana town. Khalid still visits in dreams, and King must keep these secrets to himself as he watches grief transform his family.
It would be easier if King could talk with his best friend, Sandy Sanders. But just days before he died, Khalid told King to end their friendship, after overhearing a secret about Sandy-that he thinks he might be gay. "You don t want anyone to think you re gay too, do you?"
But when Sandy goes missing, sparking a town-wide search, and King finds his former best friend hiding in a tent in his backyard, he agrees to help Sandy escape from his abusive father, and the two begin an adventure as they build their own private paradise down by the bayou and among the dragonflies. As King s friendship with Sandy is reignited, he s forced to confront questions about himself and the reality of his brother s death.
The Thing About Jellyfish meets The Stars Beneath Our Feet in this story about loss, grief, and finding the courage to discover one s identity, from the author of Hurricane Child.
Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box
For African American women, the fight for the right to vote was only one battle. An eye-opening book that tells the important, overlooked story of black women as a force in the suffrage movement when fellow suffragists did not accept them as equal partners in the struggle. Susan B. Anthony. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Alice Paul. The Women s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls. The 1913 Women s March in D.C. When the epic story of the suffrage movement in the United States is told, the most familiar leaders, speakers at meetings, and participants in marches written about or pictured are generally white. That s not the real story. Women of color, especially African American women, were fighting for their right to vote and to be treated as full, equal citizens of the United States. Their battlefront wasn t just about gender. African American women had to deal with white abolitionist-suffragists who drew the line at sharing power with their black sisters. They had to overcome deep, exclusionary racial prejudices that were rife in the American suffrage movement. And they had to maintain their dignity and safety in a society that tried to keep them in its bottom ranks. Lifting as We Climb is the empowering story of African American women who refused to accept all this. Women in black church groups, black female sororities, black women s improvement societies and social clubs. Women who formed their own black suffrage associations when white-dominated national suffrage groups rejected them. Women like Mary Church Terrell, a founder of the National Association of Colored Women and of the NAACP; or educator-activist Anna Julia Cooper who championed women getting the vote and a college education; or the crusading journalist Ida B. Wells, a leader in both the suffrage and anti-lynching movements. Author Evette Dionne, a feminist culture writer and the editor-in-chief of Bitch Media, has uncovered an extraordinary and underrepresented history of black women. In her powerful book, she draws an important historical line from abolition to suffrage to civil rights to contemporary young activists filling in the blanks of the American suffrage story. ★"Dionne provides a detailed and comprehensive look at the overlooked roles African American women played in the efforts to end slavery and then to secure the right to vote for women." Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Respect: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul
by Carole Boston Weatherford, Illustrated by Frank Morrison
From a creative team with multiple Caldecott Honors comes this vibrant portrait of Aretha Franklin that pays her the R-E-S-P-E-C-T this Queen of Soul deserves. Aretha Franklin was born to sing. The daughter of a pastor and a gospel singer, her musical talent was clear from her earliest days in her father s Detroit church where her soaring voice spanned more than three octaves. Her string of hit songs earned her the title "the Queen of Soul," multiple Grammy Awards, and a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But Aretha didn t just raise her voice in song, she also spoke out against injustice and fought for civil rights. This authoritative, rhythmic picture book biography will captivate young readers with Aretha s inspiring story.
Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks
by Suzanne Slade, Illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera
A picture-book biography of celebrated poet Gwendolyn Brooks, the first Black person to win the Pulitzer Prize Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) is known for her poems about "real life." She wrote about love, loneliness, family, and poverty showing readers how just about anything could become a beautiful poem. Exquisite follows Gwendolyn from early girlhood into her adult life, showcasing her desire to write poetry from a very young age. This picture-book biography explores the intersections of race, gender, and the ubiquitous poverty of the Great Depression all with a lyrical touch worthy of the subject. Gwendolyn Brooks was named the poet laureate of Illinois in 1958. A bold artist who from a very young age dared to dream, Brooks will inspire young readers to create poetry from their own lives.
Magnificent Homespun Brown: A Celebration
by Samara Cole Doyon, Illustrated by Kaylani Juanita
Kirkus Starred Review
PW Starred Review
School Library Journal Starred Review
"The definition of brown joy. THESE are the normalizations in stories that we need, unadulterated Black and Brown joy full of self-esteem and confidence " the tiny activist
Told by a succession of exuberant young narrators, Magnificent Homespun Brown is a story a song, a poem, a celebration about feeling at home in one s own beloved skin.
Me & Mama
by Cozbi A. Cabrera, Illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera
Mama s love is brighter than the sun, even on the rainiest of days. This celebration of a mother-daughter relationship is perfect for sharing with little ones! On a rainy day when the house smells like cinnamon and Papa and Luca are still asleep, when the clouds are wearing shadows and the wind paints the window with beads of water, I want to be everywhere Mama is. With lyrical prose and a tender touch, Mama and Me is an ode to the strength of the bond between a mother and a daughter as they spend a rainy day together.
Legendborn
by Tracy Deonn
Filled with mystery and an intriguingly rich magic system, Tracy Deonn s YA contemporary fantasy Legendborn offers the dark allure of City of Bones with a modern-day twist on a classic legend and a lot of Southern Black Girl Magic.
After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC-Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.
A flying demon feeding on human energies.
A secret society of so called "Legendborn" students that hunt the creatures down.
And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a "Merlin" and who attempts and fails to wipe Bree s memory of everything she saw.
The mage s failure unlocks Bree s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there s more to her mother s death than what s on the police report, she ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.
She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society s secrets and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down or join the fight.
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