NAACP Image Awards Winners and Nominees
The NAACP Image Awards nominates five books in nine categories for Outstanding Literature:
Biography/Autobiography,
Children,
Debut Author,
Fiction,
Graphic Novel,
Instructional,
Nonfiction,
Poetry
, and
Youth/Teens.
You may print a list of all the award-winning and nominated books. Learn more at the NAACP Image Awards website.
39 Image Award Winning and Nominated Books for 2016
Winner - Biography/Autobiography
Between The World And Me
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- NYT Best Book of the 21st Century
- A Top 10 Book in the “Nonfiction Books from the 21st Century” Category
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- 1 Time Power List Bestselling Book
- Kirkus Prize Finalist/Winner 2015
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- A New York Times Notable Book for 2015
Spiegel & Grau (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
More Info ▶
Nominee - Biography/Autobiography
After The Dance: My Life With Marvin Gaye
by Jan Gaye and David Ritz
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Amistad (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
More Info ▶
Nominee - Biography/Autobiography
One Righteous Man: Samuel Battle and the Shattering of the Color Line in New York
by Arthur Browne
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- Phillis Wheatley Book Award Honoree (2016)
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Beacon Press (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
More Info ▶
Nominee - Biography/Autobiography
Power Forward: My Presidential Education
by Reggie Love
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Simon & Schuster (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
More Info ▶
Winner - Children
Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America
by Carole Boston Weatherford
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Albert Whitman & Company (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Children
If You Plant a Seed
by Kadir Nelson
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Balzer + Bray (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Children
Chasing Freedom: The Life Journeys of Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, Inspired by Historical Facts
by Nikki Grimes
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Orchard Books (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Children
Granddaddy’s Turn: A Journey to the Ballot Box
by Michael S. Bandy and Eric Stein
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Candlewick Press (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Children
New Shoes
by Susan Meyer
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Holiday House (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
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Winner - Debut Author
The Fishermen: A Novel
by Chigozie Obioma
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2016)
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- A New York Times Notable Book for 2015
Little, Brown and Company (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Debut Author
The Turner House
by Angela Flournoy
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- 1 Time Power List Bestselling Book
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2016)
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2016 BCALA Literary Award
- A New York Times Notable Book for 2015
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Debut Author
The Star Side of Bird Hill
by Naomi Jackson
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2016)
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2016 BCALA Literary Award
Penguin Press (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Debut Author
The Presidency in Black and White: My Up-Close View of Three Presidents and Race in America
by April Ryan
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Rowman & Littlefield (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Debut Author
The Wind in the Reeds: A Storm, A Play, and the City That Would Not Be Broken
by Wendell Pierce and Rod Dreher
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Riverhead Books (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Winner - Fiction
Stand Your Ground: A Novel
by Victoria Christopher Murray
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- 1 Time Power List Bestselling Book
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Touchstone (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Fiction
Driving The King: A Novel
by Ravi Howard
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2016 BCALA Literary Award
Harper (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Fiction
Under the Udala Trees
by Chinelo Okparanta
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2016)
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Fiction
Mama’s Boy
by ReShonda Tate Billingsley
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- 1 Time Power List Bestselling Book
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Gallery Books (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Fiction
Ghost Summer: Stories
by Tananarive Due
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Prime Books (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Winner - Instructional
Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by One Hundred Years of Cooking in a Black Family
by Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Clarkson Potter (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Instructional
Big Words to Little Me: Advice to the Younger Self
by Sakina Ibrahim, Jessie Lee, and Rah Crawford
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
CreateSpace (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Instructional
Keep Calm… It’s Just Real Estate: Your No-Stress Guide to Buying a Home
by Egypt Sherrod
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Running Press (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Instructional
Free Your Mind: An African American Guide to Meditation and Freedom
by Cortez R. Rainey
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
CreateSpace (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Instructional
Grandbaby Cakes: Modern Recipes, Vintage Charm, Soulful Memories
by Jocelyn Delk Adams
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Agate Surrey (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Winner - Nonfiction
Spectacle: The Astonishing Life Of Ota Benga
by Pamela Newkirk
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2016)
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2016 BCALA Literary Award
Amistad (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Nonfiction
50 Billion Dollar Boss: African American Women Sharing Stories of Success in Entrepreneurship and Leadership
by Kathey Porter and Andrea Hoffman
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Palgrave Macmillan (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Nonfiction
Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America
by Wil Haygood
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2016 BCALA Literary Award
Knopf (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Nonfiction
The Light Of The World: A Memoir
by Elizabeth Alexander
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2016)
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Grand Central Publishing (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Nonfiction
Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America
by Jill Leovy
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Spiegel & Grau (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Winner - Poetry
How to Be Drawn
by Terrance Hayes
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2016)
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
William Morrow (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Poetry
Reconnaissance: Poems
by Carl Phillips
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Poetry
Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (Pitt Poetry Series)
by Ross Gay
- A 2024 National Bestselling Book – Poetry
- A 2023 National Bestselling Book - Poetry
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2016)
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
University of Pittsburgh Press (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Poetry
Wild Hundreds
by Nate Marshall
- A Top 10 Book in the “Poetry Books of the 21st Century” Category
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2016 BCALA Literary Award
University of Pittsburgh Press (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Poetry
Redbone
by Mahogany L. Browne
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Aquarius Press/Willow Books (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Winner - Youth/Teens
X: A Novel
by Ilyasah Shabazz, Illustrated by Kekla Magoon
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- Coretta Scott King Award Winning Book 2016
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Candlewick Press (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Youth/Teens
Untwine
by Edwidge Danticat
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Scholastic Press (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Youth/Teens
Stella by Starlight
by Sharon M. Draper
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Atheneum Books for Young Readers (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Youth/Teens
You Are Wonderfully Made: 12 Life-Changing Principles for Teen Girls to Embrace
by Gwen Richardson and Sylvia Richardson
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
CreateSpace (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Youth/Teens
Rhythm Ride: A Road Trip Through the Motown Sound
by Andrea Davis Pinkney
- 10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Roaring Brook Press (Jul 01, 2015)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 176 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info