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.
37 Image Award Winning and Nominated Books for 2019
Winner - Biography/Autobiography
Becoming
by Michelle Obama
- A 2023 National Bestselling Book - Adult Nonfiction (Hardcover)
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- A 2018 Oprah Book Club Selection
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2019 BCALA Literary Award
Crown (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
More Info ▶
Nominee - Biography/Autobiography
Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”
by Zora Neale Hurston and Deborah G. Plant
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Amistad (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
More Info ▶
Nominee - Biography/Autobiography
Well, That Escalated Quickly: Memoirs and Mistakes of an Accidental Activist
by Franchesca Ramsey
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Grand Central Publishing (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
More Info ▶
Nominee - Biography/Autobiography
The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke
by Jeffrey C. Stewart
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2019)
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2019 BCALA Literary Award
- 2019 American Book Award
Oxford University Press (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
More Info ▶
Nominee - Biography/Autobiography
The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela
by Nelson Mandela
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Liveright Publishing Corporation (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
More Info ▶
Winner - Children
Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race
by Margot Lee Shetterly, Illustrated by Laura Freeman
- A 2024 National Bestselling Book – Juvenile Nonfiction
- A 2023 National Bestselling Book - Juvenile Nonfiction
- A Top 150 Children’s Book
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- Coretta Scott King Award Winning Book 2019
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
HarperCollins (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Children
A Very Large Expanse of Sea
by Tahereh Mafi
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
HarperCollins (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Children
The Word Collector
by Peter H. Reynolds
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Orchard Books (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Children
Facing Frederick: The Life of Frederick Douglass, a Monumental American Man
by Tonya Bolden
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Abrams Books for Young Readers (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Children
I Can Be Anything! Don’t Tell Me I Can’t
by Leo and Diane Dillon
- A Top 150 Children’s Book
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
The Blue Sky Press (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Winner - Debut Author
Us Against the World: Our Secrets to Love, Marriage, and Family
by David Mann and Shaun Sanders
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Thomas Nelson (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Debut Author
Lucile H. Bluford and the Kansas City Call: Activist Voice for Social Justice
by Sheila Brooks and Clint C. Wilson II
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Lexington Books (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Debut Author
Heads of the Colored People (paperback): Stories
by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2019)
- Kirkus Prize Finalist/Winner 2018
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Atria / 37 Ink (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Debut Author
Small Country
by Gael Faye
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Hogarth Press (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Debut Author
Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement
by Janet Dewart Bell
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
The New Press (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Winner - Fiction
An American Marriage: A Novel
by Tayari Jones
- NYT Best Book of the 21st Century
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- A 2018 Oprah Book Club Selection
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2019 BCALA Literary Award
Algonquin Books (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Fiction
They Come in All Colors
by Malcolm Hansen
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2019 BCALA Literary Award
Atria Books (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Fiction
Better Late Than Never (Final Book in Reverend Curtis Black Series #15)
by Kimberla Lawson Roby
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Grand Central Publishing (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Fiction
Envy: A Seven Deadly Sins Novel
by Victoria Christopher Murray
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Touchstone (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Fiction
Who Is the Black Panther?: A Novel of the Marvel Universe
by Jesse J. Holland
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Titan Books (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Mass Market Paperback, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Winner - Instructional
Rise and Grind: Outperform, Outwork, and Outhustle Your Way to a More Successful and Rewarding Life
by Daymond John
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Currency (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Instructional
Carla Hall’s Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration
by Carla Hall
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Harper Wave (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Instructional
Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves
by Glory Edim
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Ballantine Books (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Instructional
Poised for Excellence: Fundamental Principles of Effective Leadership in the Boardroom and Beyond
by Karima Mariama-Arthur
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Palgrave Macmillan (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Nonfiction
The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row
by Anthony Ray Hinton, with Lara Love Hardin
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- A 2018 Oprah Book Club Selection
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
St. Martin’s Press (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Nonfiction
Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”
by Zora Neale Hurston and Deborah G. Plant
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Amistad (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Nonfiction
Black Girls Rock!: Owning Our Magic. Rocking Our Truth.
by Beverly Bond
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Atria Books (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Winner - Poetry
Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart
by Alice Walker
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Atria / 37 Ink (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Poetry
Confessions of a Barefaced Woman
by Allison Joseph
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
HarperTorch (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Poetry
Ghost, Like a Place
by Iain Haley Pollock
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Alice James Books (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Poetry
The Gospel According to Wild Indigo
by Cyrus Cassells
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Southern Illinois University Press (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Poetry
Refuse: Poems
by Julian Randall
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
University of Pittsburgh Press (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Winner - Youth/Teens
The Dream of America
by Jacqueline Woodson
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- Kirkus Prize Finalist/Winner 2018
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Nancy Paulsen Books (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Youth/Teens
Chasing King’s Killer: The Hunt for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Assassin: The Hunt for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Assassin
by James L. Swanson
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Scholastic Press (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Youth/Teens
The Journey of Little Charlie
by Christopher Paul Curtis
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Scholastic Press (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Youth/Teens
The 5 O’Clock Band
by Troy Andrews, Illustrated by Bryan Collier
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Abrams Books for Young Readers (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info
Nominee - Youth/Teens
We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide
by Carol Anderson and Tonya Bolden
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Bloomsbury YA (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
More Info