The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are given annually to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values. The award commemorates the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and honors his wife, Mrs. Coretta Scott King, for her courage and determination to continue the work for peace and world brotherhood.
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2014 author Rita Williams-Garcia P.S. Be Eleven
The Gaither sisters are back in Brooklyn, where changes large and small come to their household as they grow up during the turbulent 1960s.
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2014 illustrator Bryan Collier Knock Knock: My Dad’s Dream for Me
A boy wakes up one morning to find his father gone. At first, he feels lost. But his father has left him a letter filled with advice to guide him through the times he cannot be there.
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2013 author Andrea Davis Pinkney Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America
Presents the stories of ten African-American men from different eras in American history, organized chronologically to provide a scope from slavery to the modern day.
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2013 illustrator Bryan Collier
Presents the popular poem by one of the central figures in the Harlem Renaissance, highlighting the courage and dignity of the African American Pullman porters in the early twentieth century.
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2012 author Kadir Nelson Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans
An simple introduction to African-American history, from Revolutionary-era slavery up to the election of President Obama.
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2012 illustrator Shane W. Evans Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom
A pivotal moment in American history is shared with young readers by following a slave family’s escape to the North by crawling on the ground, running barefoot through the woods, sleeping beneath bushes, and eventually reaching freedom.
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2011 author Rita Williams-Garcia One Crazy Summer
In the summer of 1968, after travelling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.
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2011 illustrator Bryan Collier Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave
Chronicles the life of Dave, a nineteenth-century slave who went on to become an influential poet, artist, and potter.
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2010 author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal
This biography profiles the life of Bass Reeves, a former slave who was recruited as a deputy United States Marshal in the area that was to become Oklahoma.
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2010 illustrator Charles S. Smith, Jr. My People
Langston Hughes’s spare yet eloquent tribue to his people has been cherished for generations. Now, acclaimed photographer Charles R. Smith Jr. interprets this beloved poem in vivid sepia photographs that capture the glory, the beauty, and the soul of being a black American today.
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2009 author Kadir Nelson We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball
Using an “Everyman” player as his narrator, Kadir Nelson tells the story of Negro League baseball from its beginnings in the 1920s through the decline after Jackie Robinson crossed over to the majors in 1947. Illustrations from oil paintings by artist Kadir Nelson.
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2009 illustrator Floyd Cooper The Blacker the Berry
Black is dazzling and distinctive, like toasted wheat berry bread; snowberries in the fall; rich, red cranberries; and the bronzed last leaves of summer. In this lyrical and luminous collection, Coretta Scott King honorees Joyce Carol Thomas and Floyd Cooper celebrate these many shades of black beautifully.
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2008 author Christopher Paul Curtis Elijah of Buxton
In 1859, eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the American south, uses his wits and skills to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family’s freedom.
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2008 illustrator Ashley Bryan Let it Shine: Three Favorite Spirituals
This little light of mine — Oh, when the saints go marching in — He’s got the whole world in His hands.
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2007 author Sharon Draper Copper Sun
Two fifteen-year-old girls–one a slave and the other an indentured servant–escape their Carolina plantation and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves.
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2007 illustrator Kadir Nelson Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom
Follows Harriet Tubman‘s spiritual journey to freedom as she, leaving her family behind, escaped from slavery and led many others to freedom.
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2006 author Julius Lester Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue
Emma has taken care of the Butler children since Sarah and Frances’s mother, Fanny, left. Emma wants to raise the girls to have good hearts, as a rift over slavery has ripped the Butler household apart. Now, to pay off debts, Pierce Butler wants to cash in his slave “assets”, possibly including Emma.
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2006 illustrator Bryan Collier Rosa
Provides the story of the black woman whose refusal to give up her seat on a bus in Alabama set in motion all the events of the civil rights movements that resulted in the end of the segregated South.
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2005 author Toni Morrison Remember: The Journey to School Integration
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregated schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education. This pivotal decision ushered in an emotional and trying period in our nation’s history, the effects of which still linger. Recalling this tumultuous time, Toni Morrison has collected archival photographs that depict the events surrounding school integration. These unforgettable images serve as the inspiration for Professor Morrison’s text – a fictional account of the dialogue and emotions of the students who lived during the era of change in separate-but-equal schooling. Remember offers a unique pictorial and narrative journey that introduces children to a watershed period in American history and its relevance today.
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2005 illustrator Kadir Nelson Ellington Was Not a Street
In a reflective tribute to the African-American community of old, noted poet Ntozake Shange recalls her childhood home and the close-knit group of innovators that often gathered there. These men of vision, brought to life in the majestic paintings of artist Kadir Nelson, lived at a time when the color of their skin dictated where they could live, what schools they could attend, and even where they could sit on a bus or in a movie theater. Yet in the face of this tremendous adversity, these dedicated souls and others like them not only demonstrated the importance of Black culture in America, but also helped issue in a movement that “changed the world.” Their lives and their works inspire us to this day, and serve as a guide to how we approach the challenges of tomorrow.
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2004 author Angela Johnson The First Part Last
Bobby’s carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.
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2004 illustrator Ashley Bryan Beautiful Blackbird
In a story of the Ila people, the colorful birds of Africa ask Blackbird, whom they think is the most beautiful of birds, to decorate them with some of his “blackening brew.”
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2003 author Nikki Grimes Bronx Masquerade
While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they’ve written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.
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2003 illustrator E. B. Lewis Talkin’ About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman
Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman was always being told what she could & couldn’t do. In an era when Jim Crow laws and segregation were a way of life, it was not easy to survive. Bessie didn’t let that stop her. Although she was only 11 when the Wright brothers took their historic flight, she vowed to become the first African -American female pilot. Her sturdy faith and determination helped her overcome obstacles of poverty, racism, and gender discrimination. Innovatively told through a series of monologues.
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2002 author Mildred Taylor The Land
After the Civil War Paul, the son of a white father and a black mother, finds himself caught between the two worlds of colored folks and white folks as he pursues his dream of owning land of his own.
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2002 illustrator Jerry Pinkney Goin’ Someplace Special
In segregated 1950s Nashville, a young African American girl braves a series of indignities and obstacles to get to one of the few integrated places in town: the public library.
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2001 author Jacqueline Woodson Miracle’s Boys
Twelve-year-old Lafayette’s close relationship with his older brother Charlie changes after Charlie is released from a detention home and blames Lafayette for the death of their mother.
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2001 illustrator Bryan Collier Uptown
A tour of the sights of Harlem, including the Metro-North Train, brownstones, shopping on 125th Street, a barber shop, summer basketball, the Boy’s Choir, and sunset over the Harlem River.
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2000 author Christopher Paul Curtis Bud, Not Buddy
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father–the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.
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2000 illustrator Brian Pinkney In the Time of Drums
Mentu, an American-born slave boy, watches his beloved grandmother, Twi, lead the insurrection at Teakettle Creekof Ibo people arriving from Africa on a slave ship.
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1999 author Angela Johnson Heaven
Fourteen-year-old Marley’s seemingly perfect life in the small town of Heaven is disrupted when she discovers that her father and mother are not her real parents.
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1999 illustrator Michele Wood I See the Rhythm
This award-winning picture book invites children along to dance to the rhythm of swing at the Savoy in Harlem, to rejoice to the rhythm of gospel from a church pew on a Sunday morning, and more. Each stunning spread—including art, poetic text, a description of the music style, and a time line of selected historical events—encompasses the spirit of the times and the strength of the communities where the music was born. Toyomi Igus’s lyrical text, matched with artist Michele Wood’s daring vision, captures the feel of each style of music and pays tribute to the musicians who gave the music life.
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1998 author Sharon Draper Forged By Fire
Teenage Gerald, who has spent years protecting his fragile half-sister from their abusive father, faces the prospect of one final confrontation before the problem can be solved.
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1998 illustrator Javaka Steptoe In Daddy’s Arms I am Tall: African Americans Celebrating Fathers
A collection of poems celebrating African-American fathersby Angela Johnson, E. Ethelbert Miller, Carole Boston Weatherford, and others.
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1997 author Walter Dean Myers Slam
Sixteen-year-old “Slam” Harris is counting on his noteworthy basketball talents to get him out of the inner city and give him a chance to succeed in life, but his coach sees things differently.
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1997 illustrator Jerry Pinkney Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman
Young Harriet Tubman, whose childhood name was Minty, dreams of escaping slavery on the Brodas plantation in the late 1820s.
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1996 author Virginia Hamilton Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales
Collection of 19 folktales, legends, and true stories celebrating the heroic cunning, patience, and courage of African-American women and girls.
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1996 illustrator Tom Feelings The Middle Passage
Sixty-four paintings trace the torturous journey of slaves from Africa to the Americas, from their capture at gunpoint to conditions below deck, and depict the cruelty they suffered, including the separation of families.
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1995 author Patricia C. and Fred L. McKissack Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters
Describes the customs, recipes, poems, and songs used to celebrate Christmas in the big plantation houses and in theslave quarters just before the Civil War.
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1995 illustrator James Ransome The Creation
A poem based on the story of creation from the first book of the Bible.
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1994 author Angela Johnson Toning the Sweep
On a visit to her grandmother Ola, who is dying of cancer in her house in the desert, fourteen-year-old Emmie hears many stories about the past and her family history and comes to a better understanding of relatives both dead and living.
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1994 illustrator Tom Feelings Soul Looks Back in Wonder
Artwork and poems by Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and Askia Toure portray the creativity, strength, and beauty of their African American heritage.
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1993 author Patricia C. McKissack The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural
A collection of ghost stories with African American themes, designed to be told during the Dark Thirty—the half hour before sunset–when ghosts seem all too believable.
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1993 illustrator Kathleen Atkins Wilson The Origin of Life on Earth: An African Creation Myth
Retells the Yoruba creation myth in which the deity Obatala descends from the sky to create the world.
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1992 author Walter Dean Myers Now is Your Time: The African American Struggle for Freedom
Since they were first brought as captives to Virginia, the people who would become African Americans have struggled for freedom. Thousands fought for the rights of all Americans during the Revolutionary War, and for their own rights during the Civil War. On the battlefield, through education, and through their creative genius, they have worked toward one goal: that the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness be denied no one. Fired by the legacy of men and women like Abd al Rahman Ibrahima, Ida B. Wells, and George Latimer, the struggle continues today. Here is African-American history, told through the stories of the people whose experiences have shaped and continue to shape the America in which we live.
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1992 illustrator Faith Ringgold Tar Beach
A young girl dreams of flying above her Harlem home, claiming all she sees for herself and her family. Based on the author’s quilt painting of the same name.
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1991 author Mildred Taylor The Road to Memphis
The third novel in a series which started with Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, The Road to Memphis catches up with the Logan family in 1941. Cassie is entering her last year of high school in Jackson, Mississippi and her older brother Stacey is driving his first car. After a family trip to Memphis, a sequence of events, including pregnancy, death and the intrusions of Pearl Harbor and World War II wreaks havoc on the family, threatening to separate them from each other, perhaps forever. Drawing upon their strength as a family and the support of their community, the Logans fight for survival, particularly Cassie, who dreams of becoming a lawyer.
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1991 illustrator Leo and Diane Dillon Aida
With depth and understanding, acclaimed diva Leontyne Price retells this famous opera about the beautiful princess of Ethiopia.
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1990 author Patricia C. and Fred L. McKissack A Long Hard Journey: The Story of the Pullman Porter
The moving story of the courage and solidarity that helped shape the history of African Americans explains how the actions of the train workers fraternity helped change the way of labor and the civil rights movement in this country.
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1990 illustrator Jan Spivey Gilchrist Nathaniel Talking
In brief poems, a nine-year-old boy shares his views on his mother’s death, knowledge, friends, school, his father, and the future.
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1989 author Walter Dean Myers Fallen Angels
Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.
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1989 illustrator Jerry Pinkney Mirandy and Brother Wind
To win first prize in the Junior Cakewalk, Mirandy tries to capture the wind for her partner.
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1988 author Mildred Taylor The Friendship
Four children witness a confrontation between an elderly black man and a white storekeeper in rural Mississippi in the 1930s.
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1988 illustrator John Steptoe Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale
Mufaro‘s two beautiful daughters, one bad-tempered, one kind and sweet, go before the king, who is choosing a wife.
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1987 author Mildred Pitts Walter Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World
Suffering in a family full of females, ten-year-old Justin feels that cleaning and keeping house are women’s work until he spends time on his beloved grandfather’s ranch.
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1987 illustrator Jerry Pinkney Half a Moon and One Whole Star
While a young girl sleeps, nighttime deepens all around her — in the woods and garden, on the ocean, in the city, and on the porch, where her parents sit.
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1986 author Virginia Hamilton The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales
Retold Afro-American folktales of animals, fantasy, the supernatural, and desire for freedom, born of the sorrow of the slaves, but passed on in hope.
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1986 illustrator Jerry Pinkney The Patchwork Quilt
Using scraps cut from the family’s old clothing, Tanya helps her grandmother and mother make a beautiful quiltthat tells the story of her family’s life.
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1985 author Walter Dean Myers Motown and Didi
Motown lives in a burned-out building one floor above the rats, searching out jobs every day, working his muscles every night, keeping strong, surviving. Didi lives in her cool dream bubble, untouched by the Harlem heat that beats down on her brother until only drugs can soothe him. Didi escapes, without needles, in her tidy plans and stainless visions, etchings of ivy covered colleges where her true life will begin. Didi can survive inside her own safe mind, until Motown steps into her real world and makes it bearable. Together they can stand the often brutal present. What about the future?
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1984 author Lucille Clifton Everett Anderson’s Goodbye
Everett Anderson has a difficult time coming to terms with his grief after his father dies.
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1984 illustrator Pat Cummings My Mama Needs Me
Jason wants to help, but isn’t sure that his mother needs him at all after she brings home a new baby from the hospital.
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1983 author Virginia Hamilton Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush
Why had he come to her, with his dark secrets from a long-ago past? What was the purpose of their strange, haunting journeys back into her own childhood? Was it to help Dab, her retarded older brother, wracked with mysterious pain who sometimes took more care and love than Tree had to give? Was it for her mother, Vy, who loved them the best she knew how, but wasn’t home enough to ease the terrible longing? Whatever secrets his whispered message held, Tree knew she must follow. She must follow Brother Rush through the magic mirror, and find out the truth. About all of them.
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1983 illustrator Peter Magubane Black Child
Shows what it was like to grow up under apartheid.
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1982 author Mildred Taylor Let the Circle Be Unbroken
Four black children growing up in rural Mississippi during the Depression experience racial antagonisms and hard times, but learn from their parents the pride and self-respect they need to survive.
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1982 illustrator John Steptoe Mother Crocodile: An Uncle Amadou Tale from Senegal
Just because Mother Crocodile once snapped at Golo-the-Monkey for teasing her, he tells all the other animals she’s crazy. The monkey even tells the little crocodiles, her children, who believe him. When a flock of crows warn of the coming war, and Mother Crocodile tells her children to flee, they close their ears, and she sadly leaves them behind to fend for themselves.
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1981 author Sidney Poitier This Life
The Academy Award-winning Black actor tells of his childhood in the Bahamas, his introduction to New York, his two marriages and tumultuous eight-year relationship with Diahann Carroll, and his numerous films.
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1981 illustrator Ashley Bryan Beat the Story Drum, Pum-Pum
Here are five Nigerian folktales, retold in language as rhythmic as the beat of the story-drum, and illustrated with vibrant, evocative woodcuts.
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1980 author Walter Dean Myers The Young Landlords
If you were looking for a real ghetto dump, you couldn’t beat The Stratford Arms. There was Askia Ben Kenobi throwing karate chops upstairs, Petey Darden making booze downstairs, and Mrs. Brown grieving for Jack Johnson, who’d died for the third time in a month—and not a rent payer in the bunch. Still, when Paul Williams and the Action Group got the Arms for one dollar, they thought they had it made. But when their friend Chris was arrested for stealing stereos and Dean’s dog started biting fire hydrants and Gloria started kissing, being a landlord turned out to be a lot more work than being a kid.
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1980 illustrator Carole Byard Cornrows
When Mama and Great-Grammaw weave the striking cornrow patterns of Africa into their children’s hair, their gentle voices also weave a tale full of pride and heritage.
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1979 author Ossie Davis Escape to Freedom
This play tells the story of Frederick Douglass’s childhood, and his eventual escape from slavery to freedom. But its focus is on the early experiences that made Frederick Douglass into a great American hero. Born a slave, Douglass, wants to learn to read more than anything. Trading his bread for white boys’ schoolbooks, slowly he teaches himself to read and write. He goes on to teach other slaves. Illegal at the time, Frederick Douglass is punished severely. Still, he manages to find his way to freedom and dignity, and becomes one of the great African-American leaders of the 19th century.
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1979 illustrator Tom Feelings Something on My Mind
Poems expressing the hopes, fears, joys, and sorrows of growing up.
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1978 author Eloise Greenfield Africa Dream
1978 illustrator Carole Bayard Africa Dream
An African-American child dreams of long-ago Africa, where she sees animals, shops in a marketplace, reads strange words from an old book, and returns to the village where her long-ago granddaddy welcomes her. ‘Greenfield’s lyrical telling and Byard’s marvelous pictures make this book close to an ideal adventure for children, black or white.
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1977 author James Haskins The Story of Stevie Wonder
A biography of the blind composer, pianist, and singer who was a child prodigy and went on to win nine Grammy awards.
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1976 author Pearl Bailey Duey’s Tale
A maple seedling becomes separated from his mother tree, makes friends with a bottle and a log, and searches for his own place in life.
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1975 author Dorothy Robinson The Legend of Africania
An allegorical tale of Africa’s struggle against the ravishment of its people and country.
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1974 author Sharon Bell Mathis Ray Charles
1974 illustrator George Ford Ray Charles
As a young boy he fell in love with music, and as a man, the world fell in love with his music. Ray Charles and his soulful, passionate rhythms and melodies have been embraced around the world for decades.Now, in this beautiful new edition of an award-winning biography, readers can follow Charles from his boyhood, when he lost his sight and learned to read and write music in Braille, until the age of 40, when he had become a world-renowned jazz and blues musician packing auditoriums and stadiums.
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1973 author Alfred Duckett I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson
Before Barry Bonds, before Reggie Jackson, before Hank Aaron, baseball’s stars had one undeniable trait in common: they were all white. In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke that barrier, striking a crucial blow for racial equality and changing the world of sports forever. I Never Had It Made is Robinson’s own candid, hard-hitting account of what it took to become the first black man in history to play in the major leagues.
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1972 author Eton C. Fax 17 Black Artists
Biographical profiles of seventeen notable artists.
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1971 author Charlemae Rollins Black Troubadour: Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance.
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1970 author Lillie Patterson Martin Luther King, Jr.: Man of Peace
Simple text and illustrations describe the life and accomplishments of the revered civil rights pioneer.
The Claudia Lewis Award is given by the Bank Street College Children’s Book Committee for the best poetry book of the year. Established in 1998, this award honors the late Claudia Lewis, distinguished children’s book expert and longtime member of the Bank Street College faculty and Children’s Book Committee.
1999 
The Giverny Award is an annual children’s science picture book award established in 1998 by Dr. Jim Wandersee and Dr. Elisabeth E. Schussler. IT is awarded by 15° Laboratory, a research laboratory founded in 1996 for the ultimate purpose of helping today’s K-12 and college students understand the big ideas in contemporary life sciences, especially through visual representation. Later, the mission was expanded to improving public understanding of science in informal science education venues.
This lift-the-flap picture book tells the story of Sam, a cat who loves the sun and wants to grow some big yellow sunflowers. Children can read about how he plants his seeds and watches them grow, and, by lifting the flaps, can see what is happening to the plant under the ground.
2009 
For illustration: Guevara, Susan. Chato’s Kitchen written by Gary Soto
2010: Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone
2003: The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler by James Cross Giblin
Children's Reading Suggestions 