Coretta Scott King Award BooksLike this list

71 items

• Will's Race for Home

  a Western

  Rhodes, Jewell Parker,

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  (Ages 8 - 12) - 2026 Author Winner - During the land rush of 1889, African American Will and his father journey from Texas to Oklahoma, racing thousands of others to stake their claim.

• The Library in the Woods

  Ramsey, Calvin A.,

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  (Ages 8 - 10) - 2026 Illustrator Winner - When Junior moves to Roxboro, North Carolina, in 1959, new friends bring him to an incredible place: the Negro Library.

• Twenty-four Seconds From Now...

  a LOVE Story

  Reynolds, Jason,

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  (Ages 14 and up) - 2025 Author Winner - In a series of moments spanning two years, seventeen-year-old Neon navigates the progression of his relationship with Aria, culminating in a case of the jitters as the two intend to take the next big step in…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• My Daddy Is a Cowboy

  Seales, Stephanie,

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  (Ages 4- 8) - 2025 Illustrator Winner - In the early hours before dawn, a young girl and her father greet their horses and ride together through the waking city streets.

• Nigeria Jones

  Zoboi, Ibi Aanu

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  (Ages 14 -18) - 2024 Author Winner - Nigeria is homeschooled and vegan and participates in traditional rituals that connect her and other kids from the group to their ancestors. But when her mother--the perfect matriarch to their…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• An American Story

  Alexander, Kwame

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  (Ages 6-10) - 2024 Illustrator Winner - A picture book in verse that threads together past and present to explore the legacy of slavery during a classroom lesson.

• Freewater

  Luqman-Dawson, Amina,

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  (Ages 8-12) - 2023 Author Winner - After fleeing the plantation where they were enslaved, siblings Ada and Homer discover the secret community of Freewater, and work with freeborn Sanzi to protect their new home from the encroaching dangers of the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Standing in the Need of Prayer

  a Modern Retelling of the Classic Spiritual

  Weatherford, Carole Boston, 1956-

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  (Ages 4 - 10) - 2023 Illustrator Winner - The popular spiritual, Standing in the need of prayer, has been reworked to chronicle the milestones, struggles, tragedies, and triumphs of African American people and their history.

• Unspeakable

  the Tulsa Race Massacre

  Weatherford, Carole Boston, 1956-

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  (Ages 8-12) - 2022 Author Winner and 2022 Illustrator Winner - Tracing the history of African Americans in Tulsa's Greenwood district, this book chronicles the devastation that occurred in 1921 when a white mob attacked the Black community.

• Before the Ever After

  Woodson, Jacqueline

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  (Ages 10-14) - 2021 Author Winner - ZJ's friends Ollie, Darry and Daniel help him cope when his father, a beloved professional football player, suffers severe headaches and memory loss that spell the end of his career.

• R-E-S-P-E-C-T

  Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul

  Weatherford, Carole Boston, 1956-

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  (Ages 5-8) - 2021 Illustrator Winner - Aretha Franklin was born to sing. The daughter of a pastor and a gospel singer, her musical talent was clear from her earliest days. Aretha sang with a soaring voice that spanned more than three octaves. Her…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• New Kid

  Craft, Jerry,

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  (Ages 10 -14) - 2020 Author Winner - Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Undefeated

  Alexander, Kwame

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  (Ages 6 -12) - 2020 Illustrator Winner - The Undefeated, this poem is a love letter to black life in the United States. It highlights the unspeakable trauma of slavery, the faith and fire of the civil rights movement, and the grit, passion, and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Few Red Drops

  the Chicago Race Riots of 1919

  Hartfield, Claire,

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  (Ages 12-18) - 2019 Author Winner - On a hot day in July 1919, five black youths went swimming in Lake Michigan, unintentionally floating close to the "white" beach. An angry white man began throwing stones at the boys, striking and killing one.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Stuff of Stars

  Bauer, Marion Dane

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  (Ages 3-8) - 2019 Illustrator Winner - In a poetic text, Marion Dane Bauer takes readers from the trillionth of a second when our universe was born to the singularities that became each one of us.

• Piecing Me Together

  Watson, Renée

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  (Ages 12 and up) - 2018 Author Winner - Tired of being singled out at her mostly-white private school as someone who needs support, high school junior Jade would rather participate in the school's amazing Study Abroad program than join Women to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Out of Wonder

  Poems Celebrating Poets

  Alexander, Kwame

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  (Ages 8-14) - 2018 Illustrator Winner - Out of gratitude for the poet's art form, these celebratory original poems pay homage to twenty famed poets who have made the authors' hearts sing and their minds wander.

• March. Book Three

  Lewis, John, 1940 February 21-

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  (Ages 14 and up) - 2017 Author Winner - Congressman John Lewis' commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper's farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington, and from…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Radiant Child

  the Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

  Steptoe, Javaka, 1971-

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  (Ages 6 -12) - 2017 Illustrator Winner - Jean-Michel Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocked to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art work had ever seen. But before that, he was a little boy who saw art…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Gone Crazy in Alabama

  Williams-Garcia, Rita

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  (Ages 8-12) - 2016 Author Winner - Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are off to Alabama to visit their grandmother, Big Ma, and her mother, Ma Charles. Across the way lives Ma Charles's half sister, Miss Trotter. The two half sisters haven't spoken in…Read moreRead more of this annotation