Coretta Scott King Award

Freewater

by Amina Luqman-Dawson
Published in 2022 by Little, Brown and Company, New York
ISBN: 9780316056618

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 outside world.

2023 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Standing in the need of prayer: A modern retelling of the classic spiritual

by Frank Morrison
Published in 2022 by Crown Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780593306345

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. The text and illustrations of this inspirational book are informative reminders of yesterday, hopeful images for today, and aspirational dreams of tomorrow.

2023 Coretta Scott King Award - Illustration

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Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre

by Carole Boston Weatherford
Published in 2021 by Carolrhoda Books, Minneapolis
ISBN: 9781541581203

Celebrated author Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrator Floyd Cooper provide a powerful look at the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, one of the worst incidents of racial violence in our nation's history.

2022 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre

by Floyd Cooper
Published in 2021 by Carolrhoda Books, Minneapolis
ISBN: 9781541581203

Celebrated author Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrator Floyd Cooper provide a powerful look at the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, one of the worst incidents of racial violence in our nation's history.

2022 Coretta Scott King Award - Illustration

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Before the Ever After

by Jacqueline Woodson
Published in 2020 by Nancy Paulsen Books
ISBN: 9780399545436

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?

2021 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Aretha Franklin, The Queen of Soul

by Frank Morrison
Published in 2020 by Atheneum Books
ISBN: 9781534452282

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. Aretha sang with a soaring voice that spanned more than three octaves. Her incredible talent and string of hit songs earned her the title "the Queen of Soul." This Queen was a multi-Grammy winner and the first female inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And there was even more to Aretha than being a singer, songwriter, and pianist: she was an activist, too. Her song "Respect" was an anthem for people fighting for civil rights and women's rights. With words that sing and art that shines, this vibrant portrait of Aretha Franklin pays her the R-E-S-P-E-C-T this Queen of Soul deserves.

2021 Coretta Scott King Award - Illustration

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New Kid

by Jerry Craft
Published in 2019 by Harper
ISBN: 9780062691200

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 its academics, where Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his entire grade. As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worlds--and not really fitting into either one. Can Jordan learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself?

2020 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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The Undefeated

by Kwame Alexander
Published in 2019 by Versify, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9781328780966

This is a powerful and important ode to black history: the strength and bravery of everyday people and the grit, passion, and perseverance of some of the world's greatest artists, athletes, and activists.

2020 Coretta Scott King Award - Illustration

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A Few Red Drops: the Chicago Race Riots of 1919

by Claire Hartfield
Published in 2018 by Clarion Books
ISBN: 9780544785137

Examines the events and forces leading up to 1919 race riots in Chicago.

2019 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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The Stuff of Stars

by Marion Dane Bauer
Published in 2018 by Candlewick Press
ISBN: 9780763678838

Before the universe was formed, before time and space existed, there was...nothing. But then...BANG! Stars caught fire and burned so long that they exploded, flinging stardust everywhere. And the ash of those stars turned into planets. Into our Earth. And into us.

2019 Coretta Scott King Award - Illustration

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Piecing Me Together

by Renee Watson
Published in 2017 by Bloomsbury
ISBN: 9781681191058

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 Women, a mentorship program for at-risk girls.

2018 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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March: Book Three

by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin
Published in 2016 by Top Shelf Productions
ISBN: 9781603094023

By the fall of 1963, the Civil Rights Movement has penetrated deep into the American consciousness, and as a chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, John Lewis is guiding the tip of the spear.

2017 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

by Javaka Steptoe
Published in 2016 by Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 9780316213882

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.

2017 Coretta Scott King Award - Illustration

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Gone Crazy in Alabama

by Rita Williams-Garcia
Published in 2015 by Amistad
ISBN: 9780062215871

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 years. As Delphine hears about her family history, she uncovers the surprising truth that's been keeping the sisters apart. But when tragedy strikes, Delphine discovers that the bonds of family run deeper than she ever knew possible

2016 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Trombone Shorty

by Bryan Collier
Published in 2016 by Abrams Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 1419714651

An extraordinary picture book autobiography by famed jazz musician Trombone Shorty and Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Award winner Bryan Collier.

2016 Coretta Scott King Award - Illustration

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Brown Girl Dreaming

by Jacqueline Woodson
Published in 2014 by Nancy Paulsen Books
ISBN: 9780399252518

Jacqueline Woodson, one of today's finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful.

2015 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Firebird

by Misty Copeland
Published in 2014 by G.P. Putnam's Sons
ISBN: 9780316209175

American Ballet Theater soloist Misty Copeland encourages a young ballet student, with brown skin like her own, by telling her that she, too, had to learn basic steps and how to be graceful when she was starting out, and that some day, with practice and dedication, the little girl will become a firebird, too. Includes author's note about dancers who led her to find her voice.

2015 Coretta Scott King Award - Illustration

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P.S. Be Eleven

by Rita Williams-Garcia
Published in 2013 by Amistad
ISBN: 9780061938627

Eleven-year-old Brooklyn girl Delphine feels overwhelmed with worries and responsibilities. She's just started sixth grade and is self-conscious about being the tallest girl in the class, and nervous about her first school dance. She's supposed to be watching her sisters, but Fern and Vonetta are hard to control. Her uncle Darnell is home from Vietnam and seems different. And her Pa has a girlfriend. At least Delphine can write to her mother in Oakland, California, for advice. But why does her mother tell her to 'be eleven' when Delphine is now twelve?

2014 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Knock Knock: My Dad's Dream for Me

by Bryan Collier
Published in 2013 by Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 9780316209175

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.

2014 Coretta Scott King Award - Illustration

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Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America

by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Published in 2012 by Disney/Jump at the Sun
ISBN: 9781423142577

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.

2013 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans

by Kadir Nelson
Published in 2011 by Amistad Press
ISBN: 9780061730740

An simple introduction to African-American history, from Revolutionary-era slavery up to the election of President Obama.

2012 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom

by Shane W. Evans
Published in 2011 by Roaring Brook Press
ISBN: 9781596435384

Follows a family's journey toward freedom as they travel along the Underground railroad.

2012 Coretta Scott King Award - Illustration

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One Crazy Summer

by Rita Williams-Garcia
Published in 2010 by Amistad Press
ISBN: 9780060760885

In a humorous and breakout book by Williams-Garcia, the Penderwicks meet the Black Panthers in 1968 Oakland, California. Eleven-year-old Delphine has it together. Even though her mother, Cecile, abandoned her and her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, seven years ago.

2011 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave

by Laban Carrick Hill
Published in 2010 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780316107310

A National Book Award finalist teams up with an award-winning illustrator to present a beautiful and inspiring biography of a slave who lived in South Carolina in the 1800s and his extraordinary talent for pottery.

2011 Coretta Scott King Award - Illustration

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Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal

by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Published in 2009 by Carolrhoda Books
ISBN: 9780822567646

Outlaws feared him. Law-abiding citizens respected him. Bass always got his man, dead or alive. He achieved all this in spite of whites who didn't like the notion of a black lawman. The true story of former slave Bass Reeves, is the story of a remarkable African American hero of the Old West.

2010 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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My People

by Langston Hughes
Published in 2009 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9781416935407

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.

2010 Coretta Scott King Award - Illustration

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We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball

by Kadir Nelson
Published in 2008 by Jump at the Sun
ISBN: 9780786808328

In this "New York Times" bestseller, noted artist Kadir Nelson tells the story of baseball's unsung heroes. [A] sumptuous volume that no baseball fan should be without.

2009 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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The Blacker the Berry

by Joyce Carol Thomas
Published in 2008 by Amistad Press
ISBN: 9780060253752

Two Coretta Scott King Honorees celebrate the many shades of black in this lyrical and illuminating collection of poems, including "Golden Goodness," "Cranberry Red," and "Biscuit Brown."

2009 Coretta Scott King Award - Illustration

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Elijah of Buxton

by Christopher Paul Curtis
Published in 2007 by Scholastic Press
ISBN: 9780439023443

Its 1860, and 11-year-old Elijah is a first-generation freeborn child. His Canadian town of Buxton serves as a haven for runaway slaves. When the towns corrupt preacher steals money from a citizen whos been saving to buy his familys freedom, Elijah sets off for America in pursuit, in this powerful new novel by a Newbery Medalist.

2008 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Let it Shine

by Ashley Bryan
Published in 2007 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780689847325

Illustrated versions of three well-known hymns.

2008 Coretta Scott King Award - Illustration

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Copper Sun

by Sharon M. Draper
Published in 2006 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780689821813

When slave traders invade Amari's village, she is dragged to a slave ship bound for the Carolinas. Bought by a plantation owner, Amari befriends a white indentured servant named Polly and struggles to hold on to her memories in the face of hopelessness and despair.

2007 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue

by Julius Lester
Published in 2005 by Jump at the Sun
ISBN: 9780786804900

Told through flashbacks, foreshadowing, and shifting first-person points of view, this novel about slavery in America follows young Emma, who along with readers will discover that every decision has its consequences, and final judgment is passed down not by man, but by his maker.

2006 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Remember: The Journey to School Integration

by Toni Morrison
Published in 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618397402

The Pulitzer Prize winner presents a treasure chest of archival photographs that depict the historical events surrounding school desegregation. Toni Morrison has collected a treasure chest of archival photographs that depict the historical events surrounding school desegregation.

2005 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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The First Part Last

by Angela Johnson
Published in 2003 by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
ISBN: 9780689849220

This little thing with the perfect face and hands doing nothing but counting on me. And me wanting nothing else but to run crying into my own mom's room and have her do the whole thing. It's not going to happen.... Bobby is your classic urban teenaged boy -- impulsive, eager, restless.

2004 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Bronx Masquerade

by Nikki Grimes
Published in 2001 by Dial Books
ISBN: 9780803725690

Eighteen students in a high school English class open up and take the risky challenge of self-revelation in weekly poetry sessions. Through their poetry and narratives, they share their most intimate thoughts about themselves and one another, their lives, and what lies beneath the skin and beyond the masquerade.

2003 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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The Land

by Mildred D. Taylor
Published in 2001 by Phyllis Fogelman Books
ISBN: 9780803719507

The legacy of the Logan family begins with Paul-Edward Logan, grandfather of Cassie, the beloved protagonist of Newbery Medal-winning "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry."

2002 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Miracle’s Boys

by Jacqueline Woodson
Published in 2000 by Putnam Publishing Group
ISBN: 9780399231131

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. Nothing is like it used to be.

2001 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Bud, Not Buddy

by Christopher Paul Curtis
Published in 1999 by Delacorte
ISBN: 9780385323062

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.

2000 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Heaven

by Angela Johnson
Published in 1998 by Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 9780689822292

At fourteen, Marley knows she has Momma's hands and Pops's love for ice cream, that her brother doesn't get on her nerves too much, and that Uncle Jack is a big mystery. But Marley doesn't know all she thinks she does, because she doesn't know the truth. And when the truth comes down with the rain one stormy summer afternoon, it changes everything. It turns Momma and Pops into liars.

1999 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Forged by Fire

by Sharon M. Draper
Published in 1997 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780689806995

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. When Gerald was a child he was fascinated by fire. But fire is dangerous and powerful, and tragedy strikes. His substance-addicted mother is taken from him. Then he loses the loving generosity of a favorite aunt.

1998 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Slam

by Walter Dean Myers
Published in 1996 by Scholastic Press
ISBN: 9780590486675

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.

1997 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Her Stories

by Virginia Hamilton
Published in 1995 by Scholastic/Blue Sky Press
ISBN: 9780590473705

Collection of 19 folktales, legends, and true stories celebrating the heroic cunning, patience, and courage of African-American women and girls.

1996 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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Martin Luther King, Jr.: Man of Peace

by Lillie Patterson
Published in 1969 by Garrard
ISBN: 9780811645553

A biography of the minister, orator, and crusader for equal civil rights who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964

1970 Coretta Scott King Award - Author

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