The winners and honorees of the eighth annual Walter Dean Myers Awards for Outstanding Children’s Literature have been announced. The honors are selected by the We Need Diverse Books Walter Awards Judging Committee.
The Walter Award in the Teen Category went to Andrea L. Rogers and Jeff Edwards for Man Made Monsters. Sabaa Tahir’s All My Rage (Razorbill) and Sonora Reyes’s The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School (Balzer + Bray), a National Book Award winner and National Book Award nominee respectively, were both selected as teen Honors.
In the Young Readers category, Angela Joy and Janelle Washington won for Choosing Brave: How Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Sparked the Civil Rights Movement (Roaring Brook). Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler (Dutton) by Ibi Zoboi and The Last Mapmaker (Candlewick) by Christina Soontornvat received honors.
In celebration of the winners and honorees, the Walter Awards Ceremony and Symposium will be held at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C., on March 17. Hosted by author Jacqueline Woodson, the event will be open to the public and will be livestreamed. We Need Diverse Books CEO Ellen Oh will hold a symposium before the awards titled “Books Save Lives,” centering on diversity in children’s literature.
