Arab American Book Award Books

The Arab American Book Award was established in 2006 by the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, with faculty and librarians at the University of Toledo. The museum describes it as the only award in the country created specifically to honor Arab American writers and books about the Arab American experience. A children's and young adult category was part of it from the first round of winners in 2007; children's literature and young adult literature now stand as separate categories alongside adult fiction, the Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award, and the George Ellenbogen Poetry Award.

Committees of librarians, scholars, poets, and past winners judge submissions on the portrayal of the Arab American experience, literary quality, and contribution to the field. Only a title or two a year is named on the youth side, which makes the list readable end to end rather than sampled — a real advantage in a category where a school or library shelf may otherwise hold nothing at all. Early winners include Eve Bunting and Ted Lewin's One Green Apple and Naomi Shihab Nye's Honeybee.

Information from the Arab American National Museum.