National Book Award for Young People's Literature Books

The National Book Award for Young People's Literature is one of five categories of the National Book Awards, presented by the National Book Foundation, which has overseen the awards since 1989. The young people's category was added in 1996, and it recognizes a single book for young readers published in the United States during the award year by an author who is a US citizen or makes a long-term home in the United States.

Each category is judged by a panel of five — writers, critics, booksellers, and librarians — who develop their own criteria and deliberate independently of the Foundation. The panel announces a longlist of ten titles, narrows it to five finalists, and names the winner at the ceremony in the fall.

What distinguishes it is the absence of subdivisions: novels, nonfiction, and graphic novels for young readers all compete for one award, and there are no separate medals by format or age. The practical value is less the single winner than the longlist of ten, which arrives each September as a short, deliberately varied slate of the year's most ambitious writing for young people.

Information from the National Book Foundation.