Sydney Taylor Book Award Books

The Sydney Taylor Book Award is named for the author of the All-of-a-Kind Family books, the 1950s series about five sisters growing up in a Jewish immigrant family on New York's Lower East Side. The Association of Jewish Libraries created a children's book award in 1968 and renamed it in Taylor's memory after her death in 1978, working with her husband Ralph. It goes to books for children and teens that meet high literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience.

Gold medals go to a winner in each of three categories — picture book, middle grade, and young adult — with silver medals for honor books and a longer list of notable books behind them. Because the standard is authentic portrayal rather than a particular subject, the shelf runs from holiday and ritual picture books to contemporary family stories, immigrant history, and Holocaust narratives, already sorted by age, so the search for a Hanukkah read-aloud and the search for a middle grade novel are not the same search.

Information from the Association of Jewish Libraries.