Best Bet Book Lists & Awards

Elementary Students Through Young Adults

Best Bet Book Lists

Read Across America | NEA 
The Read Across America site has several interesting book lists, including Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children, Kid's Top 100 Books, Celebrity Book Picks, and more.
http://www.nea.org/readacross/parents.html

100 Favorite Children's Books | New York Public Library 
Listed by these categories: biography and history, fantasy, favorite animal stories, humor, mystery, poetry and song, science fiction, stories, survival/adventure, and today's kids.
http://kids.nypl.org/reading/recommended2.cfm?ListID=60

Choices Booklists | International Reading Association 
Each year, thousands of children, young adults, teachers, and librarians around the United States select their favorite recently published books to be included in the Choices annotated booklists. Published annually by the International Reading Association, Children’s Choices, Teachers' Choices, and Young Adults' Choices booklists are used in classrooms, libraries, and homes to help young people find books they will enjoy reading.
http://www.reading.org/resources/tools/choices.html

Bimonthly Showcase | Children's Book Council 
Book recommendations are organized around themes, such as Spanish Cultural Heritage, Math and Counting, or Summer Reading. CBC is a non-profit trade organization dedicated to encouraging literacy and the use and enjoyment of children's books, and is the sponsor of Young People's Poetry Week and Children's Book Week each year.
http://cbcbooks.org/html/showcase.html

Book Awards

Caldecott Medal Home Page  | American Library Association
Named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott, this medal is awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.
http://www.ala.org/alsc/caldecott.html

Coretta Scott King Award | American Library Association
This award is presented to authors and illustrators of African descent whose distinguished books promote an understanding and appreciation of the "American Dream."
http://www.ala.org/srrt/csking/index.html

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal | American Library Association
This award honors an author or illustrator whose books have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.
http://www.ala.org/alsc/wilder.html

The Mildred L. Batchelder Award | American Library Association 
Awarded to an American publisher for a children's book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country, and subsequently translated into English and published in the United States.
www.ala.org/alsc/batch.html

Newbery Medal | American Library Association 
Awarded annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
http://www.ala.org/alsc/newbery.html 

Pura Belpré Award  | American Library Association 
The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.
http://www.ala.org/alsc/belpre.html

Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Award | Children's Literature Web Guide 
Presented for a work of historical fiction published by a U.S. publisher and set in the New World.
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/odell.html

Sydney Taylor Book Awards | Association of Jewish Libraries  
It is awarded annually to outstanding books of positive Jewish content for children. In some years, a special Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Award is given as well.
http://www.jewishlibraries.org/ajlweb/awards/st_books.htm