Young Adult Literature Awards: Home

ALA and its member units honor books, print and other forms of media through a variety of awards. These awards are given to publications, and the authors, illustrators, and publishers who create them.

The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature.

An award for the best nonfiction book published for young adults (ages 12-18) during a November 1 – October 31 publishing year.

To encourage young adults to read for pleasure by presenting to them lists of popular or topical titles which are widely available in paperback and which represent a broad variety of accessible themes and genres.

The William C. Morris YA Debut Award, first awarded in 2009, honors a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens and celebrating impressive new voices in young adult literature.

The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18. The winning titles are selected from the previous year's publishing.

The books, recommended for ages 12-18, meet the criteria of both good quality literature and appealing reading for teens. The list comprises a wide range of genres and styles, including contemporary realistic fiction, fantasy, horror, science fiction and novels in verse.

The Rainbow Project Book List is list of recommended books dealing with gay, lesbian, bisexual, trangendered and questioning issues and situations for children up to age 18.

This annual award will be given to the producer of the best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States.

To select, annotate, and present for publication an annual list of notable audio recordings significant to young adults from those released in the past two years.

The purpose of this list is to identify for collection developers a body of films relating to a theme that will appeal to young adults in a variety of settings. Selection criteria consistent with the Library Bill of Rights shall be applied throughout the selection process. Titles chosen are of acceptable quality and are effective in their presentation.

Selected by the Books for Youth editors, the following titles comprise the year’s best personal reading for teenagers among adult books. More on each book’s content and suggested audience can be found in the full-length Booklist review.

The list is for young adults (ages 12-18) who, for whatever reasons, do not like to read. The purpose of this list is to identify titles for recreational reading, not for curricular or remedial use.