2013
Elementary Level (Grades K–6) Carter G. Woodson Book Award
Fifty Cents and a Dream: Young Booker T. Washington by Jabari Asim, Illustrated by Bryan Collier Published by Little, Brown and Company
Carter G. Woodson Honor Award
Harlem's Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills Words by Renée Watson Pictures by Christian Robinson Published by Random House
Middle Level (Grades 5–8) Carter G. Woodson Winner Award
Marching to the Mountaintop: How Poverty, Labor Fights, and Civil Rights Set the Stage for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Final Hours by Ann Bausum Published by National Geographic Children's Books
Secondary Level (Grades 7–12) Carter G. Woodson Winner Award
Stolen into Slavery the True Story of Solomon Northup, Free Black Man by Judith Fradin and Dennis Fradin Published by National Geographic Children's Books
There were no Middle or Secondary Level Honor books selected in 2013.
2012
Elementary Level (Grades K–6) Carter G. Woodson Book Award
Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala-Ša, Native American Author, Musician, and Activist Adapted by Gina Capaldi and Q. L. Pearce Published by Carolrhoda Books
Carter G. Woodson Honor Award
A Nation’s Hope The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis by De La Peña, illustrated by Kadir Nelson Published by Dial Books for Young Readers
Middle Level (Grades 5–8) Carter G. Woodson Book Award
Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein by Susan Goldman Rubin Published by Charlesbridge
Carter G. Woodson Honor Award
Saga of the Sioux An adaptation from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dwight Jon Zimmerman Published by Henry Holt and Company, LLC
Secondary Level (Grades 7–12) Carter G. Woodson Book Award
Black and White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene “Bull” Connors by Larry Dane Brimmer Published by Calkins Creek
No Honor Award for secondary level book was chosen in 2012.
2011
Elementary Winner
Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down Andrea Davis Pinkney and Illustrated by Brian Pinkney. Published by Little, Brown and Company (A Division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.), New York, NY.
Elementary Honor
Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave by Laban Carrick Hill and Illustrated by Bryan Collier. Published by Little, Brown and Company (A Division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.), New York, NY.
Secondary Winner
An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank by Elaine Marie Alphin. Published by Carolrhoda Books (A Division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.), Minneapolis, MN
Secondary Honor
Simeon’s Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till by Simeon Wright with Herb Boyd. Published by Lawrence Hill Books (An imprint of Chicago Review Press).
There were no awards given for Middle Level books in 2011.
2010
Elementary Winner
Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story by Paula Yoo and illustrated by Lin Wang. Published by Lee & Low Books Inc.
Elementary Honor
Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and illustrations by R. Gregory Christie. Published by Carolrhoda Books, a Division of Lerner
Middle Level Winner
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose. Published by Melanie Kroupa Books
Middle Honor
With One Sky Above Us: The Story of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians by Nancy Plain. Published by Mondo Publishing
Secondary Winner
Denied, Detained, Deported: Stories From the Dark Side of American Immigration by Ann Bausum. Published by the National Geographic Society
Secondary Honor
Ang Lee by Clifford W. Mills. Published by Chelsea House Publishers
2009
Elementary Winner
Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship by Nikki Giovanni and Illustrated by Bryan Collier. Published by Henry Holt and Company, LLC
Elementary Honor
A Boy Named Beckoning: The True Story of Dr. Carlos Montezuma, Native American Hero adapted and illustrated by Gina Capaldi. Published by Carolrhoda Books (A Division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.)
Middle Level Winner
Drama of African-American History: The Rise of Jim Crow by James Haskins and Kathleen Benson with Virginia Schomp. Published by Marshall Cavendish Benchmark.
Middle Honor
Booker T. Washington and Education (Lucent Library of Black History) by John F. Wukovits. Published by Lucent Books.
Secondary Winner
Reaching Out by Francisco Jiménez. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Secondary Honor
When the Children Marched: The Birmingham Civil Rights Movement by Robert H. Mayer. Published by Enslow Publishers, Inc.
2008
Elementary Level Award Winner
Louis Sockalexis: Native American Baseball Pioneer by Bill Wise, illustration by Bill Farnsworth (Lee & Low Books Inc.)
Elementary Level Honor Book
Surfer of the Century by Ellie Crowe, illustration by Richard Waldrep (Lee & Low Books Inc.)
Middle Level Award Winner
Black and White Airmen: Their True History by John Fleischman (Houghton Mifflin Company)
Middle Level Honor Book
Sophisticated Ladies:The Great Women of Jazz Leslie Gourse, illustration by Martin French (Dutton Children’s Books)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Don’t Throw Away Your Stick Till You Cross the River: The Journey of an Ordinary Man by Vincent Collin Beach with Anni Beach (Five Star Publications, Inc.)
Secondary Level Honor Book
United States v. Amistad: Slave Ship Mutiny by Susan Dudley Gold (Marshall Cavendish Benchmark)
2007
Elementary Level Award Winner
John Lewis in the Lead: A Story of the Civil Rights Movement by Jim Haskins and Kathleen Benson, illustrated by Benny Andrews (Lee & Low Books, Inc., New York, NY)
Elementary Level Honor Book
Gordon Parks: No Excuses by Ann Parr, Photographs by Gordon Parks (Pelican Publishing Col, Gretna, LA)
Middle Level Award Winner
Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman (Holiday House Publishers, New York, NY)
Middle Level Honor Book
Up Before Daybreak: Cotton and People in America by Deborah Hopkinson (Scholastic, Inc., New York, NY)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese-American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference by Joanne Oppenheim (Scholastic, Inc., New York, NY)
Secondary Level Honor Book
Growing Season: The Life of a Migrant Community Photographs by Gary Harwood, Text by David Hassler (The Kent State University Press, Kent, OH)
2006
Elementary Level Award Winner
Let Them Play by Margot Theis Raven, illustrated by Chris Ellison (Sleeping Bear Press, Chelsea, MI)
Elementary Level Honor Book
Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Raúl Colón (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, New York, NY)
Middle Level Award Winner
César Chávez: A Voice for Farmworkers by Bárbara Cruz (Enslow Publishers, Inc., Berkeley Heights, NJ)
Middle Level Honor Book
Roberto Clemente: Baseball’s Humanitarian Hero by Herón Márquez (Carolrhoda Books, Inc., Minneapolis, MN)
Secondary Level Award Winner
No Easy Answers: Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement by Calvin Craig Miller (Morgan Reynolds Publishing, Inc., Greensboro, NC)
Secondary Level Honor Book
Uh Huh! The Story of Ray Charles by John Duggleby (Morgan Reynolds Publishing, Inc., Greensboro, NC
2005
Elementary Level Award Winner Book
Jim Thorpe’s Bright Path by Joseph Bruchac, illustrated by S.D.Nelson (Lee and Low Books)
Elementary Level Honor Book
Alec’s Primer by Mildred Pitts Walter, illustrated by Larry Johnson (The Vermont Folklife Center)
Middle Level Award Winner Book
The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights by Russell Freedman (Clarion Books)
Middle Level Honor Book
The Power of One: Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nineby Judith Bloom Fradin and Dennis Brindell Fradin (Clarion Books)
Secondary Level AwardBook
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 Editedby Rober H. Mayer (Greenhaven Press, an imprint of Thomson Gale)
Secondary Level Honor Book
Alvin Ailey: Celebrating African-American Culture in Dance by Barbara C. Cruz (Enslow Publishers)
2004
Elementary Level Award Winner
Sacagawea by Liselotte Erdrich, illustrated by Julie Buffalohead (Carolrhoda Books, Inc.)
Elementary Level Honor Book
Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull, illustrated by Yuyi Morales (Harcourt, Inc.)
Middle Level Award Winner In America’s Shadowby Kimberly Komatsu and Kaleigh Komatsu, Forword by Kevin Starr and Essay by Mitchell T. Maki (Thomas George Books)
Middle Level Honor Book
Sojourner Truth: From Slave to Activist for Freedom by Mary G. Butler (The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Early Black Reformers by James Tackach (Greenhaven Press)
Secondary Level Honor Book
Gwendolyn Brooks: Poet from Chicago by Martha E. Rhynes (Morgan Reynolds Publishing, Inc.)
2003
Elementary Level Award Winner
Cesar Chavez: The Struggle for Justice / Cesar Chavez: La lucha por la justicia, by Richard Griswold del Castillo, illustrations by Anthony Accardo (Pinata Books, Arte Publico Press)
Elementary Level Honor Book
The Daring Escape of Ellen Craft, by Cathy Moore, illustrations by Mary O’Keefe Young (Carolrhoda Books, Inc., Lerner Publishing)
Middle Level Award Winner
Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp, by Michael L. Cooper (Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin)
Middle Level Honor Book
Strong Right Arm: The Story of Mamie “Peanut” Johnson, by Michelle Y. Green (Dial Books for Young Readers, Penguin Putnam, Inc.)
Secondary Level Award Winner
The “Mississippi Burning” Civil Rights Murder Conspiracy Trial: a Headline Court Case, by Harvey Fireside (Enslow Publishers, Inc.)
Secondary Level Honor Book
Atlas of Asian-American History, by Monique Avakian and Media Projects, Inc. (Facts On File, Inc.)
2002
Elementary Level Award Winner
Coming Home: A Story of Josh Gibson, Baseball’s Greatest Home Run Hitter by Nanette Mellage, illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu (Troll BridgeWater Books)
Honor Book
Children of the Civil Rights Era by Catherine A. Welch (Carolrhoda Books, Inc.)
Middle Level Award Winner
Prince Estabrook: Slave and Soldier by Alice Hinkel (Pleasant Mountain Press)
Honor Book
Matthew Henson: Co-Discoverer of the North Pole by Laura Baskes Litwin (Enslow Publishers Inc.)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Multiethnic Teens and Cultural Identity by Barbara C. Cruz (Enslow Publishers Inc.)
Honor Book
Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song by Katherine Krohn (Lerner Publications Co.)
2001
Elementary Level Award Winner
The Sound that Jazz Makes by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Eric Velasquez (Walker & Co.)
Honor Book
Children of the Relocation Camps by Catherine A. Welch (Carolrhoda Books, Inc.)
Middle Level Award Winner
Let it Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Stephen Alcorn (Gulliver Books, Harcourt, Inc.)
Honor Book
Carter G. Woodson: The Man Who Put “Black” in American History by Jim Haskins and Kathleen Benson, illustrated by Melanie Reim (The Millbrook Press)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Tatan’ka Iyota’ke: Sitting Bull and His World by Albert Marrin (Dutton Children’s Books)
Honor Book
Issues in Racism by Mary E. Williams (Lucent Books)
2000
Elementary Level Award Winner
Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges (Scholastic Press)
Honor Books
Magic Windows/Ventanas Magicas written and illustrated by Carmen Lomas Garza (Children’s Book Press)
Children of the Tlingit written and photographed by Frank Staub (Carolrhoda Books, Inc.)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Princess Ka’iulani: Hope of a Nation, Heart of a People by Sharon Linnea (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers)
Honor Books
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: The African-American Struggle Against Discrimination, 1865-1954 by Richard Wormser (Franklin Watts)
Black Hands, White Sails: The Story of African-American Whalers by Patricia C. McKissack and Fredrick L. McKissack (Scholastic Press)
1999
Elementary Level Award Winner
Story Painter: The Life of Jacob Lawrence by John Duggleby, (with art by Jacob Lawrence) (Chronicle Books)
Honor Books
Celebrating Chinese New Year by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith, photos by Lawrence Migdale (Holiday House)
The Riches of Oseola McCarty by Evelyn Coleman, illustrated by Daniel Minter (Albert Whitman & Co.)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Edmonia Lewis: Wildfire in Marble by Rinna Evelyn Wolfe (Dillon Press)
Honor Books
Life in a Japanese American Internment Camp by Diane Yancey (Lucent Books) Women of Hope: African Americans Who Made a Difference by Joyce Hansen (Scholastic Press)
1998
Elementary Level Award Winner
Leon’s Story by Leon Walter Tillage, illustrated by Susan L. Roth (Farrar Straus Giroux)
Honor Books
Buffalo Days by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith, photographs by Lawrence Migdale (Holiday House)
I Am Rosa Parks by Rosa Parks with Jim Haskins, illustrated by Wil Clay (Dial Books/Penguin Putnam)
Princess of the Press: The Story of Ida B. Wells-Barnett by Angela Shelf Medearis (Penguin Putnam)
Secondary Level Award Winner Langston Hughes by Milton Meltzer, illustrated by Stephen Alcorn (Millbrook Press)
Honor Books
The Flight of Red Bird: The Life of Zitkala-Sa by Doreen Rappaport (Dial Books/Penguin USA)
Slavery Time: When I Was Chillun by Belinda Hurmence (G.P. Putnam’s Sons/Putnam & Grosset)
1997
Elementary Level Award Winner
Ramadan by Suhaib Hamid Ghazi (Holiday House)
Honor Books The Life and Death of Crazy Horse by Russell Freedman (Holiday House)
Celebrating Hanukkah by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith (Holiday House)
Maya Angelou: More Than a Poet by Elaine Slivinski Lisandrelli (Enslow Pubilshers, Inc.)
Secondary Level Award Winner
The Harlem Renaissance by Jim Haskins (The Millbrook Press)
Honor Books
The Tuskegee Airmen: Heroes of World War II by Jacqueline Harris (Dillon Press)
The Japanese American Family Album by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler (Oxford University Press)
The Children of Topaz: The Story of a Japanese-American Internment Camp by Michael O. Tunnell and George W. Chilcoat (Holiday House)
1996
Elementary Level Award Winner
Songs from the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave by Monty Roessel (Lerner Publications Co.)
Outstanding Merit Book
Konnichiwa! I am a Japanese-American Girl by Tricia Brown (Henry Holt & Co.)
Secondary Level Award Winner
A Fence Away from Freedom: Japanese Americans and World War II by Ellen Levine (G P Putnam’s Sons)
Outstanding Merit Book
Red-Tail Angels: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II by Patricia and Frederick McKissack
1995
Elementary Level Award Winner
What I Had Was Singing: The Story of Marian Anderson by Jeri Ferris (Carolrhoda Books)
Outstanding Merit Books
Master of Mahogany: Tom Day, Free Black Cabinetmaker by Mary E. Lyons (Charles Scribener’s Sons)
Dear Benjamin Banneker by Andrea Davis Pinkney (Gulliver Books, Harcourt Brace & Company)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Till Victory is Won: Black Soldiers in the Civil War by Zak Mettger (Lodestar Books)
Outstanding Merit Books
Harriet: The Life and World of Harriet Beecher Stowe by Norma Johnston (Four Winds Press, Macmillan)
Battlefields and Burial Grounds: The Indian Struggle to Protect Ancestral Graves in the United States by Roger C. Echo-Hawk and Walter R. Echo-Hawk (Lerner Publications)
1994
Elementary Level Award Winner
Starting Home: The Story of Horace Pippin, Painter by Mary Lyons (Charles Scribner’s Sons)
Outstanding Merit Books
Celebrating Kwanzaa by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith (Holiday House)
The Great Migration by Paintings by Jacob Lawrence, Museum of Modern Art, The Phillips Collection
Secondary Level Award Winner
The March on Washington by James Haskins (Harper Collins Publishers)
Outstanding Merit Books
Sequoyah’s Gift: A Portrait of the Cherokee Leader by Janet Klausner (Harper Collins Publishers)
Many Thousand Gone: African Americans From Slavery to Freedom by Virginia Hamilton (Alfred A. Knopf)
1993
Elementary Level Award Winner
Madam C.J. Walker by Patricia and Frederick McKissack (Enslow Publishers)
Outstanding Merit Books
How My Family Lives in America by Susan Kuklin (Bradbury Press)
Hoang Anh: A Vietnamese-American Boy by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith (Holiday House)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Mississippi Challenge by Mildred Pitts Walter (Bradbury Press)
Outstanding Merit Books
Thurgood Marshall: A Life for Justice by James Haskins (Henry Holt)
The Year They Walked by Beatrice Siegel (Four Winds Press)
1992
Elementary Level Award Winner
The Last Princess: The Story of Princess Ka’Iolani of Hawai’i by Fay Stanley, illustrations by Diane Stanley (Macmillan Publishing Company)
Outstanding Merit Books
Pueblo Storyteller by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith with photographs by Lawrence Migdale (Holiday House)
Carter G. Woodson: The Father of Black History by Patricia and Frederick McKissack, illustrated by Ned O. (Enslow Publishers)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Native American Doctor: The Story of Susan LaFlesche Picotte by Jeri Ferris (Carolrhoda Books, Inc.)
Outstanding Merit Books
_Now is Your Time: The African-American Struggle for Freedom by Walter Dean Myers (Harper Collins)
Outward Dreams: Black Inventors and their Inventions by James Haskins (Walker Publishing Group)
1991
Elementary Level Award Winner
Shirley Chisolm by Catherine Scheader (Enslow Publishing)
Outstanding Merit Books
Teammates by Peter Golenback (Guillver/Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich)
Hector Live in the U.S. Now by Joan Hewett (Lippincott)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Sorrow’s Kitchen: The Life and Folklore of Zora Neal Hurston by Mary Lyons (Scribner’s Books for Young Readers/Macmillan Publishing Company)
Outstanding Merit Books
W.E.B. DuBois by Patricia and Frederick McKissack (Franklin Watts)
Breaking the Chains by William Katz (Atheneum)
1990
Elementary Level Award Winner
In Two Worlds: A Yup’ik Eskimo Family by Aylette Jenness and Alice Rivers (Houghton Mifflin Co.)
Outstanding Merit Books
Vilma Martinez by Corrin Codye (Raintree Publishers)
Artic Explorers by Jeri Ferris (Carolrhoda Books, Inc.)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Paul Robeson by Rebecca Larsen (Franklin Watts)
Outstanding Merit Books
New Kids on the Block by Janet Bode (Franklin Watts)
A Long Hard Journey by Patricia and Frederick McKissack (Walker and Co.)
1989
Elementary Level Award Winner
Walking the Road to Freedom by Jeri Ferris (Carolrhoda Books, Inc.)
Outstanding Merit Book
Buffalo Hunt by Russel Freedman (Holiday House)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Marian Anderson by Charles Patterson (Franklin Watts)
Outstanding Merit Books
Hispanic Voters by Judith Harlan (Franklin Watts)
Pride Against Prejudice: The Biography of Larry Doby by Joseph Moore (Praeger)
1988
Award Winner
Black Music in America: A History Through Its People by James Haskins (Harper and Row)
Outstanding Merit Books
Into a Strange Land by Brent Ashabranner and Melissa Ashabranner (Dodd Mead)
American Indians Today by Judith Harlan (Lerner)
You May Plow Here by Thorids Simonsen (Simon and Schuster)
1987
Award Winner
Happily May I Walk by Arlene Hirschfelder (Charles Scribner’s Sons)
Outstanding Merit Books
Children of the Maya by Brent Ashabranner (Dodd Mead)
Living in Two Worlds by Maxine B. Rosenberg (Lothrop)
1986
Award Winner
Dark Harvest: Migrant Farmworkers in America by Brent Ashabranner (Dodd, Mead and Company)
Outstanding Merit Book
Issues in American History: Racial Prejudice by Elaine Pasco (Franklin Watts, Inc.)
1985
Award Winner
To Live in Two Worlds: American Indian Youth Today by Brent Ashabranner (Dodd, Mead and Company)
Outstanding Merit Book
Our Golda: The Story of Golda Meir by David Adler (Viking Press)
1984
Award Winner
Mexico and the United States by E.B. Fincher (Crowell)
1983
Award Winner
Morning Star, Black Sun by Brent Ashabranner (Dodd Mead)
1982
Award Winner
Coming to North America from Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico by Susan Carver and Paula McGuire (Delacorte Press)
1981
Award Winner
The Chinese Americans by Milton Meltzer (Crowell)
Outstanding Merit Book
The Hardest Lesson: Personal Accounts of a School Desegregation Crisis by Pamela Bullar and Judith Stoia (Little, Brown and Company)
1980
Award Winner
War Cry on a Prayer Feather: Prose and Poetry of the Ute by Nancy Wood (Doubleday)
Outstanding Merit Books
A Cry From the Earth: Music of the North American Indians by John Bierhorst (Four Winds Press)
James Van Derzee: The Picture Takin’ Man by Jim Haskins (Dodd, Mead and Company)
1979
Award Winner
Native American Testimony: An Anthology of Indian and White Relations edited by Peter Nabokov (Crowell)
1978
Award Winner
The Biography of Daniel Inouye by Jan Goodsell (Crowell)
1977
Award Winner
The Trouble They Seen by Dorothy Sterling (Doubleday)
1976
Award Winner
Dragonwings by Laurence Yep (Crowell)
1975
Award Winner
Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord: The Life of Mahalia Jackson, Queen of the Gospel Singers by Jesse Jackson (Crowell)
1974
Award Winner
Rosa Parks by Eloise Greenfield (Crowell)
* At its 1996 November meeting, the Carter G. Woodson Book Award Subcommittee changed the designation “Outstanding Merit” to “Honor Book.”
** In 1989, the committee began to distinguish between books for young (elementary) and young adolescent (secondary) readers.
* * * In 2001, the committee began to recognize an award winner and an honor book for each of three book categories: elementary, middle, and secondary grade level books.
Elementary Level (Grades K–6) Carter G. Woodson Book Award
Fifty Cents and a Dream: Young Booker T. Washington by Jabari Asim, Illustrated by Bryan Collier Published by Little, Brown and Company
Carter G. Woodson Honor Award
Harlem's Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills Words by Renée Watson Pictures by Christian Robinson Published by Random House
Middle Level (Grades 5–8) Carter G. Woodson Winner Award
Marching to the Mountaintop: How Poverty, Labor Fights, and Civil Rights Set the Stage for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Final Hours by Ann Bausum Published by National Geographic Children's Books
Secondary Level (Grades 7–12) Carter G. Woodson Winner Award
Stolen into Slavery the True Story of Solomon Northup, Free Black Man by Judith Fradin and Dennis Fradin Published by National Geographic Children's Books
There were no Middle or Secondary Level Honor books selected in 2013.
2012
Elementary Level (Grades K–6) Carter G. Woodson Book Award
Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala-Ša, Native American Author, Musician, and Activist Adapted by Gina Capaldi and Q. L. Pearce Published by Carolrhoda Books
Carter G. Woodson Honor Award
A Nation’s Hope The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis by De La Peña, illustrated by Kadir Nelson Published by Dial Books for Young Readers
Middle Level (Grades 5–8) Carter G. Woodson Book Award
Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein by Susan Goldman Rubin Published by Charlesbridge
Carter G. Woodson Honor Award
Saga of the Sioux An adaptation from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dwight Jon Zimmerman Published by Henry Holt and Company, LLC
Secondary Level (Grades 7–12) Carter G. Woodson Book Award
Black and White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene “Bull” Connors by Larry Dane Brimmer Published by Calkins Creek
No Honor Award for secondary level book was chosen in 2012.
2011
Elementary Winner
Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down Andrea Davis Pinkney and Illustrated by Brian Pinkney. Published by Little, Brown and Company (A Division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.), New York, NY.
Elementary Honor
Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave by Laban Carrick Hill and Illustrated by Bryan Collier. Published by Little, Brown and Company (A Division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.), New York, NY.
Secondary Winner
An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank by Elaine Marie Alphin. Published by Carolrhoda Books (A Division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.), Minneapolis, MN
Secondary Honor
Simeon’s Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till by Simeon Wright with Herb Boyd. Published by Lawrence Hill Books (An imprint of Chicago Review Press).
There were no awards given for Middle Level books in 2011.
2010
Elementary Winner
Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story by Paula Yoo and illustrated by Lin Wang. Published by Lee & Low Books Inc.
Elementary Honor
Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and illustrations by R. Gregory Christie. Published by Carolrhoda Books, a Division of Lerner
Middle Level Winner
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose. Published by Melanie Kroupa Books
Middle Honor
With One Sky Above Us: The Story of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians by Nancy Plain. Published by Mondo Publishing
Secondary Winner
Denied, Detained, Deported: Stories From the Dark Side of American Immigration by Ann Bausum. Published by the National Geographic Society
Secondary Honor
Ang Lee by Clifford W. Mills. Published by Chelsea House Publishers
2009
Elementary Winner
Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship by Nikki Giovanni and Illustrated by Bryan Collier. Published by Henry Holt and Company, LLC
Elementary Honor
A Boy Named Beckoning: The True Story of Dr. Carlos Montezuma, Native American Hero adapted and illustrated by Gina Capaldi. Published by Carolrhoda Books (A Division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.)
Middle Level Winner
Drama of African-American History: The Rise of Jim Crow by James Haskins and Kathleen Benson with Virginia Schomp. Published by Marshall Cavendish Benchmark.
Middle Honor
Booker T. Washington and Education (Lucent Library of Black History) by John F. Wukovits. Published by Lucent Books.
Secondary Winner
Reaching Out by Francisco Jiménez. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Secondary Honor
When the Children Marched: The Birmingham Civil Rights Movement by Robert H. Mayer. Published by Enslow Publishers, Inc.
2008
Elementary Level Award Winner
Louis Sockalexis: Native American Baseball Pioneer by Bill Wise, illustration by Bill Farnsworth (Lee & Low Books Inc.)
Elementary Level Honor Book
Surfer of the Century by Ellie Crowe, illustration by Richard Waldrep (Lee & Low Books Inc.)
Middle Level Award Winner
Black and White Airmen: Their True History by John Fleischman (Houghton Mifflin Company)
Middle Level Honor Book
Sophisticated Ladies:The Great Women of Jazz Leslie Gourse, illustration by Martin French (Dutton Children’s Books)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Don’t Throw Away Your Stick Till You Cross the River: The Journey of an Ordinary Man by Vincent Collin Beach with Anni Beach (Five Star Publications, Inc.)
Secondary Level Honor Book
United States v. Amistad: Slave Ship Mutiny by Susan Dudley Gold (Marshall Cavendish Benchmark)
2007
Elementary Level Award Winner
John Lewis in the Lead: A Story of the Civil Rights Movement by Jim Haskins and Kathleen Benson, illustrated by Benny Andrews (Lee & Low Books, Inc., New York, NY)
Elementary Level Honor Book
Gordon Parks: No Excuses by Ann Parr, Photographs by Gordon Parks (Pelican Publishing Col, Gretna, LA)
Middle Level Award Winner
Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman (Holiday House Publishers, New York, NY)
Middle Level Honor Book
Up Before Daybreak: Cotton and People in America by Deborah Hopkinson (Scholastic, Inc., New York, NY)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese-American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference by Joanne Oppenheim (Scholastic, Inc., New York, NY)
Secondary Level Honor Book
Growing Season: The Life of a Migrant Community Photographs by Gary Harwood, Text by David Hassler (The Kent State University Press, Kent, OH)
2006
Elementary Level Award Winner
Let Them Play by Margot Theis Raven, illustrated by Chris Ellison (Sleeping Bear Press, Chelsea, MI)
Elementary Level Honor Book
Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Raúl Colón (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, New York, NY)
Middle Level Award Winner
César Chávez: A Voice for Farmworkers by Bárbara Cruz (Enslow Publishers, Inc., Berkeley Heights, NJ)
Middle Level Honor Book
Roberto Clemente: Baseball’s Humanitarian Hero by Herón Márquez (Carolrhoda Books, Inc., Minneapolis, MN)
Secondary Level Award Winner
No Easy Answers: Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement by Calvin Craig Miller (Morgan Reynolds Publishing, Inc., Greensboro, NC)
Secondary Level Honor Book
Uh Huh! The Story of Ray Charles by John Duggleby (Morgan Reynolds Publishing, Inc., Greensboro, NC
2005
Elementary Level Award Winner Book
Jim Thorpe’s Bright Path by Joseph Bruchac, illustrated by S.D.Nelson (Lee and Low Books)
Elementary Level Honor Book
Alec’s Primer by Mildred Pitts Walter, illustrated by Larry Johnson (The Vermont Folklife Center)
Middle Level Award Winner Book
The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights by Russell Freedman (Clarion Books)
Middle Level Honor Book
The Power of One: Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nineby Judith Bloom Fradin and Dennis Brindell Fradin (Clarion Books)
Secondary Level AwardBook
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 Editedby Rober H. Mayer (Greenhaven Press, an imprint of Thomson Gale)
Secondary Level Honor Book
Alvin Ailey: Celebrating African-American Culture in Dance by Barbara C. Cruz (Enslow Publishers)
2004
Elementary Level Award Winner
Sacagawea by Liselotte Erdrich, illustrated by Julie Buffalohead (Carolrhoda Books, Inc.)
Elementary Level Honor Book
Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull, illustrated by Yuyi Morales (Harcourt, Inc.)
Middle Level Award Winner In America’s Shadowby Kimberly Komatsu and Kaleigh Komatsu, Forword by Kevin Starr and Essay by Mitchell T. Maki (Thomas George Books)
Middle Level Honor Book
Sojourner Truth: From Slave to Activist for Freedom by Mary G. Butler (The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Early Black Reformers by James Tackach (Greenhaven Press)
Secondary Level Honor Book
Gwendolyn Brooks: Poet from Chicago by Martha E. Rhynes (Morgan Reynolds Publishing, Inc.)
2003
Elementary Level Award Winner
Cesar Chavez: The Struggle for Justice / Cesar Chavez: La lucha por la justicia, by Richard Griswold del Castillo, illustrations by Anthony Accardo (Pinata Books, Arte Publico Press)
Elementary Level Honor Book
The Daring Escape of Ellen Craft, by Cathy Moore, illustrations by Mary O’Keefe Young (Carolrhoda Books, Inc., Lerner Publishing)
Middle Level Award Winner
Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp, by Michael L. Cooper (Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin)
Middle Level Honor Book
Strong Right Arm: The Story of Mamie “Peanut” Johnson, by Michelle Y. Green (Dial Books for Young Readers, Penguin Putnam, Inc.)
Secondary Level Award Winner
The “Mississippi Burning” Civil Rights Murder Conspiracy Trial: a Headline Court Case, by Harvey Fireside (Enslow Publishers, Inc.)
Secondary Level Honor Book
Atlas of Asian-American History, by Monique Avakian and Media Projects, Inc. (Facts On File, Inc.)
2002
Elementary Level Award Winner
Coming Home: A Story of Josh Gibson, Baseball’s Greatest Home Run Hitter by Nanette Mellage, illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu (Troll BridgeWater Books)
Honor Book
Children of the Civil Rights Era by Catherine A. Welch (Carolrhoda Books, Inc.)
Middle Level Award Winner
Prince Estabrook: Slave and Soldier by Alice Hinkel (Pleasant Mountain Press)
Honor Book
Matthew Henson: Co-Discoverer of the North Pole by Laura Baskes Litwin (Enslow Publishers Inc.)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Multiethnic Teens and Cultural Identity by Barbara C. Cruz (Enslow Publishers Inc.)
Honor Book
Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song by Katherine Krohn (Lerner Publications Co.)
2001
Elementary Level Award Winner
The Sound that Jazz Makes by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Eric Velasquez (Walker & Co.)
Honor Book
Children of the Relocation Camps by Catherine A. Welch (Carolrhoda Books, Inc.)
Middle Level Award Winner
Let it Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Stephen Alcorn (Gulliver Books, Harcourt, Inc.)
Honor Book
Carter G. Woodson: The Man Who Put “Black” in American History by Jim Haskins and Kathleen Benson, illustrated by Melanie Reim (The Millbrook Press)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Tatan’ka Iyota’ke: Sitting Bull and His World by Albert Marrin (Dutton Children’s Books)
Honor Book
Issues in Racism by Mary E. Williams (Lucent Books)
2000
Elementary Level Award Winner
Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges (Scholastic Press)
Honor Books
Magic Windows/Ventanas Magicas written and illustrated by Carmen Lomas Garza (Children’s Book Press)
Children of the Tlingit written and photographed by Frank Staub (Carolrhoda Books, Inc.)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Princess Ka’iulani: Hope of a Nation, Heart of a People by Sharon Linnea (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers)
Honor Books
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: The African-American Struggle Against Discrimination, 1865-1954 by Richard Wormser (Franklin Watts)
Black Hands, White Sails: The Story of African-American Whalers by Patricia C. McKissack and Fredrick L. McKissack (Scholastic Press)
1999
Elementary Level Award Winner
Story Painter: The Life of Jacob Lawrence by John Duggleby, (with art by Jacob Lawrence) (Chronicle Books)
Honor Books
Celebrating Chinese New Year by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith, photos by Lawrence Migdale (Holiday House)
The Riches of Oseola McCarty by Evelyn Coleman, illustrated by Daniel Minter (Albert Whitman & Co.)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Edmonia Lewis: Wildfire in Marble by Rinna Evelyn Wolfe (Dillon Press)
Honor Books
Life in a Japanese American Internment Camp by Diane Yancey (Lucent Books) Women of Hope: African Americans Who Made a Difference by Joyce Hansen (Scholastic Press)
1998
Elementary Level Award Winner
Leon’s Story by Leon Walter Tillage, illustrated by Susan L. Roth (Farrar Straus Giroux)
Honor Books
Buffalo Days by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith, photographs by Lawrence Migdale (Holiday House)
I Am Rosa Parks by Rosa Parks with Jim Haskins, illustrated by Wil Clay (Dial Books/Penguin Putnam)
Princess of the Press: The Story of Ida B. Wells-Barnett by Angela Shelf Medearis (Penguin Putnam)
Secondary Level Award Winner Langston Hughes by Milton Meltzer, illustrated by Stephen Alcorn (Millbrook Press)
Honor Books
The Flight of Red Bird: The Life of Zitkala-Sa by Doreen Rappaport (Dial Books/Penguin USA)
Slavery Time: When I Was Chillun by Belinda Hurmence (G.P. Putnam’s Sons/Putnam & Grosset)
1997
Elementary Level Award Winner
Ramadan by Suhaib Hamid Ghazi (Holiday House)
Honor Books The Life and Death of Crazy Horse by Russell Freedman (Holiday House)
Celebrating Hanukkah by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith (Holiday House)
Maya Angelou: More Than a Poet by Elaine Slivinski Lisandrelli (Enslow Pubilshers, Inc.)
Secondary Level Award Winner
The Harlem Renaissance by Jim Haskins (The Millbrook Press)
Honor Books
The Tuskegee Airmen: Heroes of World War II by Jacqueline Harris (Dillon Press)
The Japanese American Family Album by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler (Oxford University Press)
The Children of Topaz: The Story of a Japanese-American Internment Camp by Michael O. Tunnell and George W. Chilcoat (Holiday House)
1996
Elementary Level Award Winner
Songs from the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave by Monty Roessel (Lerner Publications Co.)
Outstanding Merit Book
Konnichiwa! I am a Japanese-American Girl by Tricia Brown (Henry Holt & Co.)
Secondary Level Award Winner
A Fence Away from Freedom: Japanese Americans and World War II by Ellen Levine (G P Putnam’s Sons)
Outstanding Merit Book
Red-Tail Angels: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II by Patricia and Frederick McKissack
1995
Elementary Level Award Winner
What I Had Was Singing: The Story of Marian Anderson by Jeri Ferris (Carolrhoda Books)
Outstanding Merit Books
Master of Mahogany: Tom Day, Free Black Cabinetmaker by Mary E. Lyons (Charles Scribener’s Sons)
Dear Benjamin Banneker by Andrea Davis Pinkney (Gulliver Books, Harcourt Brace & Company)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Till Victory is Won: Black Soldiers in the Civil War by Zak Mettger (Lodestar Books)
Outstanding Merit Books
Harriet: The Life and World of Harriet Beecher Stowe by Norma Johnston (Four Winds Press, Macmillan)
Battlefields and Burial Grounds: The Indian Struggle to Protect Ancestral Graves in the United States by Roger C. Echo-Hawk and Walter R. Echo-Hawk (Lerner Publications)
1994
Elementary Level Award Winner
Starting Home: The Story of Horace Pippin, Painter by Mary Lyons (Charles Scribner’s Sons)
Outstanding Merit Books
Celebrating Kwanzaa by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith (Holiday House)
The Great Migration by Paintings by Jacob Lawrence, Museum of Modern Art, The Phillips Collection
Secondary Level Award Winner
The March on Washington by James Haskins (Harper Collins Publishers)
Outstanding Merit Books
Sequoyah’s Gift: A Portrait of the Cherokee Leader by Janet Klausner (Harper Collins Publishers)
Many Thousand Gone: African Americans From Slavery to Freedom by Virginia Hamilton (Alfred A. Knopf)
1993
Elementary Level Award Winner
Madam C.J. Walker by Patricia and Frederick McKissack (Enslow Publishers)
Outstanding Merit Books
How My Family Lives in America by Susan Kuklin (Bradbury Press)
Hoang Anh: A Vietnamese-American Boy by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith (Holiday House)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Mississippi Challenge by Mildred Pitts Walter (Bradbury Press)
Outstanding Merit Books
Thurgood Marshall: A Life for Justice by James Haskins (Henry Holt)
The Year They Walked by Beatrice Siegel (Four Winds Press)
1992
Elementary Level Award Winner
The Last Princess: The Story of Princess Ka’Iolani of Hawai’i by Fay Stanley, illustrations by Diane Stanley (Macmillan Publishing Company)
Outstanding Merit Books
Pueblo Storyteller by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith with photographs by Lawrence Migdale (Holiday House)
Carter G. Woodson: The Father of Black History by Patricia and Frederick McKissack, illustrated by Ned O. (Enslow Publishers)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Native American Doctor: The Story of Susan LaFlesche Picotte by Jeri Ferris (Carolrhoda Books, Inc.)
Outstanding Merit Books
_Now is Your Time: The African-American Struggle for Freedom by Walter Dean Myers (Harper Collins)
Outward Dreams: Black Inventors and their Inventions by James Haskins (Walker Publishing Group)
1991
Elementary Level Award Winner
Shirley Chisolm by Catherine Scheader (Enslow Publishing)
Outstanding Merit Books
Teammates by Peter Golenback (Guillver/Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich)
Hector Live in the U.S. Now by Joan Hewett (Lippincott)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Sorrow’s Kitchen: The Life and Folklore of Zora Neal Hurston by Mary Lyons (Scribner’s Books for Young Readers/Macmillan Publishing Company)
Outstanding Merit Books
W.E.B. DuBois by Patricia and Frederick McKissack (Franklin Watts)
Breaking the Chains by William Katz (Atheneum)
1990
Elementary Level Award Winner
In Two Worlds: A Yup’ik Eskimo Family by Aylette Jenness and Alice Rivers (Houghton Mifflin Co.)
Outstanding Merit Books
Vilma Martinez by Corrin Codye (Raintree Publishers)
Artic Explorers by Jeri Ferris (Carolrhoda Books, Inc.)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Paul Robeson by Rebecca Larsen (Franklin Watts)
Outstanding Merit Books
New Kids on the Block by Janet Bode (Franklin Watts)
A Long Hard Journey by Patricia and Frederick McKissack (Walker and Co.)
1989
Elementary Level Award Winner
Walking the Road to Freedom by Jeri Ferris (Carolrhoda Books, Inc.)
Outstanding Merit Book
Buffalo Hunt by Russel Freedman (Holiday House)
Secondary Level Award Winner
Marian Anderson by Charles Patterson (Franklin Watts)
Outstanding Merit Books
Hispanic Voters by Judith Harlan (Franklin Watts)
Pride Against Prejudice: The Biography of Larry Doby by Joseph Moore (Praeger)
1988
Award Winner
Black Music in America: A History Through Its People by James Haskins (Harper and Row)
Outstanding Merit Books
Into a Strange Land by Brent Ashabranner and Melissa Ashabranner (Dodd Mead)
American Indians Today by Judith Harlan (Lerner)
You May Plow Here by Thorids Simonsen (Simon and Schuster)
1987
Award Winner
Happily May I Walk by Arlene Hirschfelder (Charles Scribner’s Sons)
Outstanding Merit Books
Children of the Maya by Brent Ashabranner (Dodd Mead)
Living in Two Worlds by Maxine B. Rosenberg (Lothrop)
1986
Award Winner
Dark Harvest: Migrant Farmworkers in America by Brent Ashabranner (Dodd, Mead and Company)
Outstanding Merit Book
Issues in American History: Racial Prejudice by Elaine Pasco (Franklin Watts, Inc.)
1985
Award Winner
To Live in Two Worlds: American Indian Youth Today by Brent Ashabranner (Dodd, Mead and Company)
Outstanding Merit Book
Our Golda: The Story of Golda Meir by David Adler (Viking Press)
1984
Award Winner
Mexico and the United States by E.B. Fincher (Crowell)
1983
Award Winner
Morning Star, Black Sun by Brent Ashabranner (Dodd Mead)
1982
Award Winner
Coming to North America from Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico by Susan Carver and Paula McGuire (Delacorte Press)
1981
Award Winner
The Chinese Americans by Milton Meltzer (Crowell)
Outstanding Merit Book
The Hardest Lesson: Personal Accounts of a School Desegregation Crisis by Pamela Bullar and Judith Stoia (Little, Brown and Company)
1980
Award Winner
War Cry on a Prayer Feather: Prose and Poetry of the Ute by Nancy Wood (Doubleday)
Outstanding Merit Books
A Cry From the Earth: Music of the North American Indians by John Bierhorst (Four Winds Press)
James Van Derzee: The Picture Takin’ Man by Jim Haskins (Dodd, Mead and Company)
1979
Award Winner
Native American Testimony: An Anthology of Indian and White Relations edited by Peter Nabokov (Crowell)
1978
Award Winner
The Biography of Daniel Inouye by Jan Goodsell (Crowell)
1977
Award Winner
The Trouble They Seen by Dorothy Sterling (Doubleday)
1976
Award Winner
Dragonwings by Laurence Yep (Crowell)
1975
Award Winner
Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord: The Life of Mahalia Jackson, Queen of the Gospel Singers by Jesse Jackson (Crowell)
1974
Award Winner
Rosa Parks by Eloise Greenfield (Crowell)
* At its 1996 November meeting, the Carter G. Woodson Book Award Subcommittee changed the designation “Outstanding Merit” to “Honor Book.”
** In 1989, the committee began to distinguish between books for young (elementary) and young adolescent (secondary) readers.
* * * In 2001, the committee began to recognize an award winner and an honor book for each of three book categories: elementary, middle, and secondary grade level books.