2021 Winners: Newbery, Caldecott, King, Printz & More Awards from the American Library Association

by Tae Keller

When Lily, her sister Sam, and their mother move in with her sick grandmother, Lily traps a tiger and makes a deal with him to heal Halmoni.

illustrated by Michaela Goade and authored by Carole Lindstrom

Water is the first medicine. It affects and connects us all... When a black snake threatens to destroy the Earth and poison her people's water, one young water protector takes a stand to defend Earth's most sacred resource. Inspired by the many indigenous-led movements across North America, this bold and lyrical picture book issues an urgent rallying cry to safeguard the Earth's water from harm and corruption.

by Jacqueline Woodson

The son of an idolized pro-football star begins noticing the contrast between his father’s angry, forgetful behavior and his superhero reputation before adjusting to a new reality involving difficult symptoms stemming from his father’s numerous head injuries.

illustrated by Frank Morrison and authored by Carole Boston Weatherford

A vibrant portrait of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame music artist includes coverage of Franklin’s Grammy-winning achievements and unfailing dedication to civil rights.

by Daniel Nayeri

At the front of a middle school classroom in Oklahoma, a boy named Khosrou (whom everyone calls "Daniel") stands, trying to tell a story. His story. But no one believes a word he says. To them he is a dark-skinned, hairy-armed boy with a big butt whose lunch smells funny; who makes things up and talks about poop too much. But Khosrou''s stories, stretching back years, and decades, and centuries, are beautiful, and terrifying, from the moment his family fled Iran in the middle of the night, back to the sad, cement refugee camps of Italy and further back to the fields near the river Aras, where rain-soaked flowers bled red like the yolk of sunset burst over everything, and further back still to the Jasmine-scented city of Isfahan. Like Scheherazade in a hostile classroom, Daniel weaves a tale to save his own life: to stake his claim to the truth. And it is (a true story). It is Daniel's.

by Jordan Scott and pictures by Sydney Smith

When a boy who stutters feels isolated, alone, and incapable of communicating in the way he'd like, it takes a kindly father and a walk by the river to help him find his voice.

written by Ann Clare LeZotte

It is 1805 and Mary Lambert has always felt safe among the deaf community of Chilmark on Martha's Vineyard where practically everyone communicates in a shared sign language, but recent events have shattered her life; her brother George has died, land disputes between English settlers and the Wampanoag people are becoming increasingly bitter, and a "scientist" determined to discover the origins of the islands' widespread deafness has decided she makes the perfect "live specimen"—and kidnapped her.

written by I.W. Gregorio

A dual-narrative romance that explores themes of mental health and self-acceptance follows the experiences of a teen filmmaker and an aspiring school paper editor who work together to upgrade and promote a struggling Chinese restaurant.

written by Gianni Rodari, illustrated by Valerio Vidali, translated by Antony Shugaar (note yet in the NYPL collection)

Every night, at nine o’clock, wherever he is, Mr. Bianchi, an accountant who often travels for work, calls his daughter and tells her a bedtime story. Set in the 20th century era of pay phones, each story has to be told in the time that a single coin will buy. One night, it’s the story of a carousel so beloved by children that an old man finally sneaks on to understand why, and as he sails above the world, he does. The next night, it’s a land filled with butter men, roads paved with chocolate, or a young shrimp who has the courage to defy expectations and do things differently.

written by Deborah Wiles and narrated by Christopher Gebauer, Lauren Ezzo, Christina DeLaine, Johnny Heller, Roger Wayne, Korey Jackson, and David de Vries

May 4, 1970. Kent State University. As protestors roil the campus, National Guardsmen are called in. In the chaos of what happens next, shots are fired and four students are killed. To this day, there is still argument of what happened and why. Told in multiple voices from a number of vantage points—protestor, Guardsman, townie, student—Deborah Wiles's Kent State gives a moving, terrifying, galvanizing picture of what happened that weekend in Ohio...an event that, even fifty years later, still resonates deeply

written and illustrated by Raúl Gonzalez aka Raúl the Third

A follow-up to ¡Vamos! Let’s Go to the Market finds Little Lobo excitedly attending a show starring his favorite wrestling champion before enjoying some of the delicious options being served from nearby food trucks.

by Ernesto Cisneros

Worrying about his undocumented parents, who have worked hard to secure a safe life for their family, a young Mexican American struggles to find his inner courage when his beloved mother is arrested and deported.

written by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Eric Rohmann

Take to the sky with Apis, one honeybee, as she embarks on her journey through life! Describes the life of a typical worker bee, as she emerges from her cell, does different jobs around the hive while growing big enough and strong enough to fly, and flies far and wide to search for nectar.

written by Archaa Shrivastav designed by Lindsey Blakely (not yet in the NYPL collection)

Beautiful photos of real-life families showcase all the wonderful forms of family, while poetic text builds both vocabulary and family connection. FAMILIES helps families and educators celebrate gender and ethnicity at home and in the classroom.

written by David LaRochelle, illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka

See Max. Max is not a cat. Max is a dog. But much to Max's dismay, the book keeps instructing readers to see the cat. How can Max get through to the book that he is a DOG? In a trio of stories for beginning readers, author David LaRochelle introduces the excitable Max, who lets the book know in irresistibly emphatic dialogue that the text is not to his liking. Illustrator Mike Wohnoutka hilariously depicts the pup's reactions to the narrator and to the wacky cast of characters who upend Max's and readers' expectations as the three stories build to an immensely satisfying conclusion. 

written by Kyrie McCauley

In Auburn, Pennsylvania, a farming community overrun with crows, high school senior Leighton struggles to keep herself and her sisters safe from their abusive father even as she starts a relationship.

written by Candace Fleming

First human to cross the Atlantic via airplane; one of the first American media sensations; Nazi sympathizer and anti-Semite; loner whose baby was kidnapped and murdered; champion of Eugenics, the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding; tireless environmentalist. Charles Lindbergh was all of the above and more. Here is a rich, multi-faceted, utterly spellbinding biography about an American hero who was also a deeply flawed man. 

written by Julie Leung, illustrated by Chris Sasaki

Before he became an artist named Tyrus Wong, he was a boy named Wong Geng Yeo. He traveled across a vast ocean from China to America with only a suitcase and a few papers. Not papers for drawing--which he loved to do--but immigration papers to start a new life. Once in America, Tyrus seized every opportunity to make art, eventually enrolling at an art institute in Los Angeles. Working as a janitor at night, his mop twirled like a paintbrush in his hands. Eventually, he was given the opportunity of a lifetime--and using sparse brushstrokes and soft watercolors, Tyrus created the iconic backgrounds of Bambi.

by Tae Keller

When Lily, her sister Sam, and their mother move in with her sick grandmother, Lily traps a tiger and makes a deal with him to heal Halmoni.

by Andrew Fukuda

In 1935, ten-year-old Alex Maki of Bainbridge Island, Washington, is horrified to discover that his new pen pal, Charlie Lâevy of Paris, France, is a girl, but in spite of his initial reluctance, their letters continue over the years and they fight for their friendship even as Charlie endures the Nazi occupation and Alex leaves his family in an internment camp and joins the Army.