YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award
2020-2029

2024

WINNER: Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by Dashka Slater

Accountable : the true story of a racist social media account and the teenagers whose lives it changed by Dashka Slater
Call Number: YA 371.829 SLA-D
ISBN: 9780374314347
Publication Date: 2023-08-22
A young adult nonfiction book on how Albany High School handled a racist social media incident that incurs lasting and devastating consequences.

FINALISTS:

America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History written & illustrated by Ariel Aberg-Riger
Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam written & illustrated by Thien Pham
From Here by Luma Mufleh
Nearer My Freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself by Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge

America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History by Ariel Aberg-Riger (Illustrator)
Call Number: YA 973 ABE-A
ISBN: 9780063057531
Publication Date: 2023-05-02
America Redux explores the themes that create our shared sense of American identity and interrogates the myths we've been telling ourselves for centuries. With iconic American catchphrases as chapter titles, these twenty-one visual stories illuminate the astonishing, unexpected, sometimes darker sides of history that reverberate in our society to this very day--from the role of celebrity in immigration policy to the influence of one small group of white women on education to the effects of 'progress' on housing and the environment, to the inspiring force of collective action and mutual aid across decades and among diverse groups.
Family Style : memories of an American from Vietnam by Thien Pham
Call Number: YA B PHA-T (Young adult biography)
ISBN: 9781250809711
Publication Date: 2023-06-20
A moving young adult graphic memoir about a Vietnamese immigrant boy's search for belonging in America, perfect for fans of American Born Chinese and The Best We Could Do!
Nearer My Freedom : the interesting life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself by Monica Edinger; Lesley Younge
Call Number: YA B EQU-O (Young adult biography)
ISBN: 9781728464077
Publication Date: 2023-03-07
Using Olaudah Equiano's autobiography as the source, the text shares Equiano's life story in found verse. Readers will follow his story from his childhood in Africa, enslavement at a young age, liberation, and life as a free man.

2023

Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice written by Tommie Smith and Derrick Barnes; illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile

Victory. Stand! : raising my fist for justice by Tommie Smith; Derrick Barnes
Call Number: YA B SMI-T (Young adult biography)
ISBN: 9781324003908
Publication Date: 2022-09-27
On October 16, 1968, during the medal ceremony at the Mexico City Olympics, Tommie Smith, the gold medal winner in the 200-meter sprint, and John Carlos, the bronze medal winner, stood on the podium in black socks and raised their black-gloved fists to protest racial injustice inflicted upon African Americans. Both men were forced to leave the Olympics, received death threats, and faced ostracism and continuing economic hardships. In his first-ever memoir for young readers, Tommie Smith looks back on his childhood growing up in rural Texas through to his stellar athletic career, culminating in his historic victory and Olympic podium protest.

Abuela, Don't Forget Me by Rex Ogle
American Murderer: the Parasite that Haunted the South by Gail Jarrow
A Face for Picasso: Coming of Age with Crouzon Syndrome by Ariel Henley
Unequal: a Story of America by Michael Eric Dyson & Marc Favreau

Abuela, Don't Forget Me by Rex Ogle
Call Number: YA 306.874 OGL-R (Young adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781324019954
Publication Date: 2022-09-06
Rex Ogle's companion to Free Lunch and Punching Bag weaves humor, heartbreak, and hope into life-affirming poems that honor his grandmother's legacy. In his award-winning memoir Free Lunch, Rex Ogle's abuela features as a source of love and support. In this companion-in-verse, Rex captures and celebrates the powerful presence a woman he could always count on-to give him warm hugs and ear kisses, to teach him precious words in Spanish, to bring him to the library where he could take out as many books as he wanted, and to offer safety when darkness closed in. Throughout a coming of age marked by violence and dysfunction, Abuela's red-brick house in Abilene, Texas, offered Rex the possibility of home, and Abuela herself the possibility for a better life. Abuela, Don't Forget Me is a lyrical portrait of the transformative and towering woman who believed in Rex even when he didn't yet know how to believe in himself.
American Murderer : the parasite that haunted the south (Medical fiascoes) by Gail Jarrow
Call Number: YA 616.9 JAR-G (Young adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781684378159
Publication Date: 2022-09-27
Imagine microscopic worms living in the soil. They enter your body through your bare feet, travel to your intestines, and stay there for years sucking your blood like vampires. You feel exhausted. You get sick easily. It sounds like a nightmare, but that's what happened in the American South during the 1800s and early 1900s. Doctors never guessed that hookworms were making patients ill, but zoologist Charles Stiles knew better. Working with one of the first public health organizations, he and his colleagues treated the sick and showed Southerners how to protect themselves by wearing shoes and using outhouses so that the worms didn't spread. Although hookworm was eventually controlled in the United States, the parasite remains a serious health problem throughout the world. The topic of this STEM book remains relevant and will fascinate young readers interested in medicine, science, history-and gross stories about bloodsucking creatures.
A Face for Picasso : coming of age with Crouzon Syndrome by Ariel Henley
Call Number: YA B HEN-A (Young adult biography)
ISBN: 9780374314071
Publication Date: 2021-11-02
At only eight months old, identical twin sisters Ariel and Zan were diagnosed with Crouzon syndrome, a rare condition where the bones in the head fuse prematurely. They were the first twins known to survive the disease. They endured numerous appearance-altering procedures as they grew up. Surgeons would break the bones in their heads and faces to make room for their growing organs. While the physical aspect of their condition was painful, it was nothing compared to the emotional toll of navigating life with a facial disfigurement. Here Ariel explores beauty, identity, resilience-- and the strength it takes to put your life, and yourself, back together time and time again.
Unequal : a story of America by Michael Eric Dyson; Marc Favreau
Call Number: YA 323.1 DYS-ME (Young adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780759557017
Publication Date: 2022-05-03
The true story of racial inequality-- and resistance to it-- is the prologue to our present. Dyson and Favreau deliver a gripping chronicle of the struggles that shaped modern America through the stories of some of the many African American people who dared to fight for a more equal future. Inequality persists-- but there are many paths to resist.

2022

Ambushed!: the Assassination Plot Against President Garfield by Gail Jarrow

Ambushed! : the assassination plot against President Garfield (Medical fiascoes) by Gail Jarrow
Call Number: YA 973.84 JAR-G (Young adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781684378142
Publication Date: 2021-10-12

Black Birds in the Sky: the Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre by Brandy Colbert
From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: the Killing of Vincent Chine and the Trial That Galvanized the Asian American Movement by Paula Yoo
In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers: the Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months and Years after the 9/11 Attacks written & illustrated by Don Brown
The Woman All Spies Fear: Code Breaker Elizebeth Smith Friedman and Her Hidden Life by Amy Butler Greenfield

Black Birds in the Sky : the story and legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race massacre by Brandy Colbert
Call Number: YA 976.6 COL-B (Young adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780063056664
Publication Date: 2021-10-05

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From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry : the killing of Vincent Chin and the trial that galvanized the Asian American movement by Paula Yoo
Call Number: YA 305.895 YOO-P (Young adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781324002871
Publication Date: 2021-04-20

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In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers : the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years after the 9/11 attacks by Don Brown
Call Number: YA 973.931 BRO-D (Young adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780358223573
Publication Date: 2021-08-10

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The Woman All Spies Fear : code breaker Elizabeth Smith Friedman by Amy Butler Greenfield
Call Number: YA B FRI-E (Young adult biography)
ISBN: 9780593127193
Publication Date: 2021-10-26

2021

The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh by Candace Fleming

The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh by Candace Fleming
Call Number: YA B LIN-C (Young adult biography)
ISBN: 9780525646549
Publication Date: 2020-02-11
A riveting biography of one of America's most celebrated heroes, and most complicated, troubled men, Charles Lindbergh

All Thirteen : the Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team by Christina Soontornvat
The Cat I Never Named : a True Story of Love, War, and Survival by Amra Sabic-El-Rayes, with Laura L. Sullivan
How We Got to the Moon : the People, Technology, and Daring Feats of Science Behind Humanity's Greatest Adventure written & illustrated by John Rocco
You Call This Democracy? : How to Fix Our Democracy and Deliver Power to the People by Elizabeth Rusch

All Thirteen : the Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team by Christina Soontornvat
Call Number: Juv 796.52 SOO (Juvenile nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781536209457
Publication Date: 2020-10-13
On June 23, 2018, twelve young players of the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach enter a cave in northern Thailand seeking an afternoon's adventure. But when they turn to leave, rising floodwaters block their path out. The boys are trapped! Before long, news of the missing team spreads, launching a seventeen-day rescue operation involving thousands of rescuers from around the globe. Combining firsthand interviews of rescue workers with in-depth science and details of the region's culture and religion, [the author]...masterfully shows how both the complex engineering operation above ground and the mental struggles of the thirteen young people below proved critical in the life-or-death mission.

The Cat I Never Named by Amra Sabic-El-Rayess; Laura L. Sullivan
Call Number: YA B SAB-A (Young adult biography)
ISBN: 9781547604531
Publication Date: 2020-09-08
In Bihac, Bosnia, in 1992, sixteen-year-old Amra and her family face starvation and the threat of brutal ethnic violence as Serbs and Bosnians clash, while a stray cat, Maci, provides solace.

How We Got to the Moon by John Rocco
Call Number: Juv 629.45 ROC (Juvenile Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780525647416
Publication Date: 2020-10-06
This beautifully illustrated, oversized guide to the people and technology of the moon landing by award-winning author/illustrator John Rocco is a must-have for space fans, classrooms, and tech geeks.

You Call This Democracy? : how to fix our government and deliver power to the people by Elizabeth Rusch
Call Number: YA 320.973 RUS-E (Young adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780358176923
Publication Date: 2020-03-31
America is the greatest democracy in the world ... isn't it? Author Elizabeth Rusch examines some of the more problematic aspects of our government but, more importantly, offers ways for young people to fix them

2020

Free Lunch by Rex Ogle

Free Lunch by Rex Ogle
Call Number: YA B OGL-R (Young Adult Biography)
ISBN: 9781324003601
Publication Date: 2019-09-10
Rex Ogle's story of starting middle school on the free lunch program is timely, heartbreaking, and true. Free Lunch is the story of Rex Ogle's first semester in sixth grade. Rex and his baby brother often went hungry, wore secondhand clothes, and were short of school supplies, and Rex was on his school's free lunch program. Grounded in the immediacy of physical hunger and the humiliation of having to announce it every day in the school lunch line, Rex's is a compelling story of a more profound hunger -- that of a child for his parents' love and care.

The Great Nijinsky : God of Dance by Lynn Curlee
A Light in the Darkness : Janusz Korczak, His Orphans, and the Holocaust by Albert Marrin
A Thousand Sisters : the Heroic Airwomen of the Soviet Union in World War II by Elizabeth Win
Torpedoed : the True Story of the World War II Sinking of "The Children's Ship" by Deborah Heiligman

The Great Nijinsky : god of dance by Lynn Curlee
Call Number: YA B NIJ-V (Young Adult Biography)
ISBN: 9781580898003
Publication Date: 2019-04-09
Dance prodigy, sex symbol, gay pioneer, cultural icon--Vaslav Nijinsky rose to fame as the star of the Ballets Russes in Paris before mental illness stole his career and the last thirty years of his life. A tragic story of a great genius, this compelling work of narrative nonfiction chronicles a life of obsessive artistry, celebrity, and notoriety.

A Light in the Darkness : Janusz Korczak, his orphans, and the Holocaust by Albert Marrin
Call Number: YA B KOR-J (Young Adult Biography)
ISBN: 9781524701208
Publication Date: 2019-09-10
A Polish Jew on the eve of World War II, Janusz Korczak turned down opportunities for escape in order to stand by the children in his orphanage as they became confined to the Warsaw Ghetto. Dressing them in their Sabbath finest, he led their march to the trains and ultimately perished with his children in Treblinka. Marrin examines not just Korczak's life but his ideology of children: that children are valuable in and of themselves, as individuals. He contrasts this with Adolf Hitler's life and his ideology of children: that children are nothing more than tools of the state.

A Thousand Sisters : the heroic airwomen of the Soviet Union in World War II by Elizabeth Wein
Call Number: YA 940.54 WEI-E (Young Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780062453013
Publication Date: 2019-01-22
In the early years of World War II, Josef Stalin issued an order that made the Soviet Union the first country in the world to allow female pilots to fly in combat. Led by Marina Raskova, these three regiments, including the 588th Night Bomber Regiment--nicknamed the "night witches"--Faced intense pressure and obstacles both in the sky and on the ground. Some of these young women perished in flames. Many of them were in their teens when they went to war. This is the story of Raskova's three regiments, women who enlisted and were deployed on the front lines of battle as navigators, pilots, and mechanics. It is the story of a thousand young women who wanted to take flight to defend their country, and the woman who brought them together in the sky

Torpedoed : the true story of the World War II sinking of "The Children's Ship" by Deborah Heiligman
Call Number: YA 940.54 HEI-D (Young Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781627795548
Publication Date: 2019-10-08
A true account of the attack and sinking of the passenger ship SS City of Benares, which was evacuating children from England during WWII.

YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award

YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award
2020-2029

2024

WINNER: Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by Dashka Slater

FINALISTS:

America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History written & illustrated by Ariel Aberg-Riger

Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam written & illustrated by Thien Pham

From Here by Luma Mufleh

Nearer My Freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself by Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge

2023

Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice written by Tommie Smith and Derrick Barnes; illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile

Abuela, Don't Forget Me by Rex Ogle

American Murderer: the Parasite that Haunted the South by Gail Jarrow

A Face for Picasso: Coming of Age with Crouzon Syndrome by Ariel Henley

Unequal: a Story of America by Michael Eric Dyson & Marc Favreau

2022

Ambushed!: the Assassination Plot Against President Garfield by Gail Jarrow

2021

The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh by Candace Fleming

2020

Free Lunch by Rex Ogle

YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award

YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award 2020-2029

2024

WINNER: Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by Dashka Slater

FINALISTS:

America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History written & illustrated by Ariel Aberg-Riger

Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam written & illustrated by Thien Pham

From Here by Luma Mufleh

Nearer My Freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself by Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge

2023

Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice written by Tommie Smith and Derrick Barnes; illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile

Abuela, Don't Forget Me by Rex Ogle

American Murderer: the Parasite that Haunted the South by Gail Jarrow

A Face for Picasso: Coming of Age with Crouzon Syndrome by Ariel Henley

Unequal: a Story of America by Michael Eric Dyson & Marc Favreau

2022

Ambushed!: the Assassination Plot Against President Garfield by Gail Jarrow

2021

The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh by Candace Fleming

2020

Free Lunch by Rex Ogle

YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award
2020-2029