Josette Frank Award
Template:Short description The Josette Frank Award is an American children's literary award for fiction given annually by the Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College of Education. It "honors a book or books of outstanding literary merit in which children or young people deal in a positive and realistic way with difficulties in their world and grow emotionally and morally".<ref name=awards/>
Gary D. Schmidt, winner of the 2024 Josette Frank Award for his novel The Labors of Hercules Beal, wrote in his acceptance letter, "If it can be said that awards such as the Josette Frank award fight for children, then Bank Street has, for many years, fought valiantly for children. You’ve held high standards of artistic excellence AND encouraged writers and illustrators who want to talk about the world that real children inhabit, even if it’s a pretty broken world that fills those pages. Just listing those titles suggests how the award has honored books that are honest accounts, that point to a world that doesn’t always value children and their experience, a world that often wars against them. But these books assert that in that world are children whose lives are mighty and lovely, and that their immediate experience is not always to be determined by the brokenness children find around them every single day. What could possibly be more important in today’s literature than a book that a child could pick up, read, and come away saying, 'I can grow too'?"<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Known as the Children's Book Award from 1943 to 1997, it was renamed in honor of Josette Frank, the editor of many anthologies for children and a former Executive Director of the Child Study Association of America.<ref name=awards/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The prize to the author of the book has been provided by the Florence L. Miller Memorial Fund.
The Josette Frank Award is one of several prominent awards that the Children's Book Committee gives each year. The Flora Stieglitz Straus Award, established in 1994, is presented to "a distinguished work of nonfiction that serves as an inspiration to young people." The Claudia Lewis Award, given for the first time in 1998, honors the best poetry book of the year. The Margaret Wise Brown Board Book Award, a biennial award, presented to published or adapted board books, was established in 2023 and honored books published in 2021-2022.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Winners
Children's Book Award
| Award Year | Award Distinction | Book Title (Year Published) | Author | Illustrator | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1943 | Keystone Kids (1943) | Template:Sortname | Harcourt Brace | ||
| 1944 | Template:Sort (1944) | Template:Sortname | Helen Blair | Houghton Mifflin | |
| 1945 | Template:Sort (1945) | Florence Cranell Means | Houghton Mifflin | ||
| 1946 | Heart of Danger (1946) | Template:Sortname | Doubleday | ||
| 1947 | Judy's Journey (1947) | Template:Sortname | J. B. Lippincott & Co. | ||
| 1948 | Template:Sort (1948) | Template:Sortname | Utagawa Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai | John Day Company | |
| 1949 | Paul Tiber: Forester (1949) | Maria Gleit | Ralph Ray | Charles Scribner's Sons | |
| 1950 | Partners: The United Nations and Youth (1950) | Template:Sortname and Helen Ferris | Junior Literary Guild/Doubleday | ||
| 1951 | No Award | ||||
| 1952 | Jareb (1952) | Miriam Powell | Marc Simont | Thomas Y. Crowell | |
| Twenty and Ten (1952); later republished with minor edits as The Secret Cave (1969, 1973 Scholastic)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation | CitationClass=web
}}</ref> |
Template:Sortname | William Pène du Bois | Puffin | |
| 1953 | In a Mirror (1953) | Template:Sortname | Harper | ||
| 1954 | High Road Home (1954) | Template:Sortname | Coward-McCann/Junior Literary Guild | ||
| The Ordeal of the Young Hunter (1954) | Jonreed Lauritzen | Hoke Denetsosie | Little, Brown and Company | ||
| 1955 | Crow Boy | Template:Sortname | |||
| Plain Girl | Template:Sortname | ||||
| 1956 | Template:Sort | Template:Sortname | Maurice Sendak | Harper & Row | |
| 1957 | Shadow Across the Campus | Helen Roney Sattler | Dodd Mead | ||
| 1958 | South Town | Lorenz Graham | |||
| 1959 | Jennifer | Template:Sortname | |||
| 1960 | Janine | Robin McKown | Messner | ||
| 1961 | Winner | Template:Sort (translated from Norwegian by Evelyn Ramsden) | Template:Sortname | Ulf Aas | Criterion |
| Special Citation | Template:Sort | Hila Colman | |||
| 1962 | Template:Sort | John Lexau | |||
| 1963 | Winner | Template:Sort | Betty Schechter | ||
| Special Citation | Template:Sort | Mildred Lee | |||
| 1964 | Template:Sort | Ruth Peabody Harnden | Vee Guthrie | ||
| 1965 | Template:Sort | Template:Sortname | John Kauffman | ||
| 1966 | Winner | Queenie Peavy | Template:Sortname | ||
| Special Citation | Curious George Goes to the Hospital | Margret Rey and H. A. Rey | Margret Rey and H.A. Rey | Houghton Mifflin | |
| 1967 | Template:Sort | Template:Sortname | |||
| 1968 | Winner | What It's All About (translated from Russian by Joseph Barnes) | Vadim Frolic | Macmillan | |
| Special Citation | Where's Daddy? A Story about Divorce | Beth Goff | Susan Perl | Beacon Press | |
| 1969 | Template:Sort | Margaretha Shemin | Coward-McCann | ||
| 1970 | Migrant Girl | Carli Laklan | |||
| Rock Star | Template:Sortname | ||||
| 1971 | Winner | John Henry McCoy | Lillie D. Chaffin | Emanuel Schongut | |
| Special Citation | The Pair of Shoes | Aline Glasgow | Symeon Shimin | Dial BFYR | |
| 1972 | Template:Sort | Template:Sortname | |||
| 1973 | Template:Sort | Template:Sortname | |||
| 1974 | Luke Was There | Template:Sortname | Diane DeGroat | ||
| 1975 | Template:Sort | Carol Farley | Lynn Sweat | ||
| 1976 | Somebody Else's Child | Roberta Silman | Chris Conover | ||
| 1977 | Template:Sort | Template:Sortname | |||
| 1978 | Template:Sort | Template:Sortname | |||
| 1979 | Template:Sort | T. A. Dyer | |||
| 1980 | Template:Sort | Template:Sortname | |||
| 1981 | Template:Sort | Athena Lord | |||
| 1982 | Homesick: My Own Story | Template:Sortname | Margot Tomes | Putnam | |
| 1983 | Winner | Template:Sort | Template:Sortname | ||
| Special Citation | Template:Sort | Template:Sortname | |||
| 1984 | One-Eyed Cat | Template:Sortname | |||
| 1985 | Winner | With Westie and the Tin Man | Template:Sortname | Macmillan | |
| Special Citation | Ain't Gonna Study War No More: The Story of America's Peace Seekers | Milton Meltzer | Harper and Row | ||
| 1986 | Journey to Jo'burg | Template:Sortname | |||
| 1987 | Rabble Starkey | Template:Sortname | |||
| 1988 | Winner | Template:Sort | Template:Sortname | Thomas Allen | Knopf |
| Special Citation | December Stillness | Template:Sortname | |||
| 1989 | Shades of Gray | Template:Sortname | |||
| 1990 | Secret City, USA | Felice Holman | |||
| 1991 | Shadow Boy | Susan E. Kirby | |||
| 1992 | Blue Skin of the Sea | Template:Sortname | |||
| 1993 | Make Lemonade | Template:Sortname | |||
| 1994 | Earthshine | Theresa Nelson | |||
| 1995 | Winner | Music from a Place Called Half Moon | Jerrie Oughton | ||
| Special Citation | The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 | Christopher Paul Curtis | Delacorte Press | ||
| 1996 | Template:Sort | Suzanne Freeman | |||