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"This annual award is given to the producer of the best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States. The selection committee may also select honor titles." Click here to visit the official website and see additional reading lists.
Odyssey Award
YA Winner
When You Look Like Us by When you look like us—brown skin, brown eyes, black braids or fades—everyone else thinks you’re trouble. No one even blinks twice over a missing black girl from public housing because she must’ve brought whatever happened to her upon herself. I, Jay Murphy, can admit that, for a minute, I thought my sister Nicole just got caught up with her boyfriend—a drug dealer—and his friends. But she’s been gone too long. Nic, where are you? If I hadn’t hung up on her that night, she would be at our house, spending time with Grandma. If I was a better brother, she’d be finishing senior year instead of being another name on a missing persons list. It’s time to step up, to do what the Newport News police department won’t. Bring her home.
YA Honor Recordings
Perfectly Parvin by After being dumped at the beginning of freshman year, Iranian-American Parvin Mohammadi sets out to win the ultimate date to Homecoming.
YA Winner
Kent State by Publication Date: 2020-04-21Told from different points of view--protesters, students, National Guardsmen, and "townies"--recounts the story of what happened at Kent State in May 1970, when four college students were killed by National Guardsmen, and a student protest was turned into a bloody battlefield.
YA Honor Recordings
Clap When You Land by Call Number: CD FIC ACEVEDOCamino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people. In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal's office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. Separated by distance, and Papi's secrets, the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered. And then, when it seems like they've lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Publication Date: 2020-03-10A history of racist and antiracist ideas in America, from their roots in Europe until today, adapted from the National Book Award winner Stamped from the Beginning.
YA Winner
Hey, Kiddo by ISBN: 9781338569896In kindergarten, Jarrett Krosoczka's teacher asks him to draw his family, with a mommy and a daddy. But Jarrett's family is much more complicated than that. His mom is an addict, in and out of rehab, and in and out of Jarrett's life. His father is a mystery -- Jarrett doesn't know where to find him, or even what his name is. Jarrett lives with his grandparents -- two very loud, very loving, very opinionated people who had thought they were through with raising children until Jarrett came along.
YA Honor Recordings
Redwood and Ponytail by Told in verse in two voices, with a chorus of fellow students, this is a story of two girls, opposites in many ways, who are drawn to each other; Kate appears to be a stereotypical cheerleader with a sleek ponytail and a perfectly polished persona, Tam is tall, athletic and frequently mistaken for a boy, but their deepening friendship inevitably changes and reveals them in ways they did not anticipate.
Winner
Sadie by ISBN: 9781250228000Publication Date: 2018-09-04Told from the alternating perspectives of nineteen-year-old Sadie who runs away from her isolated small Colorado town to find her younger sister's killer, and a true crime podcast exploring Sadie's disappearance.
Honor Recordings
The Poet X by Call Number: CD FIC ACEVEDOXiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers, especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about.
Winner
The Hate U Give by Call Number: CD FIC THOMASAfter witnessing her friend's death at the hands of a police officer, Starr Carter's life is complicated when the police and a local drug lord try to intimidate her in an effort to learn what happened the night Kahlil died.
Honor Recordings
Long Way Down by Call Number: CD FIC REYNOLDSNational Book Award finalist and New York Times bestseller Jason Reynolds' fiercely stunning novel takes place in sixty potent seconds, the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he's going to murder the guy who killed his brother.
Winner
Anna and the Swallow Man by When her university professor father is sent by the Gestapo to a concentration camp, seven-year-old Anna travels the Polish countryside with the mysterious Swallow Man during World War II.
Honor Recordings
Ghost by Call Number: CD J REYNOLDSGhost has a crazy natural talent, but no formal training. If he can stay on track, literally and figuratively, he could be the best sprinter in the city. But Ghost has been running for the wrong reasons, all starting with running away from his father, who, when Ghost was a very little boy, chased him and his mother through their apartment, then down the street, with a loaded gun, aiming to kill. Since then, Ghost has been the one causing problems, and running away from them, until he meets Coach, an ex-Olympic Medalist who blew his own shot at success by using drugs, and who is determined to keep other kids from blowing their shots at life.
Dream on, Amber by Amber's Japanese father left when she was little, and her sister Bella was just a baby, so now she fills in the frustrating gap in her life with imagined conversations, and writes letters to Bella that seem to come from their father.
Nimona by A villain, a hero, a shapeshifting teen tell a story of adventure, danger... and Science! This full cast production brings to life the story, reminiscent of radio dramas. The addition of a narrator goes beyond the text, enhancing the listener's experience, and setting a new standard for audio graphic novels.
Winner
The War That Saved My Life by Call Number: CD J BRADLEYA young disabled girl and her brother are evacuated from London to the English countryside during World War II, where they find life to be much sweeter away from their abusive mother.
Honor Recording
Echo by Lost in the Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and finds himself entwined in a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica--and decades later three children, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California find themselves caught up in the same thread of destiny in the darkest days of the twentieth century, struggling to keep their families intact, and tied together by the music of the same harmonica.
Winner
H. O. R. S. E.: A Game of Imagination and Basketball by Two friends get highly imaginative on an urban basketball court as they try to one-up the other in a popular game that turns into a humorous and inventive celebration of athletics and creativity.
Honor Recordings
Five, Six, Seven, Nate! by Call Number: CD J FEDERLEArmed with a one-way ticket to New York City, small-town theater geek Nate is off to start rehearsals for E.T.: the musical. It's everything he ever practiced his autograph for! But as thrilling as Broadway is, rehearsals are nothing like Nate expects: they're full of intimidating child stars, cut-throat understudies, and a director who can't even remember Nate's name. As the countdown to opening night starts to feel like a time bomb, Nate may need a showbiz miracle.
The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Call Number: CD J BERRYIn a very clever, very fun, very Victorian murder mystery, young boarding school ladies bury the dead while maintaining perfect manners.
A Snicker of Magic by Call Number: CD J LLOYDThe Pickles are new to Midnight Gulch, Tennessee, a town which legend says was once magic--but Felicity is convinced the magic is still there, and with the help of her new friend Jonah the Beedle she hopes to bring the magic back.
Winner
Scowler by Call Number: CD FIC KRAUSIn the midst of a 1981 meteor shower in Iowa, a homicidal maniac escapes from prison and returns to the farm where his nineteen-year-old son, Ry, must summon three childhood toys--Mr. Furrington, Jesus Christ, and Scowler--to protect himself, his eleven-year-old sister, Sarah, and their mother.
Honor Recordings
Better Nate Than Ever by Call Number: CD J FEDERLENate Foster has big dreams. His whole life, he's wanted to star in a Broadway show. But how is Nate supposed to make his dreams come true when he's stuck in Jankburg, Pennsylvania, where no one, except his best pal Libby, appreciates a good show tune? With Libby's help, Nate plans a daring overnight escape to New York. There's an open casting call for E.T.: The Musical, and Nate knows this could be the difference between small-town blues and big-time stardom.
Creepy Carrots! by Call Number: READ ALONG REYNOLDSThe carrots that grow in Crackenhopper Field are the fattest and crispiest around and Jasper Rabbit cannot resist pulling some to eat each time he passes by, until he begins hearing and seeing creepy carrots wherever he goes.
Eleanor and Park by Call Number: CD FIC ROWELLSet over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits--smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.
Matilda by Call Number: CD J DAHLMatilda is an exceptional five-year-old who's a whiz at reading and multiplication. However, her life is far from perfect. She has two of the most idiotic, self-centered parents who ever lived. Matilda uses her intelligence to get revenge on her father, but her skills are put to the test by her horrible nightmare of a principle, Mrs. Trunchbull.
