Congratulations, 2020 Excellence in Graphic Literature Award Winners!

A couple of days ago, Pop Culture Classroom announced the Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards, even as they had to postpone the Denver Pop Culture Con to November. I was proud and honored to serve as Assistant Chair for the Middle Grades Award Jury. Below you will see the complete list of winners (with links to ones I have reviewed), though I plan to highlight some of the other notable submissions I read in the next few weeks.

Congratulations to all the winners and to PCC for another great year!

2020 Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards Winners

Book of the Year

• White Bird: A Wonder Story by R. J. Palacio (Random House Children’s Books)

Mosaic Award

• Kiss Number 8 by Colleen AF Venable and Ellen T. Crenshaw (First Second)

Best in Children’s Graphic Literature

• Fiction – Akissi: More Tales of Mischief by Marguerite Abouet & Mathieu Sapin (Flying Eye Books)

Best Middle Grade Graphic Literature

• Fiction – White Bird: A Wonder Story by R. J. Palacio (Random House Children’s Books)
• Nonfiction – Guts by Raina Telgemeier (Scholastic)

Best in Young Adult Graphic Literature

• Fiction – Kiss Number 8 by Colleen AF Venable and Ellen T. Crenshaw (First Second)
• Nonfiction – King of King Court by Travis Dandro (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best in Adult Graphic Literature

• Fiction – The Hard Tomorrow by Eleanor Davis (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Nonfiction – A Fire Story by Brian Fries (ABRAMS Books)

A big day for graphic novels at the ALA Youth Media Awards

This morning the 2020 winners of the American Library Aassociation Youth Media Awards were announced and there were a couple of historic firsts.

Jerry Craft's graphic novel New Kid, which I reviewed here, won both the Newbery Award and the Coretta Scott King Award. It is the first graphic novel to win the Newbery, and the third graphic novel to win the Coretta Scott King Award, with March Book 1 winning in 2014 and March, Book 3 in 2017.

Another big winner of the day was Jarrett Krosoczka's Hey Kiddo (my review here), which is the first graphic novel to win the Odyssey Award for best audiobook. I have not listened to it as of yet, but I loved the book version and am eager to hear how it got translated to an audio medium.

Both books are excellent, and I am very excited for both authors. Hooray for graphic novels!

Congratulations to all involved!!!

Congratulations, 2019 Eisner Award Winners!

The 2019 Eisner Award winners were announced at San Diego Comic-Con this past week, and I thought I'd highlight the winners who have been featured on this blog. You can find the complete list of winners here, and there are lots of excellent comics to check out. Congratulations to all!

Best Continuing Series

Giant Days, by John Allison, Max Sarin and Julia Madrigal (BOOM! Box)

Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 8)

Johnny Boo and the Ice Cream Computer, by James Kochalka (Top Shelf/IDW) - from the Johnny Boo series

Best Publication for Kids (ages 9–12)

The Divided Earth, by Faith Erin Hicks (First Second) - Book 3 of the Nameless City trilogy

Best Publication for Teens (ages 13–17)

The Prince and the Dressmaker, by Jen Wang (First Second)

Best Humor Publication

Giant Days, by John Allison, Max Sarin and Julia Madrigal (BOOM! Box)

Best Reality-Based Work

Is This Guy for Real? The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman, by Box Brown (First Second)

Best Graphic Album—New

My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image)

Best Graphic Album—Reprint

The Vision hardcover, by Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta and Michael Walsh (Marvel)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material

Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World, by Pénélope Bagieu (First Second)

Best Writer/Artist

Jen Wang, The Prince and the Dressmaker (First Second)

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art)

Dustin Nguyen, Descender (Image)

Best Coloring

Matt Wilson, Black Cloud, Paper Girls, The Wicked + The Divine (Image); The Mighty Thor, Runaways (Marvel)

The Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award
Lorena Alvarez (Nightlights, Hictoea: A Nightlights Story)

BIG NEWS! March Book 3 wins the National Book Award

In a huge first for graphic novels, March, Book 3 (published by Top Shelf) has won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. This book concludes the trilogy of the autobiographical account of Congressman John Lewis's life and involvement in the civil rights movement. I reviewed the first book in the series here.

This is a historic moment for comics and graphic novels. Congratulations to all involved!

Hidden wins a Batchelder Honor!

Congratulations to Loïc Dauvillier, Marc Lizano, and Greg Salsedo, the creators of Hidden, recipient of a 2015 Batchelder Honor! The award is given for works originally published in languages other than English and countries other than the US that are translated into English and published in the US.

I loved this book, and it was in my Top Graphic Novels of 2014. Additional kudos to First Second, who published this book in the US.

Congratulations, Tamaki Cousins!

The American Library Association announced its youth media awards today, and Mariko and Jillian Tamaki's This One Summer brought home two major honors. It was named a Caldecott Honor book, and it is the first graphic novel to earn that distinction. It was also named a Printz Honor book, and it is the second graphic novel to be recognized for that prize (the first was Gene Yang's American Born Chinese, which won the Award).

These are impressive accolades, and I congratulate them and their publisher First Second!

Congratulations, 2014 Eisner Award winners!

The complete list of 2014 Eisner Award winners is available here.

Also, I want to point out a few of the winners I have reviewed in the past year:

Best continuing series: Saga

Best new series: Sex Criminals

Best publication for kids (ages 8-12): The Adventures of Superhero Girl

Best publication for teens (ages 13-17): Battling Boy

Congratulations, all!

I Kill Giants and Anya's Ghost win awards!

Joe Kelly and J.M. Ken Niimura's I Kill Giants, one of my favorite graphic novels published in the past few years, has won the prestigious International Manga Award.

In other award news, Anya's Ghost, a surprisingly spooky and suspenseful read also won a Cybils Award for Best YA Graphic Novel.

It is great to see these excellent books get such an honor.
Congratulations to all involved!

Congratulations 2011 Eisner Award Winners!

Yesterday at Comic Con International, Wilson and Return of the Dapper Men shared the award for best original Graphic Album. I have mixed feelings about having a tie for such an award, but both books are excellent and worthy.

In other news, Chew won Best Continuing Series. Smile won Best Publication for Teens. And Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys won for Best US Edition of International Material-Asia.

Additionally, Harvey Pekar was among those elected to the Hall of Fame.

A full list of winners is here.

YALSA 2012 Nominees Announced

The Young Adult Library Services Association's 2012 Great Graphic Novels for Teens Nominations are out!

Among the nominees are Anya's Ghost, Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Return of the Dapper Men, and Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity.

Congratulations to all!

Fist Stick Knife Gun wins multiple Glyph Awards

Congratulations to Geoffrey Canada and Jamar Nicholas (pictured above) for winning 3 Glyph Awards for their graphic novel, Fist Stick Knife Gun.