Wild Things: YA Grown-Up discussion

United States of America

The National Book Award - The National Book Awards are among the most eminent literary prizes in the United States. Started in 1950, the awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the prior year, as well as lifetime achievement awards including the "Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters" and the "Literarian Award". The purpose of the awards is "to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America." In 1988 the National Book Foundation was established which now oversees and manages the National Book Awards.

Awards are given in each of four categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people's literature. Awards have been given in various other categories, which have since been retired or subsumed into the remaining categories.

The winners are selected in each category by an independent, expert and volunteer five-member judging panel. Panels typically look at and read hundreds of books in each category. A chair from each panel announces the runners-up and winner during the "The National Book Awards Ceremony and Dinner" held each year in November. The winners each receive a $10,000 cash prize and a bronze sculpture; finalists each receive $1,000, a medal, and a citation from the panel jury.

Recent winners in the Young Adult Literature category are:

2008 - Judy Blundell, What I Saw And How I Lied
2007 - Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
2006 - M.T. Anderson, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation The Pox Party
2005 - Jeanne Birdsall, The Penderwicks A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy
2004 - Pete Hautman, Godless
2003 - Polly Horvath, The Canning Season
2002 - Nancy Farmer, The House of the Scorpion
2001 - Virginia Euwer Wolff, True Believer
2000 - Gloria Whelan, Homeless Bird
1999 - Kimberly Willis Holt, When Zachary Beaver Came to Town
1998 - Louis Sachar, Holes
1997 - Han Nolan, Dancing on the Edge
1996 - Victor Martinez, Parrot in the Oven

United States of America

The Coretta Scott King Award - This is an annual award presented by the Ethnic & Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table, part of the American Library Association (ALA). Named for Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King, Jr., this award recognizes outstanding African American authors and illustrators. The book must be about the African American experience, and be written for a youth audience (high school or below).

The winners of this award are:

2009 - Kadir Nelson, We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball
2008 - Christopher Paul Curtis, Elijah Of Buxton
2007 - Sharon Draper, Copper Sun
2006 - Julius Lester, Day of Tears
2005 - Toni Morrison, Remember: The Journey to School Integration
2004 - Angela Johnson, The First Part Last
2003 - Nikki Grimes, Bronx Masquerade
2002 - Mildred Taylor, The Land
2001 - Jacqueline Woodson, Miracle's Boys
2000 - Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy
1999 - Angela Johnson, Heaven
1998 - Sharon Draper, Forged By Fire
1997 - Walter Dean Myers, Slam
1996 - Virginia Hamilton, Her Stories: African American folktales, fairy tales, and true tales
1995 - Patricia C. and Fred L. McKissack, Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters
1994 - Angela Johnson, Toning the Sweep
1993 - Patricia C. McKissack, Dark Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural
1992 - Walter Dean Myers, Now is Your Time: the African American Struggle for Freedom
1991 - Mildred Taylor, The Road to Memphis
1990 - Patricia C. and Fred L. McKissack, A Long Hard Journey: the Story of the Pullman Porter
1989 - Walter Dean Myers, Fallen Angels
1988 - Mildred Taylor, The Friendship
1987 - Mildred Pitts Walter, Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World
1986 - Virginia Hamilton, The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales
1985 - Walter Dean Myers, Motown and Didi: a love story
1984 - Lucille Clifton, Everett Anderson’s Good-bye
1983 - Virginia Hamilton, Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush
1982 - Mildred Taylor, Let the Circle Be Unbroken
1981 - Sidney Poitier, This Life
1980 - Walter Dean Myers, The Young Landlords
1979 - Ossie Davis, Escape to Freedom
1978 - Eloise Greenfield, Africa Dream
1977 - James Haskins, The Story of Stevie Wonder
1976 - Pearl Bailey, Duey's Tale
1975 - Dorothy Robinson, The Legend of Africania
1974 - Sharon Bell Mathis, Ray Charles
1973 - Alfred Duckett, I Never Had It Made: the Autobiography of Jackie Robinson, as told to Alfred Duckett
1972 - Eton C. Fax, 17 Black Artists
1971 - Charlemae Rollins, Black Troubador: Langston Hughes
1970 - Lillie Patterson, Martin Luther King, Jr.: Man of Peace

Current year updates:

Newbery winner - When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Carnegie medal - The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Guardian 2009 award - Exposure by Mal Peet

National Book award 2009 - Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip M. Hoose

Coretta Scott King award 2010 - Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U. S. Marshal by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

ALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction 2010 - Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman

The others are linked to their respective sites.

CANADA

This is the best resource I've found for Canadian Children's Book Awards:
http://www.bookcentre.ca/award