The American Library Association (ALA) announced winners of the 2025 Youth Media Awards. These awards are designed to “guide parents, educators, librarians and others in selecting the best materials for youth. Selected by judging committees of librarians and other children’s experts, the awards encourage original and creative work.”
This year, four Simmons alumnae/i of the Children’s Literature graduate program and the School of Library and Information Science received recognition:
- Breanna J. McDaniel ’14MA, author of Go Forth and Tell: The Life of Augusta Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller (with illustrations by April Harrison, Dial Books for Young Readers-Penguin Random House, 2024), received a Coretta Scott King Illustration Honor Book recognition.
- Gabe Cole Novoa ’19MFA, author of Most Ardently: A Pride and Prejudice Remix (Feiwel and Friends-Macmillan, 2024), received a Stonewall Honor Book for Young Adult Literature.
- Stephanie Seales ’09MA, author of My Daddy is a Cowboy (with illustrations by C.G. Esperanza, Abrams Books for Young Readers-ABRAMS, 2024), received a Coretta Scott King Book Award and a Caldecott Honor Book recognition.
- Sacha Lamb ’20MS/MA, author of The Forbidden Book (Arthur A. Levine-Levine Querido, 2024), won the Sydney Taylor Book Award silver medal in the young adult category.