# NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Children

This article lists the winners and nominees for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in the children's literature category.

## Winners and finalists
### 1990s

Award winners and finalists, 1996, 1999 :
| Year | Book | Author | Illustrator | Result | Ref. |
| 1996 | Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales and True Tales | Virginia Hamilton | Leo and Diane Dillon | Winner | |
| 1999 | Let My People Go: Bible Stories Told by a Freeman of Color | Patricia McKissack and Fredrick L. McKissack Jr. | James E. Ransome | Winner | |

### 2000s

Award winners and finalists, 2000-2009 :
| Year | Book | Author | Illustrator | Result |
| 2000 | If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks | Faith Ringgold | | Winner |
| 2000 | God Inside of Me | Della Reese | Vyonne Buchanan | Finalist |
| 2000 | Happy to Be Nappy | bell hooks | Christopher Raschka | Finalist |
| 2000 | The Day I Was Rich | Bill Cosby | Varnette P. Honeywood | Finalist |
| 2000 | Through My Eyes | Ruby Bridges | | Finalist |
| 2001 | Shades of Black: A Celebration of Our Children | Sandra Pinkney | Myles C. Pinkney (photos) | Winner |
| 2001 | Dancing in the Wings | Debbie Allen | Kadir Nelson | Finalist |
| 2001 | Nikki Giovanni: Poet of the People | Judith Pinkerton Josephson | | Finalist |
| 2001 | Teens Can Make It Happen | Stedman Graham | | Finalist |
| 2001 | The Sound That Jazz Makes | Carole Boston Weatherford | Eric Velásquez | Finalist |
| 2002 | Just the Two of Us | Will Smith | Kadir Nelson | Winner |
| 2003 | Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales | Nelson Mandela | | Winner |
| 2004 | My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers Growing Up with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. | Christine King Farris | Chris K. Soentpiet | Winner |
| 2004 | The Montgomery Bus Boycott (Events that Shaped America) | Sabrina Crewe and Frank Walsh | | Finalist |
| 2004 | God Created | Mark Bozzuti-Jones | Jui Ishida | Finalist |
| 2004 | Li'l Dan, the Drummer Boy: A Civil War Story | Romare Bearden | | Finalist |
| 2004 | Who's Got Game? The Ant or the Grasshopper? | Toni and Slade Morrison | Pascal Lemaître | Finalist |
| 2005 | The 1963 Civil Rights March | Sabrina Crewe | | Winner |
| 2005 | African Princess: The Amazing Lives of Africa's Royal Women | Joyce Hanson | Laurie McGaw | Finalist |
| 2005 | Ellington Was Not a Street | Ntozake Shange | Kadir Nelson | Finalist |
| 2005 | Langston's Train Ride | Robert Burleigh | Leonard Jenkins | Finalist |
| 2005 | Maya's World: Angelina of Italy | Maya Angelou | Lizzy Rockwell | Finalist |
| 2006 | Girls Hold Up This World | Jada Pinkett Smith | Donyell Kennedy-Mccullough (photos) | Winner |
| 2006 | I Can Make a Difference | Marian Wright Edelman | Barry Moser | Finalist |
| 2006 | The School Is Not White! A True Story of the Civil Rights Movement | Doreen Rappaport | Curtis James | Finalist |
| 2006 | Honey Baby Sugar Child | Alice Faye Duncan | Susan Keeter | Finalist |
| 2006 | Please, Puppy, Please | Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee | Kadir Nelson | Finalist |
| 2007 | Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom | Carole Boston Weatherford | Kadir Nelson | Winner |
| 2007 | Dear Mr. Rosenwald | Carole Boston Weatherford | R. Gregory Christie | Finalist |
| 2007 | I Like You But I Love Me | Common | Lorraine West | Finalist |
| 2007 | Nobody Gonna Turn Me 'Round | Doreen Rappaport | Shane W. Evans | Finalist |
| 2007 | Whoopi's Big Book of Manners | Whoopi Goldberg | Olo | Finalist |
| 2008 | Nothing but Trouble: The Story of Althea Gibson | Sue Stauffacher | Greg Couch | Winner |
| 2008 | Friendship for Today | Patricia McKissack | | Finalist |
| 2008 | Elijah of Buxton | Christopher Paul Curtis | | Finalist |
| 2008 | Let It Shine | Ashley Bryan | | Finalist |
| 2008 | Young Pele | Lesa Cline-Ransome | James E. Ransome | Finalist |
| 2009 | Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope | Nikki Grimes | Bryan Collier | Winner |
| 2009 | Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem | Maya Angelou | | Finalist |
| 2009 | Say a Little Prayer | Dionne Warwick, David Freeman Wooley, and Tonya Bolden | | Finalist |
| 2009 | We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball | Kadir Nelson | | Finalist |
| 2009 | You Can Do It! | Tony Dungy | Amy June Bates | Finalist |

### 2010s

Award winners and finalists, 2010-2019 :
| Year | Book | Author | Illustrator | Result |
| 2010 | Our Children Can Soar | Michelle Cook | | Winner |
| 2010 | The Negro Speaks of Rivers | Langston Hughes | E. B. Lewis | Finalist |
| 2010 | Peeny Butter Fudge | Toni and Slade Morrison | Joe Cepeda | Finalist |
| 2010 | Sugar Plum Ballerinas: Toeshoe Trouble | Whoopi Goldberg | Maryn Roos | Finalist |
| 2010 | Child of the Civil Rights Movement | Paula Young Shelton and Raul Colon | | Finalist |
| 2011 | My Brother Charlie | Holly Robinson Peete and Ryan Elizabeth Peete | Shane Evans | Winner |
| 2011 | Grandma’s Gift | Eric Velásquez | Eric Velásquez | Finalist |
| 2011 | Mama Miti: Wangai Maathai and the Tree of Kenya | Donna Jo Napoli | Kadir Nelson | Finalist |
| 2011 | Side by Side/Lado a Lado: The Story of Delores Huerta and Cesar Chavez | Monica Brown | Joe Cepeda | Finalist |
| 2011 | The Great Migration: Journey to the North | Eloise Greenfield | Jan Spivey Gilchrist | Finalist |
| 2012 | You Can Be a Friend | Tony and Lauren Dungy | | Winner |
| 2012 | Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band | Kwame Alexander | Tim Bowers | Finalist |
| 2012 | Before There Was Mozart | Lesa Cline-Ransome | James E. Ransome | Finalist |
| 2012 | Heart and Soul | Kadir Nelson | | Finalist |
| 2012 | White Water | Michael S. Bandy and Eric Stein | Shadra Strickland | Finalist |
| 2013 | What Color is My World | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, with Raymond Obstfeld | A. G. Ford and Ben Boos | Winner |
| 2013 | Fifty Cents and a Dream | Jabari Asim | Bryan Collier | Finalist |
| 2013 | Harlem's Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills | Renée Watson | Christian Robinson | Finalist |
| 2013 | In the Land of Milk and Honey | Joyce Carol Thomas | Floyd Cooper | Finalist |
| 2013 | Indigo Blume and the Garden City | Kwame Alexander | JahSun Mitchell | Finalist |
| 2014 | Nelson Mandela | Kadir Nelson | | Winner |
| 2014 | I'm A Pretty Little Black Girl! | Betty K. Bynum | Claire Armstrong Parod | Finalist |
| 2014 | Knock Knock: My Dad's Dream for Me | Daniel Beaty | Bryan Collier | Finalist |
| 2014 | Martin & Mahalia: His Words, Her Song | Andrea Davis Pinkney | Brian Pinkney | Finalist |
| 2014 | You Never Heard of Willie Mays?! | Jonah Winter | Terry Widener | Finalist |
| 2015 | Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Happily Ever After | Rachel Renée Russell | | Winner |
| 2015 | Beautiful Moon: A Child's Prayer | Tonya Bolden | Eric Velásquez | Finalist |
| 2015 | Little Melba and Her Big Trombone | Katheryn Russell-Brown | Frank Morrison | Finalist |
| 2015 | Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up To Become Malcolm X | Ilyasah Shabazz | A. G. Ford | Finalist |
| 2015 | Searching for Sarah Rector | Tonya Bolden | | Finalist |
| 2016 | Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America | Carole Boston Weatherford | Jamey Christoph | Winner |
| 2016 | Chasing Freedom: The Life Journeys of Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, Inspired by Historical Facts | Nikki Grimes | Michele Wood | Finalist |
| 2016 | Granddaddy’s Turn: A Journey to the Ballot Box | Michael S. Bandy and Eric Stein | James E. Ransome | Finalist |
| 2016 | If You Plant a Seed | Kadir Nelson | | Finalist |
| 2016 | New Shoes | Susan Lynn Meyer | Eric Velásquez | Finalist |
| 2017 | Tiny Stitches: The Life of Medical Pioneer Vivien Thomas | Gwendolyn Hooks | Colin Bootman | Winner |
| 2017 | A Poem for Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keats and the Creation of the Snowy Day | Andrea Davis Pinkney | Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher | Finalist |
| 2017 | Daddy’s Little Girl | Karissa Culbreath | | Finalist |
| 2017 | Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat | Javaka Steptoe | | Finalist |
| 2017 | The Golden Girls of Rio | Nikkolas Smith | Nikkolas Smith | Finalist |
| 2018 | Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History | Vashti Harrison | | Winner |
| 2018 | Becoming Kareem: Growing Up On and Off the Court | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, with Raymond Obstfeld | | Finalist |
| 2018 | Before She Was Harriet | Lesa Cline-Ransome | James E. Ransome | Finalist |
| 2018 | Take a Picture of Me, James VanDerZee! | Andrea J. Loney | Keith Mallett | Finalist |
| 2018 | The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, A Young Civil Rights Activist | Cynthia Levinson | Vanessa Brantley-Newton | Finalist |
| 2019 | Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race | Margot Lee Shetterly | Laura Freeman | Winner |
| 2019 | Facing Frederick: The Life of Frederick Douglass, A Monumental American Man | Tonya Bolden | | Finalist |
| 2019 | I Can Be Anything! Don’t Tell Me I Can't | Diane Dillon | | Finalist |
| 2019 | The 5 O'Clock Band | Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews | Bryan Collier | Finalist |
| 2019 | The Word Collector | Peter H. Reynolds | | Finalist |

### 2020s

Award winners and finalists, 2020-present :
| Year | Book | Author | Illustrator | Result |
| 2020 | Sulwe | Lupita Nyong'o | Vashti Harrison | Winner |
| 2020 | A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation | Barry Wittenstein | Jerry Pinkney | Finalist |
| 2020 | Hair Love | Matthew A. Cherry | Vashti Harrison | Finalist |
| 2020 | Parker Looks Up: An Extraordinary Moment | Parker Curry and Jessica Curry | Brittany Jackson | Finalist |
| 2020 | Ruby Finds a Worry | Tom Percival | | Finalist |
| 2021 | She Was the First!: The Trailblazing Life of Shirley Chisholm | Katheryn Russell-Brown | Eric Velásquez | Winner |
| 2021 | I Promise | LeBron James | Nina Mata | Finalist |
| 2021 | Just Like a Mama | Alice Faye Duncan | Charnelle Pinkney Barlow | Finalist |
| 2021 | Kamala Harris: Rooted in Justice | Nikki Grimes | Laura Freeman | Finalist |
| 2021 | The Secret Garden of George Washington Carver | Gene Barretta | Frank Morrison | Finalist |
| 2022 | Stacey’s Extraordinary Words | Stacey Abrams | Kitt Thomas | Winner |
| 2022 | Black Ballerinas: My Journey to Our Legacy | Misty Copeland | Salena Barnes | Finalist |
| 2022 | Change Sings | Amanda Gorman | Loren Long | Finalist |
| 2022 | Time for Bed, Old House | Janet Costa Bates | A. G. Ford | Finalist |
| 2022 | When Langston Dances | Kaija Langley | Keith Mallett | Finalist |
| 2023 | Stacey’s Remarkable Books | Stacey Abrams | Kitt Thomas | Winner |
| 2023 | Black Gold | Laura Obuobi | London Ladd | Finalist |
| 2023 | Ablaze with Color: A Story of Painter Alma Thomas | Jeanne Walker Harvey | Loveis Wise | Finalist |
| 2023 | The Year We Learned to Fly | Jacqueline Woodson | Rafael López | Finalist |
| 2023 | Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky | Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond | Daniel Minter | Finalist |
| 2024 | Crowned: Magical Folk and Fairy Tales from the Diaspora | Kahran and Regis Bethencourt | Rafael López | Winner |
| 2024 | How Do You Spell Unfair?: MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee | Carole Boston Weatherford | Frank Morrison | Finalist |
| 2024 | I Absolutely, Positively Love My Spots | Lid’ya C. Rivera | Nina Mata | Finalist |
| 2024 | Is This Love? | Cedella Marley | Alea Marley | Finalist |
| 2024 | Like Lava In My Veins | Derrick Barnes | Shawn Martinbrough | Finalist |

## Multiple wins and nominations

| Wins | Author |
| 2 | Carole Boston Weatherford |
| 2 | Vashti Harrison |
| Nominations | Author |
| 4 | Kadir Nelson |
| 4 | Carole Boston Weatherford |
| 3 | Nikki Grimes |
| 3 | Vashti Harrison |
| 2 | Kwame Alexander |
| 2 | Maya Angelou |
| 2 | Michael S. Bandy |
| 2 | Tonya Bolden |
| 2 | Alice Faye Duncan |
| 2 | Tony Dungy |
| 2 | Whoopi Goldberg |
| 2 | Patricia McKissack |
| 2 | Andrea Davis Pinkney |
| 2 | Lesa Cline-Ransome |
| 2 | Doreen Rappaport |
| 2 | Katheryn Russell-Brown |