# Michael L. Printz Award

The Michael L. Printz Award is an American Library Association literary award that annually recognizes the "best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit". It is sponsored by Booklist magazine; administered by the ALA's young-adult division, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA); and named for the Topeka, Kansas, school librarian Mike Printz, a long-time active member of YALSA. Up to four worthy runners-up may be designated Honor Books and three or four have been named every year.

## History

The Printz Award was founded in 2000 for 1999 young adult publications. The award "was created as a counterpoint to the Newbery" in order to highlight the best and most literary works of excellence written for a young adult audience.
Jonathon Hunt, a Horn Book reviewer, hopes that the Printz Award can create a "canon as revered as that of the Newbery."
Michael L. Printz was a librarian at Topeka West High School in Topeka, Kansas, until he retired in 1994. He was also an active member of YALSA, serving on the Best Books for Young Adults Committee and the Margaret A. Edwards Award Committee. He dedicated his life to ensuring that his students had access to good literature. To that end he encouraged writers to focus on the young adult audience. He created an author-in-residence program at the high school to promote new talent and encourage his students. His most noteworthy find was Chris Crutcher. Printz died at the age of 59 in 1996.

## Criteria and procedure

Source: "The Michael L. Printz Award Policies and Procedures"
The selection committee comprises nine YALSA members appointed by the president-elect for a one-year term. They award one winner and honor up to four additional titles. The term 'young adult' refers to readers from ages 12 through 18 for purposes of this award. The Michael L. Printz Award is sponsored by Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association (ALA).
* Non-fiction, fiction, poetry and anthologies are all eligible to receive the Printz Award.
* Books must have been published between January 1 and December 31 of the year preceding the announcement of the award.
* Titles must be designated 'young adult' by its publisher or published for the age range that YALSA defines as "young adult," i.e., 12 through 18. Adult books are not eligible.
* Works of joint authorship or editorship are eligible.
* The award may be issued posthumously.
* Books previously published in another country are eligible (presuming an American edition has been published during the period of eligibility).

## Recipients

The Printz Medal has been awarded for one work annually without exception. Only A. S. King has received the award twice, one for a single-authored book in 2020 and another as editor and contributor to an anthology in 2024.
Printz Award winners and runners-up :
| Year | Author | Book | Result |
| 2000 | Walter Dean Myers | Monster | Winner |
| 2000 | David Almond | Skellig | Honor |
| 2000 | Laurie Halse Anderson | Speak | Honor |
| 2000 | Ellen Wittlinger | Hard Love | Honor |
| 2001 | David Almond | Kit's Wilderness | Winner |
| 2001 | Carolyn Coman | Many Stones | Honor |
| 2001 | Carol Plum-Ucci | The Body of Christopher Creed | Honor |
| 2001 | Louise Rennison | Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging | Honor |
| 2001 | Terry Trueman | Stuck in Neutral | Honor |
| 2002 | An Na | A Step From Heaven | Winner |
| 2002 | Peter Dickinson | The Ropemaker | Honor |
| 2002 | Jan Greenberg | Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art | Honor |
| 2002 | Chris Lynch | Freewill | Honor |
| 2002 | Virginia Euwer Wolff | True Believer | Honor |
| 2003 | Aidan Chambers | Postcards from No Man's Land | Winner |
| 2003 | Nancy Farmer | The House of the Scorpion | Honor |
| 2003 | Garret Freymann-Weyr | My Heartbeat | Honor |
| 2003 | Jack Gantos | Hole in My Life | Honor |
| 2004 | Angela Johnson | The First Part Last | Winner |
| 2004 | Jennifer Donnelly | A Northern Light | Honor |
| 2004 | Helen Frost | Keesha's House | Honor |
| 2004 | K. L. Going | Fat Kid Rules the World | Honor |
| 2004 | Carolyn Mackler | The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things | Honor |
| 2005 | Meg Rosoff | How I Live Now | Winner |
| 2005 | Kenneth Oppel | Airborn | Honor |
| 2005 | Allan Stratton | Chanda's Secrets | Honor |
| 2005 | Gary D. Schmidt | Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy | Honor |
| 2006 | John Green | Looking for Alaska | Winner |
| 2006 | Margo Lanagan | Black Juice | Honor |
| 2006 | Markus Zusak | I Am the Messenger | Honor |
| 2006 | Elizabeth Partridge | John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth, a Photographic Biography | Honor |
| 2006 | Marilyn Nelson | A Wreath for Emmett Till | Honor |
| 2007 | Gene Luen Yang | American Born Chinese | Winner |
| 2007 | M. T. Anderson | The Pox Party (Octavian Nothing, Vol I) | Honor |
| 2007 | John Green | An Abundance of Katherines | Honor |
| 2007 | Sonya Hartnett | Surrender | Honor |
| 2007 | Markus Zusak | The Book Thief | Honor |
| 2008 | Geraldine McCaughrean | The White Darkness | Winner |
| 2008 | Elizabeth Knox | Dreamquake | Honor |
| 2008 | Judith Clarke | One Whole and Perfect Day | Honor |
| 2008 | A. M. Jenkins | Repossessed | Honor |
| 2008 | Stephanie Hemphill | Your Own Sylvia | Honor |
| 2009 | Melina Marchetta | Jellicoe Road | Winner |
| 2009 | M. T. Anderson | The Kingdom on the Waves (Octavian Nothing, Vol II) | Honor |
| 2009 | E. Lockhart | The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks | Honor |
| 2009 | Terry Pratchett | Nation | Honor |
| 2009 | Margo Lanagan | Tender Morsels | Honor |
| 2010 | Libba Bray | Going Bovine | Winner |
| 2010 | Deborah Heiligman | Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith | Honor |
| 2010 | Rick Yancey | The Monstrumologist | Honor |
| 2010 | Adam Rapp | Punkzilla | Honor |
| 2010 | John Barnes | Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance, 1973 | Honor |
| 2011 | Paolo Bacigalupi | Ship Breaker | Winner |
| 2011 | Lucy Christopher | Stolen | Honor |
| 2011 | A.S. King | Please Ignore Vera Dietz | Honor |
| 2011 | Marcus Sedgwick | Revolver | Honor |
| 2011 | Janne Teller | Nothing | Honor |
| 2012 | John Corey Whaley | Where Things Come Back | Winner |
| 2012 | Daniel Handler | Why We Broke Up | Honor |
| 2012 | Christine Hinwood | The Returning | Honor |
| 2012 | Craig Silvey | Jasper Jones | Honor |
| 2012 | Maggie Stiefvater | The Scorpio Races | Honor |
| 2013 | Nick Lake | In Darkness | Winner |
| 2013 | Benjamin Alire Sáenz | Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe | Honor |
| 2013 | Elizabeth Wein | Code Name Verity | Honor |
| 2013 | Terry Pratchett | Dodger | Honor |
| 2013 | Beverley Brenna | The White Bicycle | Honor |
| 2014 | Marcus Sedgwick | Midwinterblood | Winner |
| 2014 | Rainbow Rowell | Eleanor & Park | Honor |
| 2014 | Susann Cokal | Kingdom of Little Wounds | Honor |
| 2014 | Sally Gardner | Maggot Moon | Honor |
| 2014 | Clare Vanderpool | Navigating Early | Honor |
| 2015 | Jandy Nelson | I'll Give You the Sun | Winner |
| 2015 | Jessie Ann Foley | The Carnival at Bray | Honor |
| 2015 | Jenny Hubbard | And We Stay | Honor |
| 2015 | Andrew Smith | Grasshopper Jungle | Honor |
| 2015 | Mariko Tamaki | This One Summer | Honor |
| 2016 | Laura Ruby | Bone Gap | Winner |
| 2016 | Ashley Hope Pérez | Out of Darkness | Honor |
| 2016 | Marcus Sedgwick | The Ghosts of Heaven | Honor |
| 2017 | John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell | March: Book Three | Winner |
| 2017 | Louise O'Neill | Asking for It | Honor |
| 2017 | Julie Berry | The Passion of Dolssa | Honor |
| 2017 | Neal Shusterman | Scythe | Honor |
| 2017 | Nicola Yoon | The Sun Is Also a Star | Honor |
| 2018 | Nina LaCour | We Are Okay | Winner |
| 2018 | Angie Thomas | The Hate U Give | Honor |
| 2018 | Jason Reynolds | Long Way Down | Honor |
| 2018 | Deborah Heiligman | Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers | Honor |
| 2018 | Laini Taylor | Strange the Dreamer | Honor |
| 2019 | Elizabeth Acevedo | The Poet X | Winner |
| 2019 | Elana K. Arnold | Damsel | Honor |
| 2019 | Deb Caletti | A Heart in a Body in the World | Honor |
| 2019 | Mary McCoy | I, Claudia | Honor |
| 2020 | A. S. King | Dig | Winner |
| 2020 | Nahoko Uehashi with Cathy Hirano (trans.) | The Beast Player | Honor |
| 2020 | Mariko Tamaki with Rosemary Valero-O’Connell (illus.) | Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me | Honor |
| 2020 | Nikki Grimes | Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir | Honor |
| 2020 | Geraldine McCaughrean | Where the World Ends | Honor |
| 2021 | Daniel Nayeri | Everything Sad Is Untrue (a true story) | Winner |
| 2021 | Eric Gansworth | Apple (Skin to the Core) | Honor |
| 2021 | Gene Luen Yang with Lark Pien (color) | Dragon Hoops | Honor |
| 2021 | Candice Iloh | Every Body Looking | Honor |
| 2021 | Traci Chee | We Are Not Free | Honor |
| 2022 | Angeline Boulley | Firekeeper's Daughter | Winner |
| 2022 | Angie Thomas | Concrete Rose | Honor |
| 2022 | Malinda Lo | Last Night at the Telegraph Club | Honor |
| 2022 | Kekla Magoon | Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People | Honor |
| 2022 | Lisa Fipps | Starfish | Honor |
| 2023 | Sabaa Tahir | All My Rage | Winner |
| 2023 | Lily Anderson | Scout's Honor | Honor |
| 2023 | A. L. Graziadei | Icebreaker | Honor |
| 2023 | Sacha Lamb | When the Angels Left the Old Country | Honor |
| 2023 | Eliot Schrefer | Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality | Honor |
| 2024 | A. S. King (ed.), written by King, M. T. Anderson, E.E. Charlton-Trujillo, David Levithan, Cory McCarthy, Anna-Marie McLemore, Greg Neri, Jason Reynolds, Randy Ribay, and Jenny Torres Sanchez | The Collectors: Stories | Winner |
| 2024 | Moa Backe Åstot [sv] with Eva Apelqvist (trans.) | Fire from the Sky | Honor |
| 2024 | Kenneth M. Cadow | Gather | Honor |
| 2024 | Shannon Gibney | The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption | Honor |
| 2024 | Candice Iloh | Salt the Water | Honor |
| 2025 | Samuel Teer with Mar Julia (illus.) | Brownstone | Winner |
| 2025 | Safia Elhillo | Bright Red Fruit | Honor |
| 2025 | Rex Ogle | Road Home | Honor |
| 2025 | Molly Knox Ostertag | The Deep Dark | Honor |
| 2025 | Andrew Joseph White | Compound Fracture | Honor |

## Multiple awards

As of 2025, only A. S. King has won the Printz twice; she also received an Honor. Marcus Sedgwick and M. T. Anderson have written one Award winner and two Honor Books. David Almond, John Green, Geraldine McCaughrean, and Gene Luen Yang have written one Award winner and one Honor Book. Seven people have two Honor Books but have never won the Award: Margo Lanagan, Terry Pratchett, Markus Zusak, Deborah Heiligman, Mariko Tamaki, Candice Iloh, and Angie Thomas.
Six writers have won both the Printz Award and the annual Carnegie Medal from the British librarians: David Almond, Aidan Chambers, Geraldine McCaughrean, Meg Rosoff, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Jason Reynolds. Only Chambers and Acevedo have won both for the same book; Chambers won the 1999 Carnegie and 2003 Printz for Postcards from No Man's Land, and Acevedo won the 2019 Carnegie and Printz for The Poet X. In its scope, books for children or young adults (published in the UK), the British Carnegie corresponds to the American Newbery and Printz awards.