Awarded to the artist of the most distinguished  American picture book for children

2023 Doug Salati. Hot Dog.
Tired of the city’s sizzling sidewalks, wailing sirens and people’s feet in his face, a hot dog finds inner peace and calm when his owner takes him to the beach, where he happily cools off. E SAL

2022 Andrea Wang. Watercress.
Embarrassed about gathering watercress from a roadside ditch, a girl learns to appreciate her Chinese heritage after learning why the plant is so important to her parents. GOLDSTAR WAN

2021 Michaela Goade (Illus). We Are Water Protectors.
Written by Carole Lindstrom. Water is the first medicine. It affects and connects us all... When a black snake threatens to destroy the Earth and poison her people's water, one young water protector takes a stand to defend Earth's most sacred resource. Inspired by the many indigenous-led movements across North America, this bold and lyrical picture book issues an urgent rallying cry to safeguard the Earth's water from harm and corruption. E LIN

2020 Kadir Nelson (Illus). The Undefeated.
Kwame Alexander's poem is a love letter to black life in the United States. It highlights the unspeakable trauma of slavery, the faith and fire of the civil rights movement, and the grit, passion, and perseverance of some of the world's greatest heroes. J 811.6 ALE

2019 Sophie Blackall. Hello Lighthouse.
A lighthouse keeper and his new wife raise their family and survive the hardships and joys of life offshore in this lovely, idyllic picture book. E BLA

2018 Matthew Cordell. Wolf in the Snow.
When a wolf cub and little girl are lost in a snowstorm they must find their way home. E COR

2017 Javaka Steptoe. Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Jean-Michael Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocked to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art work had ever seen. But before that, he was a little boy who saw art everywhere: in poetry books and museums, in games and in the words that we speak, and in the pulsing energy of New York City. Art doesn't always have to be neat or clean--and definitely not inside the lines--to be beautiful. E-B BASQUIAT

2016 Sophie Blackall (Illlus.) Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear.
Written by Lindsay Mattick. A woman tells her young son the true story of how his great-great-grandfather, Captain Harry Colebourn, rescued and learned to love a bear cub in 1914 as he was on his way to take care of soldiers' horses during World War I, and the bear became the inspiration for A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh. E MAT

2015 Dan Santat. The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend.
An imaginary friend waits a long time to be imagined by a child and given a special name, and finally does the unimaginable--he sets out on a quest to find his perfect match in the real world. E SAN

2014 Brian Floca. Locomotive.
Dramatic illustrations document a family’s unforgettable weeklong train trip from Omaha to Sacramento in 1869. E 625.1 FLO

2013 Jon Klassen. This Is Not My Hat.
A tiny minnow wearing a pale blue bowler hat has a thing or two up his fins in this underwater light-on-dark chase scene. E KLA

2012 Chris Raschka. A Ball for Daisy.
Daisy the dog is heartbroken when her favorite toy ball is destroyed while she is playing with another dog, but she realizes she has gained something, too. E RAS

2011 Philp C. Stead (Illus.) A Sick Day for Amos McGee.
Written by Erin E. Stead. Amos McGee, a friendly zookeeper, always made time to visit his good friends: the elephant, the tortoise, the penguin, the rhinoceros, and the owl. But one day--'Ah-choo!'--he woke with the sniffles and the sneezes. Though he didn't make it into the zoo that day, he did receive some unexpected guests. E STE

2010 Jerry Pinkney. The Lion and the Mouse.
In this wordless retelling of an Aesop fable, an adventuresome mouse proves that even small creatures are capable of great deeds when he rescues the King of the Jungle. E 398.2 PIN

2009 Beth Krommes. The House in the Night.
Written by Susan Marie Swanson. This simple text describes sometimes fantastical pleasures as a bird from the book spirits the child through the starry sky to a wise-faced moon. E SWA

2008 Brian Selznick. The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel in Words and Pictures.
When twelve-year-old Hugo, an orphan living and repairing clocks within the walls of a Paris train station in 1931, meets a mysterious toyseller and his goddaughter, his undercover life and his biggest secret are jeopardized. J-HF SEL

2007 David Wiesner. Flotsam.  
The story of what happens when a camera becomes a piece of flotsam. GOLDSTAR WIE  

2006 Chris Raschka (Illus.) The Hello, Goodbye Window.
Written by Norton Juster. The window in Nanna and Poppy's kitchen is no ordinary window- it is the place where love and magic happens.  E JUS  

2005 Kevin Henkes. Kitten's First Full Moon.
When Kitten mistakes the full moon for a bowl of milk, she ends up tired, wet, and hungry trying to reach it. E HEN

2004 Mordicai Gerstein. The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. 
A lyrical evocation of Philippe Petit's 1974 tightrope walk between the World Trade Center towers. E-B GER  

2003 Eric Rohmann. My Friend Rabbit. 
Something always seems to go wrong when Rabbit is around, but Mouse lets him play with his toy plane anyway because he is his good friend. E ROH  

2002 David Wiesner. The Three Pigs. 
Not your ordinary three little pigs. . . One by one, the pigs exit the fiary tale's border and set off on an adventure of their own. GOLDSTAR WIE  

2001 David Small (Illus.) So You Want to be President? 
Written by Judith St. George. Presents an assortment of facts about the qualifications and characteristics of U.S. presidents, from George Washington to Bill Clinton. J 923.173 STG  

2000 Simms Taback. Joseph Had a Little Overcoat. 
A very old overcoat is recycled numerous times into a variety of garments. E TAB

1999 Mary Azarian. Snowflake Bentley. 
A biography of a self-taught scientist who photographed thousands of individual snowflakes in order to study their unique formations. E-B BENTLEY  

1998 Paul Zelinsky. Rapunzel. 
A retelling of the German folktale in which a beautiful girl with long golden hair is kept imprisoned in a lonely tower by a sorceress. J 398.20943 ZEL  

1997 David Wisniewski. Golem. 
A saintly rabbi miraculously brings to life a clay giant who helps him watch over the Jews of sixteenth-century Prague. J 398.2089 WIS  

1996 Peggy Rathmann. Officer Buckle and Gloria. 
The children at Napville Elementary School always ignore Officer Buckle's safety tips, until a police dog named Gloria accompanies him when he gives his safety speeches. E RAT  

1995 David Diaz (Illus.) Smoky Night. 
Written by Eve Bunting.  When the Los Angeles riots break out in the streets of their neighborhood, a young boy and his mother learn the values of getting along with others no matter what their background or nationality. E BUN  

1994 Allen Say. Grandfather's Journey. 
A Japanese American man recounts his grandfather's journey to America which he later also undertakes, and the feelings of being torn by a love for two different countries. E SAY  

1993 Emily Arnold McCully. Mirette on the High Wire. 
Mirette learns tightrope walking from Monsieur Bellini, a guest in her mother's boarding house, not knowing that he is a celebrated tightrope artist who has withdrawn from performing because of fear. E MCC  

1992 David Wiesner. Tuesday. 
Frogs rise on their lily pads, float through the air, and explore the nearby houses while their inhabitants sleep. GOLDSTAR WIE  

1991 David Macaulay. Black and White. 
Four brief "stories" about parents, trains, and cows, or is it really all one story? The author recommends careful inspection of words and pictures to both minimize and enhance confusion. GOLDSTAR MAC  

1990 Ed Young. Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story from China.
Three sisters staying home alone are endangered by a hungry wolf who is disguised as their grandmother. J 398.20951 YOU  

1989 Stephen Gammell (illus.) Song and Dance Man. 
Written by Karen Ackerman. Grandpa demonstrates for his visiting grandchildren some of the songs, dances, and jokes he performed when he was a vaudeville entertainer. E ACK

1988 John Schoenherr (illus.) Owl Moon. 
Written by Jane Yolen On a winter's night under a full moon, a father and daughter trek into the woods to see the Great Horned Owl. E YOL

1987 Richard Egielski (illus.) Hey, Al. 
Written by Al Yorinks. A city janitor and his treasured canine companion are transported by a large colorful bird to an island in the sky, where their comfortable paradise existence threatens to turn them into birds as well. E YOR  

1986 Chris Van Allsburg. The Polar Express. 
A magical train ride on Christmas Eve takes a boy to the North Pole to receive a special gift from Santa Claus. E VAN  

1985 Trina Schart Hyman(illus.) Saint George and the Dragon: A Golden Legend. 
Adapted by Margaret Hodges from Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene Retells the segment in which George, the Red Cross Knight, slays the dreadful dragon that has been terrorizing the countryside for years and brings peace and joy to the land. J 398.20941 HOD  

1984 Alice & Martin Provensen. The Glorious Flight. 
A biography of the man whose fascination with flying machines produced the Bleriot XI, which crossed the English Channel in thirty-seven minutes in the early 1900's. E 629.13 PRO  

1983 Marcia Brown. Shadow. 
(translated & illus. from the French of Blaise Cendrars). Evokes the atmosphere and drama of a life now haunted, now enchanted by Shadow. E-REF-CC 841.9 CEN  

1982 Chris Van Allsburg. Jumanji. 
Left on their own for an afternoon, two bored and restless children find more excitement than they bargained for in a mysterious and mystical jungle adventure board game. GOLDSTAR VAN

1981 Arnold Lobel. Fables. 
Twenty original fables about an array of animal characters from crocodile to ostrich. J LOB 

1980 Barbara Cooney (illus.) Ox-Cart Man. 
Written by Donald Hall.  Describes the day-to-day life throughout the changing seasons of an early 19th-century New England family. E HAL  

1979 Paul Goble. The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses. 
Though she is fond of her people, an Indian girl on the plains prefers to live among the wild horses where she is truly happy and free. J 398.2097 GOB  

1978 Peter Spier. Noah's Ark. 
Written by Jacobus Revius. Retells in pictures how a pair of every manner of creature climbed on board Noah's ark and thereby survived the Flood. E SPI  

1977 Leo & Diane Dillon (Illus.) Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions. 
Written by Margaret Musgrove. Explains some traditions and customs of 26 African tribes beginning with letters from A to Z. J 960 MUS  

1976 Leo & Diane Dillon (Illus.) Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale. 
Retold by Verna Aardema. A cumulative why tale from West Africa of the disaster that befalls the jungle when mosquito tells lies. It reveals the meaning of the mosquito's buzz.  E 398.2 AAR  

1975 Gerald McDermott. Arrow to the Sun. 
An adaptation of the Pueblo Indian myth which explains how the spirit of the Lord of the Sun was brought to the world of men. J 398.2097 MCD 

1974 Margot Zemach. Duffy and the Devil. 
The spinning and knitting the devil agrees to do for her win Duffy the Squire's name and a carefree life until it comes time for her to guess the devil's name. J 398.20941 ZEM 

1973 Blair Lent. The Funny Little Woman. 
Retold by Arlene Mosel While chasing a dumpling, a little lady is captured by wicked creatures from whom she escapes with the means of becoming the richest woman in Japan. J 398.20952 MOS  

1972 Nonny Hogrogian. One Fine Day. 
After the old woman cuts off his tail when he steals her milk, the fox must go through a long series of transactions before she will sew it back on again. E 398.2 HOG  

1971 Gail E. Haley. A Story, A Story: An African Tale. 
Recounts how most African folk tales came to be called "Spider Stories." J 398.2096 HAL 

1970 William Steig. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. 
In a moment of fright Sylvester the donkey asks his magic pebble to turn him into a rock but then cannot hold the pebble to wish himself back to normal again. E STE  

1969 Uri Shulevitz (Illus.) The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship. 
Retold by Arthur Ransome. When the Czar proclaims that he will marry his daughter to the man who brings him a flying ship, the Fool of the World sets out to try his luck and meets some unusual companions on the way. J 398.20947 RAN

1968 Ed Emberley (Illus.) Drummer Hoff. 
Adapted by Barbara Emberley. A cumulative folk song in which seven soldiers build a magnificent cannon, but Drummer Hoff fires it off. E EMB  

1967 Evaline Ness. Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine. 
After she endangers the life of her pet cat a young girl realizes the difference between fantasy and reality. E NES 

1966 Nonny Hogrogian (Illus.) Always Room for One More.
Written by Sorche Nic Leodhas. In this Scottish folk song, a generous family always has room for another person and invites in everyone who passes by. E 398.2 LEO  

1965 Beni Montresor (Illus.) May I Bring a Friend? 
Written by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers. A well-mannered little boy has permission to bring his animal friends to visit the king and queen. E DER  

1964 Maurice Sendak. Where the Wild Things Are. 
After Max was sent to bed for misbehaving, he escapes by imagining that he sails away to a wild land full of monsters. E SEN  

1963 Ezra Jack Keats. The Snowy Day. 
The adventures of a little boy in the city on a very snowy day. E KEA

1962 Marcia Brown. Once a Mouse. . . A Fable Cut in Wood. 
An ancient fable from India about a mouse who is saved from predators by the magic of an old hermit, which changes the mouse into successively larger animals until, as a mighty tiger, the mouse's pride dooms him. E-REF-CC BRO  

1961 Nicolas Sidjakov (Illus.) Baboushka and the Three Kings. 
Written by Ruth Robbins. An old woman, who was too busy to travel with the Wise Men to find the Child, now searches endlessly for Him each Christmas season. E-REF-CC ROB 

1960 Marie Hall Ets & Aurora Labastida. Nine Days to Christmas. 
A five year old Mexican girl is old enough to stay up for the posadas, the parties given, one each night, for the nine days before Christmas and to pick out her own piñata. E-HOLIDAY ETS  

1959 Barbara Cooney (adpt. & Illus.) Chanticleer and the Fox.
Adapted from the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer. A sly fox tries to outwit a proud rooster through the use of flattery. E 821 COO  

1958 Robert McCloskey. Time of Wonder. 
The atmosphere of the Maine island where the artist-author lives, pictured in rhythmic text and full-color paintings. E MCC  

1957 Marc Simont (Illus.) A Tree Is Nice. 
Written by Janice Udry. Speaks simply and elegantly of the many pleasures a tree provides. E UDR  

1956 Feodor Rojankovsky (Illus.) Frog Went a-Courtin'. 
Written by John Langstaff. Illustrates the well-known American folk song about the courtship and marriage of the frog and the mouse. E-REF-CC LAN  

1955 Marcia Brown.(trans. & illus.) Cinderella: or, The Little Glass Slipper. 
Written by Charles Perrault. In her haste to flee the palace before the fairy godmother's magic loses effect, Cinderella leaves behind a glass slipper. J 398.20944 PER

1954 Ludwig Bemelmans. Madeline's Rescue. 
A hound rescues a schoolgirl from the Seine, becomes a beloved school pet, is chased away by the trustees, and returns with a surprise E BEM  

1953 Lynd Ward. The Biggest Bear. 
Johnny goes hunting for a bearskin to hang on his family's barn and returns with a small bundle of trouble. E WAR  

1952 Nicolas Mordvinoff (Illus.) Finders Keepers. 
Written by Will Lipkind & Nicolas Mordvinoff. Two dogs each claim a bone they have found and ask passersby for help in deciding ownership. E LIP

1951 Katherine Milhous. The Egg Tree. 
Katy's Easter morning discovery renews the tradition of the Easter egg tree. E-HOLIDAY MIL  

1950 Leo Politi. Song of the Swallows. 
Juan, a little boy and Julian, the old gardener and bell-ringer at the Mission of San Juan Capistrano in California, ring the bells together to welcome the swallows as they come flying from the sea on St. Joseph's day. E-REF-CC POL  

1949 Berta & Elmer Hader. The Big Snow. 
Despite their elaborate preparations for the winter, the animals and birds are delighted by a surprise banquet after a big snow. E HAD  

1948 Roger Duvoisin (Illus.) White Snow, Bright Snow. 
Written by Alvin Tresselt. When it begins to look, feel, and smell like snow, everyone prepares for a winter blizzard. E-REF-CC TRE  

1947 Leonard Weisgard. The Little Island. 
Written by Golden MacDonald [pseud for Margaret Wise Brown]. Relates the ways in which the changing seasons affect a tiny island and its plant and animal life. E-REF-CC MAC  

1946 Maud & Miska Petersham. The Rooster Crows; A Book of American Rhymes and Jingles.
A collection of traditional American nursery rhymes and jingles, finger games, rope skipping rhymes, counting-out rhymes and singing games. E-REF-CC 398.8 PET  

1945 Elizabeth Orton Jones (Illus.) A Prayer for a Child. 
Written by Rachel Lyman Field. An illustrated bedtime prayer which gives thanks for the many aspects of a child's world. E-REF-CC 242 FIE  

1944 Louis Slobodkin (Illus.) Many Moons. 
Though many try, only the court jester is able to fulfill Princess Lenore's one wish written by James Thurber. E-REF-CC THU  

1943 Virginia Lee Burton. The Little House. 
A country house is unhappy when the city, with all its buildings and traffic, grows up around her. E BUR  

1942 Robert McCloskey. Make Way for Ducklings. 
Mr. and Mrs. Mallard proudly return to their home in the Boston Public Garden with their eight offspring. E MCC 

1941 Robert Lawson. They Were Strong and Good. 
Relates the story of the author's grandparents and parents, who, though not famous, helped build the United States. E-REF-CC 920 LAW  

1940 Ingri & Edgar Parin d'Aulaire. Abraham Lincoln. 
Text and illustrations present the life of the boy born on the Kentucky frontier who became the sixteenth president of the United States. J-B LINCOLN 

1939 Thomas Handforth. Mei Li. 
After spending an eventful day at the fair held on New Year's Eve, Mei Li arrives home just in time to greet the Kitchen God. E HAN 

1938 Dorothy Lathrop. Animals of the Bible. 
Thirty richly detailed black-and-white drawings illustrate the favorite stories of the Creation, Noah's Ark, the first Christmas, and many others with text selected by Helen Dean Fish from the King James Bible. E-REF-CC 220.8 LAT

Selected by the American Library Association