Congratulations to this year’s SCBWI Golden Kite Award winners, which were announced live on Friday, February 24, 2023. Each winner received $2,500 and an additional $1,000 to donate to a non-profit organization of their choice. The honor winners received $500 and an additional $250 to donate to a non-profit organization of their choice.
All books by the SCBWI Golden Kite Award finalists, honors, and winners are available to purchase HERE
Honor Award: The Talk written by Alicia D. Williams, illustrated by Briana Mukodiri Uchendu (Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/Atheneum)/Simon & Schuster Alicia will give her charitable award to Promising Pages, an organization that collects new and donated books and shares them with children living in Charlotte, North Carolina who have few, if any, books at home.
Winner: Fly written by Brittany J. Thurman, illustrated by Anna Cunha (Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/Atheneum)/Simon & Schuster Brittany will give her charitable award to Young Authors Greenhouse, a nonprofit organization in Louisville, Kentucky that inspires students ages 6 to 18 to recognize the power of their voices and stories.
Honor Winner: Farmhouse by Sophie Blackall (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) Sophie will give her charitable award to the Virginia Children’s Book Festival, which is dedicated to inspiring kids to want to read and to making reading accessible to every child, regardless of circumstance.
Winner: Kumo the Bashful Cloud illustrated by Nathalie Dion, written by Kyo Maclear (Tundra Books/Penguin Random House Canada) Nathalie will give her charitable award to Le Phare, which translates to The Lighthouse. This non-profit organization, located in Montreal, Quebec, contributes to the well-being of children whose lives are threatened by illnesses that require complex treatment.
Honor winner: H is for Harlem by Dinah Johnson, illustrated by April Harrison (Christy Ottaviano Books/Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) Dinah will give her charitable donation to the Children’s Defense Fund, which ensures every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.
Winner: Our Planet! There’s No Place Like Earth written by Stacy McAnulty, illustrated by David Litchfield (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers/Macmillan) Stacy will give her charitable contribution to The Sierra Club Foundation, which promotes efforts to educate and empower people to protect and improve the natural and human environment.
Honor winner: Save the People!: Halting Human Extinction written by Stacy McAnulty, illustrated by Nicole Miles (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)Stacy will also give this charitable contribution to The Sierra Club Foundation.
Winner: Absurd Words: A Kid’s Fun and Hilarious Vocabulary Builder for Future Word Nerds by Tara Lazar (Sourcebooks) Tara will give her charitable donation to The Highlights Foundation, an organization that positively impacts children by amplifying the voices of storytellers who inform, educate, and inspire children to become their best selves.
Honor winner: Iveliz Explains it All by Andrea Beatriz Arango, illustrated by Alyssa Bermudez (Random House Books for Young Readers) Andrea will give her charitable award to the Boys and Girls Club of Central Virginia, which enables all young people, especially those who need the Club most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.
Winner: The Civil War of Amos Abernathy by Michael Leali (HarperCollins) Michael will give his charitable award to the Ali Forney Center, whose mission is to protect LGBTQ+ young people from the harms of homelessness and empower them with the tools needed to live independently
Honor Winner: Esme’s Birthday Conga Line illustrated by Marissa Valdez, written by Lourdes Heuer (Tundra Books/Penguin Random House Canada) In response to the recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria, Marissa will give her charitable award to the Save the Children organization.
Winner: The Adventures of Team Pom: Squid Happens by Isabel Roxas (Flying Eye Books) Isabel will give her charitable award to The Center for Fiction, a home for readers and writers, offering author events, writing workshops, reading groups, and more.
Honor winner: Destination Unknown by Bill Konigsberg (Scholastic Press) Bill will give his charitable award to NMAC: the National Minority AIDS Council an organization that works toward normalizing the discussion on race in the HIV movement.
Winner: Beneath the Wide Silk Sky by Emily Inouye Huey (Scholastic Press) Emily will give her charitable award to Literacy for Incarcerated Teens, the only non-profit organization of its kind working to end illiteracy among New York’s incarcerated young people by inspiring them to read.
In recognition of excellence in comedic writing for children and young adults Winner: The Real Riley Mayes by Rachel Elliott Rachel will give half of her charitable donation to the Kentucky Foundation for Women, which promotes positive social change by supporting varied feminist expression in the arts, and half to Oklahomans for Equality, which seeks equal rights for LGBTQ+ individuals and families.