MLA Youth Literary Awards

The MLA Youth Literary Awards promote excellence in literature for youth. Each year work groups made up of library staff in Michigan spend thousands of hours reading, reviewing and discussing hundreds of books to come up with the top titles published in the calendar year.



Mitten Award The Mitten Award recognizes and promotes quality literature for youth in picture book format.	YouPer Award The YouPer (Young Person) Award recognizes and promotes quality literature for youth in chapter book format.	Thumbs Up! Award The Thumbs Up! Award recognizes an outstanding contribution to teen literature that has both literary quality and teen appeal for those 13 to 18 years of age.
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2024 MLA Youth Literary Awards

We are excited to announce the winners of the 2024 Michigan Library Association Youth Literary Awards! The Mitten, YouPer, and Thumbs Up! Awards recognize outstanding contributions to youth literature and celebrate the best titles for children and teens published in 2023.

For the past year, MLA Youth Literary Award workgroups have spent thousands of hours reading, reviewing, and discussing hundreds of books to choose the very best titles for Michigan kids, it's our pleasure to share the winners!

The 2024 Mitten Award goes to An American Story by Kwame Alexander, illustrated by Dare Coulter, and published by Little Brown & Co. The winner of the 2024 YouPer Award is The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels by Beth Lincoln, illustrated by Claire Powell, and published by Dutton Books for Young Readers. The 2024 Thumbs Up! Award winner is Warrior Girl Unearthed, by Angeline Boulley, published by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR).

The Mitten Award recognizes and promotes quality literature for youth in picture book format, the YouPer (Young Person) Award recognizes and promotes quality literature for youth in chapter book format; and the Thumbs Up! Award recognizes and promotes an outstanding contribution to teen literature that has both literary quality and teen appeal.

Congratulations to the talented authors, illustrators, and publishers behind these exceptional works! Read on for details about the winners, honor books, and top titles of the 2024 awards. Award seals and graphics are available and free to use. Please use these resources at your library to help us promote the MLA Youth Literary Awards, these great books, and the incredible work of our award committees.

2024 Mitten Award Winner

2024 YouPer Award Winner

2024 Thumbs Up! Award Winner

2024 Mitten Award

The 2024 Mitten Award Workgroup members devoted 400 hours to reading and evaluating nearly 200 picture books to select the top titles published in 2023 that best meet the criteria as books of especially commendable quality that exhibit venturesome creativity and reflect and encourage children’s interests.

The winner of the 2024 Mitten Award is An American Story by Kwame Alexander, illustrated by Dare Coulter, and published by Little Brown & Co.

“The members of this workgroup worked diligently to read and review nearly 200 exceptional picture book titles and discussed about 60 of them in depth. Kwame Alexander’s An American Story, published in January 2023, rose to the top at our very first meeting. We were struck by the way the story wove between the past and present, utilizing Dare Coulter’s powerfully expressive mixed-media artwork to make the past feel real and tangible," said Dena Moscheck, Workgroup Chair, Children’s Coordinator, Bay County Library System.

"We hope that highlighting this important title will guide readers, at home as well as in the classroom, to be able to have conversations with their children about the crisis of slavery and institutionalized racism that is as relevant to the stories of Americans in 2024 as it was in the past.”

First given in 1999 by the Children’s Services Division of the Michigan Library Association, the award is given annually to one children’s book originally published in the United States during the calendar year that has captured the attention of youth librarians throughout the State of Michigan. The award selection work group is comprised of Michigan librarians who consider hundreds of children’s books annually to determine a winner.

2024 Mitten Award Top Ten Titles

An American Story by Kwame Alexander, illustrated by Dare Coulter
How To Count to One: And Don't Even Think About Bigger Numbers! by Caspar Salmon, illustrated by Matt Hunt
Big written and illustrated by Vashti Harrison
The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish written and illustrated by Chloe Savage
Mole is Not Alone written and illustrated by Maya Tatsukawa
Scroll written and illustrated by Hui Li
Stickler Loves the World by Lane Smith, illustrated by Lane Smith
Summer is for Cousins by Rajani Larocca, illustrated by Abhi Alwar
The Red Jacket written and illustrated by Bob Holt
I'm Going to Build a Snowman by Jashar Awan, illustrated by Jashar Awan

2024 YouPer (Young Person) Award

The YouPer (Young Person) Award recognizes and promotes quality literature for youth in chapter book format. First given in 2014, the award is given annually to one chapter book originally published in English during the calendar year that has captured the attention of the youth librarians throughout the State of Michigan for especially commendable quality, venturesome creativity, that reflects and encourages children's interests in exemplary ways.

The winner of the 2024 YouPer Award is The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels by Beth Lincoln, illustrated by Claire Powell, and published by Dutton Books for Young Readers.

“The Swifts has a great mix of mystery, humor, and teamwork. There’s something in it for everyone. The character names provide a fun and inventive way to expand vocabulary and a wonderful reminder that you can be anything you want, regardless of expectations put upon you. Overall, it was such a fun read that some members fought the itch to read it a second time before we even finished our award work. Whether you read the physical book or listen to the audio, this story is bound to keep kids on the edge of their seats until the very end,” said Jessica Keeler, the Chair of the 2024 YouPer Award Workgroup. "The Swifts was a delight to read and is sure to be coveted by middle graders everywhere."

The 2024 YouPer Award Honor Books include The Story of Gumluck the Wizard written and illustrated by Adam Rex, published by Chronicle Books; Mascot by Charles Waters and Traci Sorell, published by Charlesbridge; How to Stay Invisible by Maggie C. Rudd, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The 2024 Nonfiction Honor book is The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity by Nicholas Day, illustrated by Brett Helquist, and published by Random House Studio.

The workgroup read a total of 98 titles and logged more than 1300 hours reading, evaluating, and discussing the best chapter books for youth published in 2023.

2024 YouPer (Young Person) Top Ten Titles

The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels by Beth Lincoln, illustrated by Claire Powell
The Mona Lisa Vanishes by Nicholas Day, illustrated by Brett Helquist
The Story of Gumluck the Wizard written and illustrated by Adam Rex
Mascot by Charles Waters and Traci Sorell
How to Stay Invisible by Maggie C. Rudd
The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary D. Schmidt
Coyote Queen by Jessica Vitalis
Something Like Home by Andrea Beatriz Arango
Calling the Moon: 16 Period Stories from BIPOC Authors by Aida Salazar & Yamile Saied Mendez (editors)
Mexikid written and illustrated by Pedro Martin

2024 Thumbs Up! Award

The Thumbs Up! Award recognizes and promotes an outstanding contribution to teen literature that has both literary quality and teen appeal for those 13 to 18 years of age. The award was established in 1986 by the Teen Services Division of the Michigan Library Association.

Collectively, the 2024 Thumbs Up! Award workgroup considered more than 120 titles, reading, evaluating, reviewing, and deliberating more than 2,000 hours to select the top titles for teens aged 13-18 published in 2023.

The winner of the 2024 Thumbs Up! Award is Warrior Girl Unearthed, by Angeline Boulley, published by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

In Warrior Girl Unearthed, #1 New York Times bestselling author Angeline Boulley takes us back into the world of Firekeeper's Daughter in this high-stakes mystery about the power of discovering your stolen history.

Honor books include All the Fighting Parts: A Novel, by Hannah V. Sawyerr, published by Harry N. Abrams; America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History by Ariel Aberg-Riger, published by Balzer + Bray; Promise Boys by Nick Brooks, published by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); and The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa published by Random House.