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Watch us on YouTubeThe Golden Kite Awards, given annually to recognize excellence in children’s literature, grant cash prizes of $2,500 to author and illustrator winners in four categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Picture Book Text, and Picture Book Illustration. Authors and illustrators will also receive an expense-paid trip to Los Angeles to attend the award ceremony at the Golden Kite Luncheon at SCBWI’s Summer Conference in August.
The Talk
by Alicia Williams
Published in 2022 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9781534495296
As a little boy grows into a bigger boy, ready to take on the world, he first must have that very difficult conversation far too familiar to so many Black and Brown Americans in this gentle and ultimately hopeful picture book.
2023 Golden Kite Award - Picture Book Text
Soul Food Sunday
by Winsome Bingham
Published in 2021 by Abrams Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9781419747717
Granny teaches her young grandson how to cook the family meal, in this celebration of food, traditions, and gathering together at the table. Includes recipe for baked macaroni and cheese.
2022 Golden Kite Award - Picture Book Text
All Because You Matter
by Tami Charles
Published in 2020 by Orchard Books
ISBN: 9781338574852
A lyrical, heart-lifting love letter to black and brown children everywhere: reminding them how much they matter, that they have always mattered, and they always will.
2021 Golden Kite Award - Picture Book Text
A Green Place to Be: The Creation of Central Park
by Ashley Benham Yazdani
Published in 2019 by Findaway World, LLC
ISBN: 9780763696955
New York City needed a park - a special spot to gather, play, and enjoy nature. A quiet, wild place made just for you. In 1858, New York City was growing so fast that new roads and tall buildings threatened to swallow up the remaining open space. The people needed a green place to be -- a park with ponds to row on and paths for wandering through trees and over bridges. When a citywide contest solicited plans for creating a park out of barren swampland, Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted put their heads together to create the winning design, and the hard work of making their plans a reality began.
2020 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
The Remember Balloons
by Jessie Oliveros
Published in 2018 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9781481489157
James has a bunch of balloons, each of which holds a special memory, but as his grandfather ages and loses his own balloons, James discovers that he is gaining new ones.
2019 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
There Might Be Lobsters
by Carolyn Crimi
Published in 2017 by Candlewick Press
ISBN: 9780763675424
A little dog's paralyzing anxiety gives way to bravery when someone smaller arrives in need during a whooshy, splashy, overwhelming day at the beach.
2018 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
The Christmas Boot
by Lisa Wheeler
Published in 2016 by Dial Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780803741348
Hannah Greyweather's life is changed when she finds a magic wish-granting boot in the forest outside her home.
2017 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
Boats for Papa
by Jessixa Bagley
Published in 2015 by Roaring Brook Press
ISBN: 9781626720398
Buckley and his mother cope with the loss of their father/husband by sending small wooden boats, built by Buckley, off into the ocean.
2016 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
A Dance Like Starlight: One Ballerina's Dream
by Kristy Dempsey
Published in 2014 by Philomel Books
ISBN: 9780399252846
A young girl growing up in Harlem in the 1950s, whose mother cleans and stitches costumes for a ballet company, dreams of becoming a prima ballerina one day, and is thrilled to see a performance of Janet Collins, the first "colored" prima ballerina.
2015 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
Sophie's Squash
by Pat Zietlow Miller
Published in 2013 by Schwartz & Wade Books
ISBN: 9780307978967
A young girl befriends a squash.
2014 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
Me and Momma and Big John
by Mara Rockliff
Published in 2012 by Candlewick Press
ISBN: 9780763643591
Little John is proud of his mother's work as a stonecutter for a cathedral called "Big John," but struggles to understand the importance of spending so much time on one stone that no one will know Momma cut. Includes a history of New York City's Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
2013 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
Over and Under the Snow
by Kate Messner
Published in 2011 by Chronicle Books
ISBN: 9780811867849
Exploring the enchanted lives of animals that survive winter underground, Kate Messner’s Over and Under the Snow is this year’s winner for Picture Book Text. Messner’s vivid imageries and delicate prose glide us along a whimsical journey of a father and son as they ski through the forest and discover the hidden, sometimes secret existence of the animals that inhabit the cold season.
2012 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
Big Red Lollipop
by Rukhsana Khan
Published in 2010 by Viking Juvenile
ISBN: 9780670062874
Having to take her younger sister along the first time she is invited to a birthday party spoils Rubina's fun, and later when that sister is asked to a party and baby sister wants to come, Rubina must decide whether to help.
2011 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
The Longest Night
by Marion Dane Bauer
Published in 2009 by Holiday House
ISBN: 9780823420544
One very long night, a crow, a moose, and a fox all claim they can bring back the sun, but the wind knows that only one little creature has what is needed to end the darkness.
2010 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
A Visitor for Bear
by Bonny Becker
Published in 2008 by Candlewick Press
ISBN: 9780763628079
Bear's efforts to keep out visitors to his house are undermined by a very persistent mouse.
2009 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
Pierre in Love
by Sara Pennypacker
Published in 2007 by Orchard Books
ISBN: 9780439517409
Feeling "bloopy and love-swoggled" in the presence of Catherine, the elegant ballet teacher, a humble fisherman tries to muster the courage to reveal his affection for her.
2008 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
Jazz
by Walter Dean Myer
Published in 2006 by Holiday House
ISBN: 9780823415458
Illustrations and rhyming text celebrate the roots of jazz music.
2007 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
Doña Flor
by Pat Mora
Published in 2005 by Turtleback Books
ISBN: 9780375823374
Doña Flor, a giant lady with a big heart, sets off to protect her neighbors from what they think is a dangerous animal, but soon discovers the tiny secret behind the huge noise.
2006 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
Apples to Oregon
by Deborah Hopkinson
Published in 2004 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780689847691
A pioneer father transports his beloved fruit trees and his family to Oregon in the mid-nineteenth century. Based loosely on the life of Henderson Luelling.
2005 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
The Dirty Cowboy
by Amy Timberlake
Published in 2003 by Farrar Straus Giroux
ISBN: 9780374317911
Telling his faithful dog to make sure nobody touches his clothes but him, a cowboy jumps into a New Mexico river for a bath, not realizing just how much the scrubbing will change his scent.
2004 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
George Hogglesberry, Grade School Alien
by Sarah Wilson
Published in 2002 by Tricycle Press
ISBN: 9781582460635
George Hogglesberry, the new second grade student from the planet Frollop II, gets help from his teacher and classmates with fitting in and with his performance in the fall school play.
2003 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
The Shoe Tree of Chagrin
by J. Patrick Lewis
Published in 2001 by Creative Editions
ISBN: 9781568461731
The barn-tall old plainswoman Susannah DeClare braves deep snow and icy weather to fulfill her promise to deliver a load of handmade shoes to Chagrin Falls, Ohio, by Christmas.
2002 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
River Friendly, River Wild
by Jane Kurtz
Published in 2000 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780689820496
A family experiences a renewed appreciation for home and community after they are evacuated during a spring flood and then return to survey the damage.
2001 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
A Band of Angels
by Deborah Hopkinson
Published in 1999 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780689810626
The daughter of a slave forms a gospel singing group and goes on tour to raise money to save Fisk University.
2000 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
Old Elm Speaks: Tree Poems
by Kristine O'Connell George
Published in 1998 by Clarion Books
ISBN: 9780395876114
A collection of short, simple poems which present images relating to trees in various circumstances and throughout the seasons.
1997 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
The Paper Dragon
by Marguerite W. Davol
Published in 1997 by Athenuem Books For Young Readers
ISBN: 9780689319921
A humble artist agrees to confront the terrifying dragon that threatens to destroy his village.
1999 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
Saving Sweetness
by Diane Stanley
Published in 1996 by Putnam's Sons
ISBN: 9780399226458
The sheriff of a dusty western town rescues Sweetness, an unusually resourceful orphan, from nasty old Mrs. Sump and her terrible orphanage.
1998 Golden Kite Award Winner - Picture Book Text
