We Need Diverse Books has revealed the winners of the Walter Dean Myers Awards, also known as the Walters, which “celebrate diversity in children’s literature.”
Derrick Barnes won the Walter in the younger readers category for The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze, his middle-grade novel about a 13-year-old Black football player who draws the ire of white people in his Mississippi town for refusing to play after his friend is assaulted by police officers. The book was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and longlisted for a National Book Award.
The Walter Award in the teen category went to Champion, a graphic novel written by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Raymond Obstfeld and illustrated by Ed Laroche. The book tells the story of a high school basketball star who is caught vandalizing a rival school and must complete a report on Abdul-Jabbar’s life as an advocate for social justice.
We Need Diverse books also announced honorees in both categories. The Walter Honors book in the younger readers category went to All the Blues in the Sky by Renée Watson, which recently won the Newbery Medal, while the Walter Honors book in the teen category was awarded to King of the Neuro Verse by Idris Goodwin.
The Walters, named after the celebrated young adult author who died in 2014, were first awarded by the literary nonprofit in 2016. Previous winners include Elizabeth Acevedo for The Poet X, Angeline Boulley for Firekeeper’s Daughter, and Jacqueline Woodson for Remember Us.
The winners and honorees will receive their awards at a ceremony on March 23 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
