The Michael L. Printz Award is an American Library Association literary award that annually recognizes the "best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit". It is sponsored by Booklist magazine; administered by the ALA's young-adult division, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA); and named for the Topeka, Kansas, school librarian Mike Printz, a long-time active member of YALSA.
Up to four worthy runners-up may be designated Honor Books and three or four have been named every year.
History
The Printz Award was founded in 2000 for 1999 young adult publications. The award "was created as a counterpoint to the Newbery" in order to highlight the best and most literary works of excellence written for a young adult audience.
Jonathon Hunt, a Horn Book reviewer, hopes that the Printz Award can create a "canon as revered as that of the Newbery."
Michael L. Printz was a librarian at Topeka West High School in Topeka, Kansas, until he retired in 1994. He was also an active member of YALSA, serving on the Best Books for Young Adults Committee and the Margaret A. Edwards Award Committee. He dedicated his life to ensuring that his students had access to good literature. To that end he encouraged writers to focus on the young adult audience. He created an author-in-residence program at the high school to promote new talent and encourage his students. His most noteworthy find was Chris Crutcher.
Criteria and procedure
Source: "The Michael L. Printz Award Policies and Procedures"
The selection committee comprises nine YALSA members appointed by the president-elect for a one-year term. They award one winner and honor up to four additional titles. The Michael L. Printz Award is sponsored by Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association (ALA).
- Non-fiction, fiction, poetry and anthologies are all eligible to receive the Printz Award.
- Books must have been published between January 1 and December 31 of the year preceding the announcement of the award.
- Titles must be designated 'young adult' by its publisher or published for the age range that YALSA defines as "young adult," i.e., 12 through 18. Adult books are not eligible.
- Works of joint authorship or editorship are eligible.
- The award may be issued posthumously.
- Books previously published in another country are eligible (presuming an American edition has been published during the period of eligibility).
Recipients
The Printz Medal has been awarded for one work annually without exception. Only A. S. King has received the award twice, one for a single-authored book in 2020 and another as editor and contributor to an anthology in 2024.
{|class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:1.00em; line-height:1.5em;"
|+ Printz Award winners and runners-up
! Year ||Author ||Book ||Result
!Ref.
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="4" |2000
|
|Monster
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Skellig
|rowspan="3" |Honor
|
|-
|
|Speak
|
|-
|
|Hard Love
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="5" |2001
|
|Kit's Wilderness
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Many Stones
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|
|-
|
|
|
|-
|
|Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging
|
|-
|
|Stuck in Neutral
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="5" |2002
|
|
|Winner
|
|-
|
|
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|
|-
|
|Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art
|
|-
|
|Freewill
|
|-
|
|True Believer
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="4" |2003
|
|Postcards from No Man's Land
|Winner
|
|-
|
|
|rowspan="3" |Honor
|
|-
|
|My Heartbeat
|
|-
|Jack
|Hole in My Life
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="5" |2004
|
|
|Winner
|
|- "
|
|
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|
|-
|
|Keesha's House
|
|-
|
|Fat Kid Rules the World
|
|-
|
|
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="4" |2005
|
|How I Live Now
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Airborn
|rowspan="3" |Honor
|
|-
|
|Chanda's Secrets
|
|-
|
|Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="5" |2006
|
|Looking for Alaska
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Black Juice
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|
|-
|
|I Am the Messenger
|
|-
|
|John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth, a Photographic Biography
|
|-
|
|
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="5" |2007
|
|American Born Chinese
|Winner
|
|-
|
|
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|
|-
|
|
|
|-
|
|Surrender
|
|-
|
|
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="5" |2008
|
|
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Dreamquake
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|
|-
|
|One Whole and Perfect Day
|
|-
|
|Repossessed
|
|-
|
|Your Own Sylvia
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="5" |2009
|
|Jellicoe Road
|Winner
|
|-
|
|
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|
|-
|
|
|
|-
|
|Nation
|
|-
|
|Tender Morsels
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="5" |2010
|
|Going Bovine
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|
|-
|
|
|
|-
|
|Punkzilla
|
|-
|
|Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance, 1973
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="5" |2011
|
|Ship Breaker
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Stolen
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|
|-
|
|Please Ignore Vera Dietz
|
|-
|
|Revolver
|
|-
|
|Nothing
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="5" |2012
|
|Where Things Come Back
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Why We Broke Up
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|
|-
|
|
|
|-
|
|Jasper Jones
|
|-
|
|
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="5" |2013
|
|In Darkness
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|
|-
|
|Code Name Verity
|
|-
|
|Dodger
|
|-
|
|
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="5" |2014
|
|Midwinterblood
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Eleanor & Park
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|
|-
|
|Kingdom of Little Wounds
|
|-
|
|Maggot Moon
|
|-
|
|Navigating Early
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="5" |2015
|
|I'll Give You the Sun
|Winner
|
|-
|
|
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|
|-
|
|And We Stay
|
|-
|
|Grasshopper Jungle
|
|-
|
|This One Summer
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="3" |2016
|
|Bone Gap
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Out of Darkness
|rowspan="2" |Honor
|
|-
|
|
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="5" |2017
|, , and
|March: Book Three
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Asking for It
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|
|-
|
|
|
|-
|
|Scythe
|
|-
|
|The Sun Is Also a Star
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="5" |2018
|
|We Are Okay
|Winner
|
|-
|
|
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|
|-
|
|Long Way Down
|
|-
|
|Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers
|
|-
|
|Strange the Dreamer
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="4" |2019
|
|
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Damsel
|rowspan="3" |Honor
|
|-
|
|
|
|-
|
|I, Claudia
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="5" |2020
|
|Dig
|Winner
|
|-
| with Cathy Hirano (trans.)
|The Beast Player
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|
|-
| with Rosemary Valero-O’Connell (illus.)
|Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me
|
|-
|
|Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir
|
|-
|
|Where the World Ends
|
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="5" |2021
|
|Everything Sad Is Untrue (a true story)
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Apple (Skin to the Core)
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|rowspan="4" |
|-
|
|Concrete Rose
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|rowspan="4" |
|-
|
|Scout's Honor
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|rowspan="4" |
|-
| with Eva Apelqvist (trans.)
|Fire from the Sky
|rowspan="4" |Honor
|rowspan="4" |
|-
|
|Bright Red Fruit
| rowspan="4" |Honor
| rowspan="4" |
|-
|
|Road Home
|-
|
|
|-
|
|Compound Fracture
|-
|- style="background:LemonChiffon; color:black"
! rowspan="5" |2026
|Cynthia Leitich Smith (ed.)
|Legendary Frybread Drive-In: Intertribal Stories
|Winner
|
|-
|T.L. Simpson
|Cope Field
| rowspan="4" |Honor
| rowspan="4" | and Acevedo won the 2019 Carnegie and Printz for The Poet X.