Sydney Taylor Award

The purpose of this Sydney Taylor Award is to encourage the publication of outstanding books of Jewish content for children. It spotlights books that are of the highest literary standards and includes authentic content of Judaism.

This award was created in 1968 under a different name, The Shirley Kavitz Children's Book Award. It was renamed the Sydney Taylor Award in 1978.

The style of the award has changed over the years. It originally awarded only one book per year. In 1981 they started recognizing two books per year, one picture book and one novel. There is a committee that carefully evaluates the books and selects a winner.

The criteria for the award includes:
Literary and artistic merit,
positive Jewish content and focus,
age appropriateness in terms of style, vocabulary, content, format, and illustration,
and accuracy.

2006 winners:
Younger reader: Hanukkah at Valley Forge by Steven Krensky illustrated by Greg Harlin
Teen winner: Julia's Kitchen by Brenda Ferber

Some honor award winners 2006 (young reader):
I Am Marc Chagall by Bimba Landmann
Rebecca's Journey Home by Brynn Olenberg Sugarman

When we went to the library to check out some of the Sydney Taylor Award books, there were not very many available. We found one younger read book and two juvenile fiction book (teen reader). One of the two teen reader books was checked out which made us happy! :) Unfortunately we didn't find the majority of the books listed on the website that won this award.

When looking up the Sydney Taylor Award on the internet we found no "official website" but there was information about it on the "Association of Jewish Libraries" website. When you go to this website you will find a long list of books that have either been awarded or honored in regards to this award.

please check out www.jewishlibraries.org for more info!