Virginia Hamilton's Awards, Prizes, and Honors

AIGA Award:
In The Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World

ALSC List, The USA Through Children's Books:
The Bells of Christmas

American Book Award Nominee:
Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush

American Bookseller "Pick of the Lists":
In The Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World

American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults:
Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave; Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush; A Little Love; Cousins; The Magical Adventures of Pretty Pearl; In The Beginning Creation Stories from Around the World

American Library Association Notable Book:
Arilla Sun Down; The Gathering; The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales; W.E.B. Du Bois; Paul Robeson; Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave; Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush; Cousins; The Magical Adventures of Pretty Pearl; Zeely; The House of Dies Drear; The Planet of Junior Brown; M.C. Higgins, The Great; Willie Bea and the Time the Martians Landed; In The Beginning: Creation Stories From Around the World; The Bells of Christmas

Blackboard Award:
HER STORIES: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales and True Tales

Booklist Best of the 1980's:
Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush

Booklist Editors' Choice:
The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales; Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush; A Little Love; Cousins; The Bells of Christmas

Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Nonfiction:
Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave

Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction:
Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush; M.C. Higgins, the Great

Certificate of Award from the Printing Industries of America:
The Dark Way: Stories of the Spirit World

Child Study, 1990 Titles (Bank Street Book Cte.):
Cousins

Coretta Scott King Award:
The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales; Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush; A Little Love

Coretta Scott King Honor Book:
Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave; The Magical Adventures of Pretty Pearl; The Bells of Christmas

De Grummond 2001 Award Medal:
The University of Southern Mississippi De Grummond 2001 Award Medal presented to Virginia Hamilton at the USM Literature Conference

Edgar Alan Poe Award ("The Edgar"), Mystery Writers of America, Inc.:
The House of Dies Drear

Hans Christian Andersen Award
For the body of work, Berlin 1992

The Horn Book Fanfare Honor Book:
The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales; Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave; A Little Love

The Horn Book Fanfare Selection:
In The Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World

Hungry Mind Review 1996 Children's Book of Distinction
Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales and True Tales

IBBY Honor Book Citation:
Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush

International Reading Association Teacher's Choice:
Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave

Jane Addams Children's Book Award:
Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave

Learning Magazine, "Winners Across the Curriculum", one of 15 best books of year.
In The Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World

Laura Ingalls Wilder Award: For the body of work

Lewis Carroll Shelf Award:
The Planet of Junior Brown; M.C. Higgins, The Great

Library of Congress Best Books for Children:
Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush

Nancy Block Award:
Zeely

National Book Award:
M.C. Higgins, The Great

National Science Teachers Association Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children:
In The Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World

NCTE Teacher's Choice:
The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales; Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush

New York Times Best Illustrated Book:
The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales

New York Times Outstanding Children's Book of the Year:
M.C. Higgins, The Great

New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing:
Cousins

Newbery Honor Book:
Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush; The Planet of Junior Brown, In The Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World

Newbery Medal:
M.C. Higgins, The Great

Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Language
The Magical Adventures of Pretty Pearl

Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies:
The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales; Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave; Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush; Cousins; The Magical Adventures of Pretty Pearl; In The Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World

The Ohio Governor's Award, January 2000

Parents' Choice Award Recording:
The People Could Fly: American B1ack Folktales

Parents Magazine, Best Books of Year Listing:
In The Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World

Publisher's Weekly Best Books, 1996:
When Birds Could Talk and Bats Could Sing

Read-Aloud Handbook Selection:
The People Could Fly American Black Folktales

School Library Journal Best Book of the Year:
The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales; Anthony Burns The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive S1ave; Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush

School Library Journal Best Books of Spring 1983:
The Magical Adventures of Pretty Pearl

School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, 1996:
When Birds Could Talk and Bats Could Sing

School Library Journal "Best of the Best":
The House of Dies Drear; The Planet of Junior Brown; M.C. Higgins, The Great

South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Nominee:
Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave

The 1996 Honor Titles Storytelling World Award
Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales and True Tales

Time Magazine, One of 12 Best Books for Young Readers, 1988:
In The Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World

U.S. Honor Book, International Hans Christian Andersen Award:
M.C. Higgins, The Great

Ohioana Award:
The Body of Work by Virginia Hamilton (1984); Career Medal (1991)

Distinguished Visiting Professor
Graduate School, Dept. of Education, Queens College, New York, 1986-87; 1987-88

Distinguished Visiting Professor
Graduate School, Dept. of Educational Theory and Practice, Ohio State University, Ohio, 1988-89

Honorary Degree, Doctor of Humane Letters
Bank Street College of Education, New York
Ohio State University, Ohio
Wright State University, Ohio
Kent State University, OH

Jefferson Silver Cup Award, 1989

Regina Medal of the Catholic Library Association, 1991

The Virginia Hamilton Lecture in Children's Literature Kent State University.
An annual lecture in the author's name. Established 1984

Mary Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture, 1993

The John D. and Catherine C. MacArthur Fellowship, 1995

The Marquis Who's Who in America 1996

The 1997 Ohioana Book Award to Virginia Hamilton for HER STORIES

27th NAACP Image Award - 1996 - To Virginia Hamilton
OUTSTANDING Literary work, Children's "Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales and True Tales"

Nominee, the 29th NAACP Image Awards - 1998 - Virginia Hamilton
OUTSTANDING Literary work, Children's
"A Ring of Tricksters: Animal Tales From America, The West Indies and Africa"

Distinguished Achievement Award -1997
Best of Category - Given for excellence in Educational Journalism
Writing for Success - October 1996.
Interview: "Tricksters and Shape-Shifters"

The Read I n! Foundation Award

Visit South Africa