WinnerThe Patchwork BikeMaxine Beneba ClarkeIn a village at the edge of a desert, a girl and her brothers make their own entertainment by building a bicycle from everyday and found objects. The homemade bike has branches for handlebars, tin-can handles, wooden wheels, and a bell that was once their mother's milk pot. The siblings ride it over sandy hills and repair it with further ingenuity, taking delight in the bike they created together.Picture BookLexile Text Measure 420LATOS Book Level 2.9View book detailsBoston Globe–Horn Book Awards 2019
The 2019 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards name nine books across picture books, fiction and poetry, and nonfiction. The Patchwork Bike by Maxine Beneba Clarke and Van Thanh Rudd wins the picture book award, while Kekla Magoon's The Season of Styx Malone takes fiction and poetry. Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy receive the nonfiction award for This Promise of Change. Each category also has two Honor Books.
2019 Boston Globe–Horn Book AwardsSee the original list
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Published byThe Horn Book
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Picture Book
3 selections
WinnerThe Patchwork BikeMaxine Beneba ClarkeIn a village at the edge of a desert, a girl and her brothers make their own entertainment by building a bicycle from everyday and found objects. The homemade bike has branches for handlebars, tin-can handles, wooden wheels, and a bell that was once their mother's milk pot. The siblings ride it over sandy hills and repair it with further ingenuity, taking delight in the bike they created together.Picture BookLexile Text Measure 420LATOS Book Level 2.9View book details
HonorDreamersYuyi MoralesYuyi Morales recounts her journey from Mexico to the United States with her young son. They arrive unable to return home and face a new country where she does not speak English. Their discovery of a public library becomes central to the story: the books there offer stories, inspiration, and recognition for their own voices and dreams. The book combines this immigrant journey with a tribute to love, resilience, and reading.Picture BookLexile Text Measure AD480LATOS Book Level 2.2View book details
HonorWe Are Grateful: OtsaliheligaTraci SorellOtsaliheliga is a Cherokee word used to express gratitude. Beginning in fall, this book follows a Cherokee family and community through a full year of seasons, ceremonies, celebrations, everyday practices, and difficult moments. Cherokee words appear with pronunciations and Cherokee syllabary. Endnotes add context about the objects, games, historical events, and ceremonies mentioned. The book presents contemporary Cherokee life alongside the ways people use otsaliheliga to recognize blessings and reflect on struggles.Picture BookLexile Text Measure NC970LATOS Book Level 3View book detailsFiction and Poetry
3 selections
WinnerThe Season of Styx MaloneKekla MagoonCaleb and his older brother Bobby Gene live in a small Indiana town, where their father wants their family to remain safe and ordinary. They meet Styx Malone, an older African American boy living with a nearby foster family, whose plans draw them beyond their usual routines. Together they begin a sequence of escalating trades, starting with fireworks and ending with a motorbike, until the deals become dangerous and illegal.Fiction and PoetryLexile Text Measure 510LATOS Book Level 3.4View book details
HonorDarius the Great is Not OkayAdib KhorramDarius Kellner is an Iranian American teenager with clinical depression who feels more fluent in Klingon than Farsi and more familiar with Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. On his first trip to Iran, he reconnects with his grandparents and forms a lasting friendship. The journey also changes his relationship with his father. Darius’s story explores his mixed cultural identity, his mental health, and the family connections reshaped by travel.Fiction and PoetryLexile Text Measure HL710LATOS Book Level 4.7View book details
HonorOn the Come UpAngie ThomasBri, a sixteen-year-old African American rapper, wants to follow her late father’s path in hip-hop. With money scarce at home, she sells candy at her largely white arts high school. After a security check leads to her being handcuffed and rumors that she dealt drugs, Bri turns her anger over the treatment of Black and brown students into a rap song. The song spreads online, bringing attention and controversy as Bri pursues her ambitions.Fiction and PoetryLexile Text Measure HL550LATOS Book Level 3.8View book detailsNonfiction
3 selections
WinnerThe Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School EqualityJo Ann Allen Boyce, Debbie LevyIn 1956, fourteen-year-old Jo Ann Allen is one of twelve Black students integrating Clinton High School in Tennessee. Her present-tense account combines poems in her voice with news clippings and other documents from the 1956–57 school year. The early days are tense but quiet until outsiders foster protests and violence. Jo Ann and her classmates face daily harassment, while threats spread through the wider Black community. Soldiers arrive to maintain peace, and families must weigh their safety against the struggle for equal education. An afterword follows the twelve students’ later lives.NonfictionView book details
HonorHey, KiddoJarrett J. KrosoczkaThis graphic memoir recounts Jarrett J. Krosoczka’s childhood with his grandparents while his mother lives with a substance use disorder. Jarrett grows up with a single mother who is addicted to heroin and an absent father. As he moves in with his grandparents, he finds a way to express himself through art. The book uses softly edged pencil-and-ink panels with muted orange watercolor.NonfictionLexile Text Measure GN510LATOS Book Level 3.5View book details
HonorNine Months: Before a Baby Is BornMiranda Paul, illustrated by Jason ChinA rhyming text follows a family as they prepare to welcome a new baby. Each spread pairs the family’s activities with a labeled image of fetal development, identifying the trimester, month, and weeks of gestation. The book documents pregnancy across a forty-week medical and scientific timeline, from early development through birth. End matter provides more information about the illustrations and babies. The family’s young daughter welcomes the newest member at the conclusion.NonfictionView book details