WinnerI Talk like a RiverJordan ScottA boy who stutters experiences the sounds of words around him but struggles to say them. At school, he fears being asked to speak and feels that classmates notice his fear and different speech. Afterward, his father takes him to the river. The quiet walk is comforting, and his father compares the boy’s speech to the river’s bubbling, churning, whirling, and crashing water, giving him an image to remember in difficult moments.Picture BookLexile Text Measure 480LATOS Book Level 3.1View book detailsBoston Globe–Horn Book Awards 2021
The 2021 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards recognize nine books across picture books, fiction and poetry, and nonfiction. I Talk like a River by Jordan Scott, illustrated by Sydney Smith, wins the picture book award. Rita Williams-Garcia's A Sitting in St. James and Paula Yoo's From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry receive the other two awards. Six Honor Books include Watercress, Fighting Words, All Thirteen, and Unspeakable.
2021 Boston Globe–Horn Book AwardsSee the original list
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Picture Book
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WinnerI Talk like a RiverJordan ScottA boy who stutters experiences the sounds of words around him but struggles to say them. At school, he fears being asked to speak and feels that classmates notice his fear and different speech. Afterward, his father takes him to the river. The quiet walk is comforting, and his father compares the boy’s speech to the river’s bubbling, churning, whirling, and crashing water, giving him an image to remember in difficult moments.Picture BookLexile Text Measure 480LATOS Book Level 3.1View book details
HonorI Am Every Good ThingDerrick BarnesIn first-person affirmations, a young Black boy names his creativity, questions, ideas, and sense of belonging. The accompanying images show Black boys playing, taking part in sports and scientific study, celebrating, and sharing family hugs. The book emphasizes their worthiness of success, respect, safety, kindness, happiness, and love. Its statements of self-regard address Black boys’ brilliance and beauty while recognizing a world that can be hostile to them.Picture BookLexile Text Measure AD610LATOS Book Level 4View book details
HonorWatercressAndrea WangA Chinese American girl joins her family in gathering wild watercress beside a road in Ohio. She feels embarrassed by the stop, but her mother shares memories from China that reveal why the food matters to their family. Through the watercress, the girl begins to understand the connection between a familiar meal, her parents’ immigrant experience, and family memories that link the past with the present.Picture BookLexile Text Measure AD610LATOS Book Level 4View book detailsFiction and Poetry
3 selections
WinnerA Sitting in St. JamesRita Williams-GarciaIn Louisiana in 1860, eighty-year-old Madame Sylvie Guilbert chooses to sit for a portrait after more than six decades as mistress of Le Petit Cottage. The portrait sitting brings forward accounts spanning generations, from the plantation house to the fields. These stories reveal the Guilbert family’s secrets and history, along with the traumatic harm inflicted on enslaved workers. Thisbe, an enslaved woman, watches events while standing silently beside her mistress.Fiction and PoetryView book details
HonorFighting WordsKimberly Brubaker BradleyTen-year-old Della has depended on her older sister, Suki, as their protector and caregiver. After Suki reaches a crisis point, the sisters are placed in a foster home with Francine, who helps them access mental-health treatment. The novel addresses the sexual abuse the girls experienced while living with their mother’s former boyfriend. With a therapist’s help, Della starts to recognize her feelings, understand Suki’s struggles, and develop healthier ways to cope with trauma.Fiction and PoetryLexile Text Measure HL540LATOS Book Level 3.6View book details
HonorPunching the AirIbi Zoboi, Yusef SalaamAmal is a sixteen-year-old artist attending a diverse art school, but a biased system sees him as disruptive and unmotivated. After an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood ends in tragedy, he is convicted of a crime he did not commit and sent to prison. Told in verse, the novel follows Amal after his future is overturned, as he struggles for truth and humanity within a system shaped by racial bias.Fiction and PoetryLexile Text Measure 888LATOS Book Level 5.7View book detailsNonfiction
3 selections
WinnerFrom a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial That Galvanized the Asian American MovementPaula YooThis nonfiction account examines the 1982 killing of Chinese American Vincent Chin in Detroit and its aftermath. Chin died days after two white men beat him with a baseball bat following an argument at a club. Amid intense anti-Asian sentiment tied to the struggling auto industry, the attackers pleaded guilty to a reduced manslaughter charge and received probation. Chinese American and broader Asian American communities sought justice, helping launch a national pan-Asian activist movement shaped by grief, anger, solidarity, and resistance to stereotypes.NonfictionView book details
HonorAll Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer TeamChristina SoontornvatThis nonfiction account recounts the 2018 rescue of twelve Wild Boars soccer players and their assistant coach after they were trapped in Thailand’s Tham Luang Nang cave for over two weeks. Divers worked through deep water and narrow passages alongside Thai and U.S. military personnel. An engineer developed a way to reduce water flowing into the cave, while local people organized support for volunteers and families. The operation involved technology, logistics, danger, and international cooperation; Thai Navy Seal Saman Kunan died during it.NonfictionLexile Text Measure 1020LATOS Book Level 7.2View book details
HonorUnspeakable: The Tulsa Race MassacreCarole Boston WeatherfordWritten in verse, this picture book recounts the history of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. It first portrays Greenwood as a Black district with its own schools, libraries, churches, restaurants, post office, and movie theaters. Over May 31 and June 1, an armed mob looted homes and businesses while Black families fled. The book records how a thriving community was transformed during those two days of racial violence.NonfictionView book details