Why is it that there are mostly only awards for children's books? How many awards are there for adult books? There are the prestigious Caldecott and Newberry medals--both for children's books. The award that is arguably the highest honor in literature, the Hans Christian Andersen Award, is sponsered by the International Board on Books for Young People.
You see children's books on shelves with various awards attached to them, Newberry, Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, etc. But the only merit awarded to adult books is the New York Times best seller list. Why is this?
Working theory: Childern's and young adult books are generally of a higher caliber than adult books.
(Just kidding!)
Further research finds the National Book Award in the US--which to be honest I had never heard of. However, it was discontiued in 1983 and not reinstated until 1996. Why is so little attention given to adult literature?
Of course, there are genre awards that extend to adult fiction such as the Hugo and Nebula awards for SciFi, but there is no equivalent of the Newberry for best book in adult works, fiction or non-fiction.
Side note: best book award ever given--the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction in 1987 went to....
Scott O'Dell.
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