The award is established to affirm new talent and to offer visibility to excellence in writing and/or illustration, from 1999 to the present.
![Book cover of We could fly](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2024/97408e10be4c4a5c779d9d5fdcbce19a.jpg?itok=0u6DxUqR)
![Book cover for Choosing Brave: Mamie Till-Mobley, Emmett Till, and the Voice That Sparked the Civil Rights Movement](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2023/f7b391420a487089f02259d90c7d8d6b.jpg?itok=YFQj7eln)
2023
Choosing Brave: Mamie Till-Mobley, Emmett Till, and the Voice That Sparked the Civil Rights Movement
Call Number: x 92 T5737Jo
![Book cover for The Me I Choose to Be](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2022/7991b11a32deee750b31efd0d1e5bbf0.jpg?itok=SVb804mJ)
![Book cover for What is Given From the Heart](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2021/a9d7db814580b6f7cb60ee7a88efd31e.jpg?itok=GaR_igAp)
![Book cover for Thank You, Omu!](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2023/feb332bcc5d487987fec00a00484f72a.jpg?itok=0F6UYary)
![Book cover for Mama Africa! How Miriam Makeba Spread Hope With Her Song](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/0749576907a273ce498e1648fb935ae4.jpg?itok=rr5WqQAo)
![Book cover for Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2021/a4f3fbf789ad7cc62ccce1eb39afbaff.jpg?itok=g_ixAi48)
2016
Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement
Call Number: x 811 W362-4
Grades 3-5.
Free-verse poems and stunning illustrations combine to tell the story of a woman who came from humble beginnings and endured much – ultimately emerging as a national hero and a leader of the Civil Rights Movement.
![Book cover for When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/7d75370df593d31c7376c7ff5184725a.jpg?itok=CW2GC0bQ)
2014
When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop
Call Number: x 92 K82Hi
Grades 1 - 4: From his childhood in Jamaica to his youth in the Bronx, Laban Carrick Hill's book tells how Kool Herc came to be a DJ, how kids in gangs stopped fighting in order to breakdance, and how the music he invented went on to define a culture and transform the world.
![Book cover for Jazzy Miz Mozetta](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/498d6569b39104f83714faedd3a4c97d.jpg?itok=FyX5aKB9)
![Book cover for My Family Plays Music](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/9c7d74319cecfd7b999dad3a7481c3dd.jpg?itok=B4qWI9BQ)
![Book cover for The Moon Ring](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/6154ac53c869bb391f49fb63b8d50bbc.jpg?itok=5mRHwK1t)
![Book cover for Freedom Summer](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/38a6358f2590aaf77ceabfbcc5e48bda.jpg?itok=3df7Xcfj)
![Book cover for The Piano Man](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/be68e67775a0784d716fcc5404aca05d.jpg?itok=sVXtHPl9)