(2008) Frank Asch – Mrs. Marlowe’s Mice
(2009) Steve Breen – Violet the Pilot
(2010) Paul Fleischman and David Roberts – The Dunderheads
(2011) Nikki Grimes – Almost Zero
(2012) Greg Neri – Ghetto Cowboy
(2014) Anne Ursu – The Real Boy
(2015) Justin Roberts – The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade
(2016) Sharon Draper – Stella by Starlight
(2017) Dan Gemeinhart – Some Kind of Courage
(2018) Tony Abbott – The Summer Of Owen Todd and Mordicai Gerstein (lifetime achievement) – The Boy and the Whale
(2019) Christopher Paul Curtis – The Travels of Little Charley
(2020) Lynn Kelly – Song for a Whale and Gordon Korman (lifetime achievement) – The Unteachables
(2021) Pam Muñoz Ryan – Mañanaland
(2022) Keeping the City Going – Brian Floca
(2023) She Holds Up the Stars – Sandra Laronde