MLA YOUPER (Young Person) AWARD

The YouPer (Young Person) Award recognizes and promotes quality literature for youth in chapter book format. This award was given for the first time in 2014 by the Michigan Library Association. The award is given annually to one chapter book originally published in English during the calendar year that has captured the attention of the youth librarians throughout the State of Michigan for its ability to communicate through literature to an intended audience.

YouPer Award Guidelines (pdf)

Submit a nomination for the 2023 YouPer Award using the online form:

2023 YouPer Award Nomination Form

Award Seals

Download the YouPer Award seals to use at your library! Winner, Honor Book and Top Ten Title award seals are available for download here: (To download, right-click on the seal and save it as an image.)

2022 MLA YouPer Award

The 2022 YouPer Award Work Group evaluated 124 titles, reading reviewing, evaluating, and discussing at length, for more than 1056 hours to select our Top Ten Tiles, Honor Books, and Winner in order to recognize the best chapter books for youth published in 2021.

2022 YouPer Award Workgroup

2022 YouPer Award Winner

The winner of the 2022 YouPer Award is Ophie’s Ghosts, written by Justina Ireland, and published by Balzer + Bray (an Imprint of Harper Collins).

We announced the winners and honor books of the 2022 Mitten, YouPer and Thumbs Up! Awards on Friday, May 27 at the MLA 2022 Youth Literary Awards. The awards selection group members worked throughout the year spending thousands of hours reading, reviewing and ranking hundreds of books to determine the top titles published in 2021. Watch the announcement below! Download the full list of winners.

Honor Books

Cece Rios and the Desert of Lost Souls 
Author: Kaela Rivera 
Publisher: Harper an Imprint of Harper Collins

Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids 
Author: Edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith 
Publisher: Heartdrum an Imprint of Harper Collins 

Top Ten Titles

(Listed in random order) 

Starfish 
Author: Lisa Fipps 
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books an Imprint of Penguin Random House

Maya and the Robot 
Author: Eve L. Ewing 
Illustrator: Christine Almeda 
Publisher: Kokila an Imprint of Penguin Random House 

Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna 
Author: Alda P. Dobbs 
Publisher: Sourcebooks Young Readers

The Swag is in the Socks 
Author: Kelly J. Baptist 
Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers an Imprint of Penguin Random House

Playing the Cards You’re Dealt 
Author: Varian Johnson 
Publisher: Scholastic Press

Ophie’s Ghosts 
Author: Justina Ireland 
Publisher: Balzer + Bray an Imprint of Harper Collins

World In Between
Author: Kenan Trebincevic and Susan Shapiro 
Illustrator: Susan Shapiro 
Publisher: Clarion Books an Imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers

The Comeback 
Author: E. L. Shen 
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young People an Imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group 

Cece Rios and the Desert of Lost Souls 
Author: Kaela Rivera 
Publisher: Harper an Imprint of Harper Collins

Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids 
Author: Edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith 
Publisher: Heartdrum an Imprint of Harper Collins

Past YouPer Award Winners and Honor Books

2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021

Past YouPer Award Winners and Honor Books (pdf)

Youper Award home