The New York Historical Children's History Book Prize

Through the Children’s History Book Prize, The New York Historical honors the best children’s historical literature in the United States and encourages authors to continue to create engaging and challenging narratives that provide a window into the past for middle readers and their families. The winning author is awarded $10,000. The jury comprises librarians, educators, historians, and families with middle-grade readers.

The New York Historical is dedicated to exploring history through characters and narrative. To support this endeavor, the Barbara K. Lipman Children’s History Library in the DiMenna Children’s History Museum has a wide selection of children’s books about American and New York history, and hosts a variety of book-focused family programs, including the Reading into History Family Book Club, Sunday Story Time, and Little New-Yorkers.

A Two-Placed Heart

Winner of the 2024 Children’s History Book Prize

The winner of the 2024 Children’s History Book Prize is Doan Phuong Nguyen's A Two-Placed Heart! Through verse and memoir, this story of protagonist Bom’s family history—in Vietnam, emigrating, and in Tennessee—captures the subtle differences even a few years can make when assimilating, blending, or holding on to culture. Bom's younger sister, Bo, is too young to remember their past and declares that she’s simply American. Author Nguyen doesn’t shy away from depicting the stark realities of famine, war, immigration, and loss, tempering some of the more heart-wrenching moments with compassion and hope.

2024 Children’s History Book Prize Finalists

Light and Air by Mindy Nichols Wendell

Ten-year old Halle’s mother contracts the infectious disease tuberculosis in an era when antibiotics to treat TB weren’t yet discovered yet and doctors emphasized open-air treatments. Descriptions of the upstate New York hospital’s porches and daily routines are smoothly incorporated, and Halle’s fears for her own health and longing for her mother are relatable.

Witch Hunt: The Cold War, Joe McCarthy, and the Red Scare by Andrea Balis and Elizabeth Levy

The authors use testimonies from political figures, journalists and other witnesses, and victims and their descendants to create clear pictures of the course of the mid-20th century Red Scare.

One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome

It's 1879 and Lettie's family joins a wagon train heading to Nebraska from their home town in Mississippi. The arduous journey and the community of traveling families show the challenges and triumphs of this little known history of Westward Expansion and the Great Migration.

Light and Air by Mindy Nichols Wendell

Please send 2025 published submissions by October 31, 2025 to:

Alice Stevenson
Director, DiMenna Children’s History Museum
The New York Historical
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024

The New York Historical Children’s History Book Prize is supported by an anonymous donor.

Recent Winners

The Lions of Little Rock

By Kristin Levine; In 1958 Little Rock, Arkansas, painfully shy 12-year-old Marlee sees her city and family divided over school integration, but her friendship with Liz, a new student, helps her find her voice and fight against racism.

The Lost Year

By Katherine Marsh; Set in alternating timelines that connect the present day to the 1930s and the US to the USSR, The Lost Year tells the story of a young boy living through the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic as he starts to unravel a secret family history: the Holodomor, the horrific famine that killed millions of Ukrainians.

We Own the Sky

By Rodman Philbrick; Set in 1920 Maine, this story of two orphans who connect with their dare-devil circus performing aunt touches on themes of community, early 20th-century traveling performers, and anti-immigrant sentiment.

The New York Historical Children's History Book Prize

A Two-Placed Heart

2024 Children’s History Book Prize Finalists

Light and Air by Mindy Nichols Wendell

Witch Hunt: The Cold War, Joe McCarthy, and the Red Scare by Andrea Balis and Elizabeth Levy

One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome

Recent Winners

The Lions of Little Rock

The Lost Year

We Own the Sky

Champion History

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