Blog Post: International Literary Awards
The book that I read for my book review was The Mzungu Boy. The book was first published in 1990, and it won the prestigious Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis. This is an annual award given to recognize outstanding children’s literature, and it is Germany’s only state-funded literary award. Authors from countries all over the world are recognized, including Maja Mwangi, the author of The Mzungu Boy (Goodreads).
This award is given in several categories, including Best Picture Book, Best Children’s Book, Best Youth Book, Best Non-Fiction Book, and Choice of the Youth Jury. Many well-known books of each category from many different countries have won this award. One popular book that has made it on this prestigious list is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Zusak is an Australian writer, but his book takes place in Nazi Germany in 1939. Anyone who has read this book knows that it is a powerful story of a young girl and her love affair with books during a dangerous time.
Another more recent book that has been honored with this German Youth Literature Prize is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. This book touches on some very powerful themes and conflicts that are currently present in the United States. A sixteen-year-old girl witnesses the shooting of her unarmed best friend by a police officer. The aftermath becomes national news, and this young girl may be the only one who can confirm the truth of what happened that night. This emotional story has made an impact on many people and deserves this award for its unique perspective of such a difficult issue in this country. The Hate U Give won the German literature award in the category Choice of the Youth Jury. This particular prize is a relatively new addition to the German award. In order for a book to be selected, it has to be decided upon by two juries that consist of members from various German youth book clubs.
Children’s books are written all over the world in every single country and every language. Subsequently, there are literary awards all over the world, recognizing the very best novels for some unique quality that they have that makes them impactful to a broad audience. Just glancing through the first page of the list of winners of the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis, I saw books written in German, English, Swedish, Georgian, and Italian. It is amazing to see that these juries of people take the time to seek out books from every corner of the world, even when they are written originally in languages they may not understand, in the interest of spreading great literature and rewarding talented authors.
Works Cited:
Goodreads. Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis Winners. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/5510-deutscher-jugendliteraturpreis.