Odyssey Award
| Odyssey Award | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | the year's best English-language audiobook for children or young adults |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Association for Library Service to Children and Young Adult Library Services Association, divisions of ALA |
| First awarded | 2008 |
| Official website |
ala |
The Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production is an annual award conferred by the American Library Association upon the publisher of "the best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States".[1][2] It is jointly administered by two ALA divisions (Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)) and sponsored by Booklist magazine.[3] It recognizes production quality in all respects, considering such things as narration, sound quality, background music and sound effects.[3] It is named for Homer's eighth century BCE epic poem Odyssey, which was transmitted orally, to remind us modern people of the ancient roots of storytelling.[3]
The award was inaugurated in 2008.
For many reasons indicated in the 2008 manifesto, "it is essential for ALSC and YALSA to provide the same level of support for this nonprint format that they have historically provided for print materials, by creating an annual award for the best audiobooks in the field."[4]
Latest rendition
Brilliance Audio, a subsidiary of Amazon since 2007,[5] won the sixth annual Odyssey Award for The Fault in Our Stars, written by John Green and narrated by Kate Rudd. The award was announced and presented during the ALA midwinter meeting, January 28, 2013. It was judged by a panel of eleven ALA members.[6]
Criteria
Source: "Eligibility & Criteria"[4]
- All literary genres are eligible for consideration, including read-alongs.[4]
- The Committee will consider and vote on titles published within their assigned calendar year, January 1 to October 31, in addition to those published between November 1 and December 31 of the previous year. A title may only be submitted once and cannot be reconsidered the next year.[4]
- Audiobooks produced previously in another audio format are ineligible for consideration.[4]
- The audiobook is intended for either young adults or children, who are defined as persons up to and including age 18; works for this entire age range are to be considered. Adult titles are ineligible.[4]
- Audiobooks featuring single or full cast narration are eligible.[4]
- Audiobooks previously published in another country are eligible presuming they have also been distributed in the United States during the term of eligibility.[4]
- Only audiobooks produced in English are considered, but this requirement does not limit the use of words or phrases in another language where appropriate in context.[4]
- If no title is deemed sufficiently meritorious, no award will be given that year.[4]
- The chair, with assistance from designated ALSC or YALSA staff, is responsible for verifying the eligibility of all nominated titles.[4]
- The award will be presented to the publisher of the audiobooks.[4]
Recipients
In each of the six cycles to 2013, three to five runners-up have been dubbed Honor Audiobooks. Although full cast narration is eligible, two of the winners and runners-up have featured two narrators, all others a single narrator.
| Year | Title | Producer | Narrator | Author | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | The War That Saved My Life | Listening Library | Jayne Entwistle | Kimberly Brubaker Bradley | Winner |
| 2016 | Echo | Scholastic Audio | Mark Bramhall, David de Vries, MacLeod Andrews, Rebecca Soler | Pam Muñoz Ryan | Honor |
| 2015 | H.O.R.S.E. A Game of Basketball and Imagination | Live Oak Media | Dion Graham and Christopher Myers | Christopher Myers | Winner |
| 2015 | Five, Six, Seven, Nate! | Audioworks division of Simon and Schuster Audio | Tim Federle | Tim Federle | Honor |
| 2015 | The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place | Listening Library | Jayne Entwistle | Julie Berry | Honor |
| 2015 | A Snicker of Magic | Scholastic Audiobooks | Cassandra Morris | Natalie Lloyd | Honor |
| 2014 | Scowler | Listening Library | Kirby Heyborne | Daniel Kraus | Winner |
| 2014 | Better Nate Than Ever | Simon and Schuster Audio | Tim Federle | Tim Federle | Honor |
| 2014 | Creepy Carrots! | Weston Woods Studios, Inc | James Naughton | Aaron Reynolds | Honor |
| 2014 | Eleanor & Park | Listening Library | Rebecca Lowman and Sunil Malhotra | Rainbow Rowell | Honor |
| 2014 | Matilda | Penguin Audio | Kate Winslet | Roald Dahl | Honor |
| 2013[6] | The Fault in Our Stars | Brilliance Audio | Kate Rudd | John Green | Winner |
| 2013 | Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian | Listening Library | Nathaniel Parker | Eoin Colfer | Honor |
| 2013 | Ghost Knight | Listening Library | Elliot Hill | Cornelia Funke | Honor |
| 2013 | Monstrous Beauty | Macmillan Audio | Katherine Kellgren | Elizabeth Fama | Honor |
| 2012[8] | Rotters | Listening Library | Kirby Heyborne | Daniel Kraus | Winner |
| 2012 | Ghetto Cowboy | Brilliance Audio | J.D. Jackson | G. Neri | Honor |
| 2012 | Okay for Now | Listening Library | Lincoln Hoppe | Gary D. Schmidt | Honor |
| 2012 | The Scorpio Races | Scholastic Audio Books | Steve West Fiona Hardingham |
Maggie Stiefvater | Honor |
| 2012 | Young Fredle | Listening Library | Wendy Carter | Cynthia Voigt | Honor |
| 2011 | The True Meaning of Smekday | Listening Library | Bahni Turpin | Adam Rex | Honor |
| 2011 | Alchemy and Meggy Swann | Listening Library | Katherine Kellgren | Karen Cushman | Honor |
| 2011 | The Knife of Never Letting Go | Brilliance Audio | Nick Podehl | Patrick Ness | Honor |
| 2011 | Revolution | Listening Library | Emily Janice Card | Jennifer Donnelly | Honor |
| 2011 | Will Grayson, Will Grayson | Brilliance Audio | MacLeod Andrews | John Green David Levithan |
Honor |
| 2010 | Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken | Live Oak Media | Barbara Rosenblat | Kate DiCamillo | Winner |
| 2010 | In the Belly of the Bloodhound[lower-alpha 1] | Listen & Live Audio | Katherine Kellgren | L. A. Meyer | Honor |
| 2010 | Peace, Locomotion | Brilliance Audio | Dion Graham | Jacqueline Woodson | Honor |
| 2010 | We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro Baseball | Brilliance Audio | Dion Graham | Kadir Nelson | Honor |
| 2009 | The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian | Recorded Books | Sherman Alexie | Sherman Alexie | Winner |
| 2009 | Curse of the Blue Tattoo[lower-alpha 1] | Listen & Live Audio | Katherine Kellgren | L. A. Meyer | Honor |
| 2009 | Elijah of Buxton | Listening Library | Mirron Willis | Christopher Paul Curtis | Honor |
| 2009 | I'm Dirty | Scholastic Media / Weston Woods Studios |
Steve Buscemi | Kate McMullan Jim McMullan |
Honor |
| 2009 | Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale | Peachtree Publishers | Carmen Agra Deedy | Carmen Agra Deedy | Honor |
| 2009 | Nation | HarperAudio | Stephen Briggs | Terry Pratchett | Honor |
| 2008 | Jazz | Live Oak Media | James "D-Train" Williams Vaneese Thomas |
Walter Dean Myers | Winner |
| 2008 | Bloody Jack[lower-alpha 1] | Listen & Live Audio | Katherine Kellgren | L. A. Meyer | Honor |
| 2008 | Dooby Dooby Moo | Scholastic / Weston Woods |
Randy Travis | Doreen Cronin | Honor |
| 2008 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows | Listening Library | Jim Dale | J. K. Rowling | Honor |
| 2008 | Skulduggery Pleasant | HarperCollins Children's Audio | Rupert Degas | Derek Landy | Honor |
| 2008 | Treasure Island | Listening Library | Alfred Molina | Robert Louis Stevenson | Honor |
Multiple awards
Listening Library and Live Oak Media have won two awards each.
Listening Library, an imprint of Random House, has produced 11 of the 30 winners and runners-up while Brilliance Audio of Amazon has produced six.
Katherine Kellgren is the narrator of five Honor Audiobooks, including three written by L. A. Meyer and produced by Listen & Live Audio — the first, second, and fourth Jacky Faber books.[lower-alpha 1]
Sherman Alexie, author and narrator of the 2009 Odyssey Award-winning audiobook, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, also won the annual National Book Award for Young People's Literature for the print edition of that book (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, September 2007).[9]
See also
- Category:Audiobooks
Notes
- 1 2 3 4 The table gives full titles except for three Jacky Faber books written by L. A. Meyer, narrated by Katherine Kellgren, and produced by Listen & Live Audio:
- 2008 Honor, Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy
- 2009 Honor, Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady
- 2010 Honor, In the Belly of the Bloodhound: Being an Account of a Particularly Peculiar Adventure in the Life of Jacky Faber
References
- ↑ "Welcome to the Odyssey Award home page!". Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). American Library Association (ALA). Retrieved 2012-04-19.
- ↑ "Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production". Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). ALA. Retrieved 2013-05-04.
- 1 2 3 "About the ALSC/Booklist/YALSA Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production". ALSC. ALA. Retrieved 2009-02-23.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "ALSC/Booklist/YALSA Odyssey Award Eligibility & criteria". ALSC. ALA. 2007. Retrieved 2009-02-23.
- ↑ "Company Overview". Brilliance Audio. Retrieved 2013-02-02.
- 1 2 "Brilliance Audio wins 2013 Odyssey Award for The Fault in Our Stars". ALA Press Release. January 28, 2013. Retrieved 2013-01-30.
- ↑ "Odyssey Award winners and honor audiobooks, 2008–present". ALSC. ALA. Retrieved 2012-04-19.
- ↑ "Listening Library Nabs 2012 Odyssey Award". Phyllis Levy Mandell. School Library Journal. January 23, 2012. Retrieved 2012-04-20.
- ↑ "National Book Awards – 2007". National Book Foundation (NBF). Retrieved 2012-04-15.
(With acceptance speech by Alexie, interview with Alexie, and other material, partly replicated for all five Young People's Literature authors and books.)