2023 Joan F. Kaywell Books Save Lives Award
![](/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2024/04/81Mqxn2fIEL._SL1500_.jpg)
Winner:
- I Must Betray You
Ruta Septys
2022 Joan F. Kaywell Books Save Lives Award
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Winner:
- Heroine
by Mindy McGinnis
Finalists:
- Be Not Far From Me
by Mindy McGinnis - Sparrow
by Mary Cecelia Jackson
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![](/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2023/01/BeNotFarFromMeHC1.jpg)
2021 Joan F. Kaywell Books Save Lives Award
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Winner:
- The Last True Poets of the Sea
by Julia Drake
Finalists:
- With the Fire on High
by Elizabeth Acevedo - Anger is a Gift
by Mark Oshiro
![](/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2022/02/with-the-fire-on-high.jpg)
![](/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2022/02/anger-is-a-gift.jpg)
2020 Joan F. Kaywell Books Save Lives Award
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Winner:
- Learning to Breathe
by Janice Lynn Mather
Finalists:
- Losers Bracket
by Chris Crutcher - PoetX
by Elizabeth Acevedo
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![](/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2021/03/the-poet-x.jpg)
2019 Joan F. Kaywell Books Save Lives Award
![](https://lib.usf.edu/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2018/08/uwiringiyimana.jpeg)
Winner:
- How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child
by Sandra Uwiringiyimana with Abigail Pesta
Finalists:
- Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
- The Border
by Steve Schafer
![](https://lib.usf.edu/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2018/08/reynolds.jpeg)
![](https://lib.usf.edu/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2018/08/schafer.jpeg)
2018 Joan F. Kaywell Books Save Lives Award
![memory of light cover](/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/10/memory-of-light.jpeg)
Winner:
- Memory of Light
by Francisco Stork
Finalists:
- The First Time She Drowned
by Kerry Kletter - Highly Illogical Behavior
by John Corey Whaley
![the first time she drowned cover](/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/10/first-time-she-drowned.jpeg)
![highly illogical behavior cover](/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/10/highly-illogical-behavior.jpg)
2017 Joan F. Kaywell Books Save Lives Award
![positive cover](https://lib.usf.edu/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/10/positive.jpg)
Winner:
- Positive
by Paige Rawl with Ali Benjamin (HarperCollins)
Finalists:
- Punch Like a Girl
by Karen Krossing (Orca Book Publishers) - All American Boys
by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster)
![all american boys](https://lib.usf.edu/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/10/all-american-boys.jpg)
![punch like a girl cover](https://lib.usf.edu/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/10/punch-like-a-girl.jpg)
2016 Joan F. Kaywell Books Save Lives Award
![impossible knife of memory cover](https://lib.usf.edu/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/10/impossible-knife-of-memory.jpg)
Winner:
- The Impossible Knife of Memory
by Laurie Halse Anderson (Viking/Penguin)
Finalists:
- The Truth About Alice
by Jennifer Mathieu (Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan) - A List of Things That Didn’t Kill Me
by Jason Schmidt (Farrar Straus Giroux/Macmillan)
![a list of things that didn't kill me cover](https://lib.usf.edu/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/10/a-list-of-things-that-didnt-kill-me.jpg)
![truth about alice cover](https://lib.usf.edu/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/10/truth-about-alice.jpg)
2015 Joan F. Kaywell Books Save Lives Award
![yaqui delgado wants to kick your ass cover](https://lib.usf.edu/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/10/yaqui-delgado-wants-to-kick-your-ass.jpg)
Winner:
- Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass
by Meg Medina (Candlewick)
Finalists:
- FreakBoy
by Kristin Elizabeth Clark (Farrar Straus Giroux/Macmillan) - Openly Straight
by Bill Konigsberg (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)
![freakboy cover](https://lib.usf.edu/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/10/freakboy.jpg)
![openly straight cover](https://lib.usf.edu/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/10/openly-straight.jpg)
2014 Joan F. Kaywell Books Save Lives Award
![october mourning cover](https://lib.usf.edu/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/10/october-mourning.jpg)
Winner:
- October Mourning by Lesléa Newman (Candlewick)
Finalists:
- The Theory of Everything
by J.J. Johnson (Peachtree) - Runaway Girl
by Carissa Phelps (Viking/Penguin)
![runaway girl cover](https://www.lib.usf.edu/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/14//2015/10/runaway-girl-199x300.jpg)
![theory of everything cover](https://lib.usf.edu/special-collections/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/10/theory-of-everything.jpg)