National Book Award winner about civil rights figure makes finals for new youth literary prize

New prize for young adult books announced

BOSTON — A book about civil rights heroine Claudette Colvin that won a National Book Award last month is among the five finalists for a new prize for young adult nonfiction.

Phillip Hoose’s “Claudette Colvin” was announced Thursday as a nominee for the Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults award. The prize is administered by a division of the American Library Association.

The other finalists are Tanya Lee Stone’s “Almost Astronauts,” Deborah Heiligman’s “Charles and Emma,” Candace Fleming’s “The Great and Only Barnum” and Sally M. Walker’s “Written in Bone.”

The winner will be announced Jan. 18 at the Library Association’s winter meeting in Boston. There is no cash prize.