Day: February 17, 2025

The Sidney Prize is a monthly award for outstanding investigative journalism that exposes social and economic injustices. Winners demonstrate that the power of information can change the world.

Winners of the Sydney Taylor Book Award are selected by a committee of the Association of Jewish Libraries, an affiliate of the American Library Association (ALA). The award is named in memory of All-of-a-Kind Family author Sydney Taylor, and it honors titles for children and teens that exemplify high literary standards and authentically portray the Jewish experience.

This year, Richard Ho and Lynn Scurfield’s Two New Years; Mari Lowe’s The Dubious Pranks of Shaindy Goodman; and Elana K Arnold’s The Blood Years won the Sydney Taylor Award. Each of these titles explores familiar subjects in thoughtful, engaging ways that take readers beyond the surface level and into the lives of their characters.

A New York Times bestseller and a Newbery Honor book, The Blood Years takes readers into the heart of Vietnam War-era combat as it unfolded on the frontlines of the conflict between the US and North Vietnam. The book’s narrative is told through the eyes of a female soldier, who describes her experiences at the battle of Ia Drang in 1965 and how the events surrounding it changed her life forever.

The book explores the human cost of a conflict that has haunted the United States ever since, and is an exemplary example of the kind of journalism the Sidney Award seeks to support.

This prize, established by a bequest from the late Isabel B. Oberman, is awarded by the dean of the School for the best paper written by a student in one of seven current legal subjects: bankruptcy; constitutional law and equal justice under the law; family law; intellectual property; and law and history. This prize has a special submission deadline and instructions.