Michael L. Printz Award 2000: Complete list of winners

The Michael L. Printz Award made its debut in 2000, launching what would become one of the most prestigious honors in young adult literature. Named after a school librarian whose passion for connecting teens with powerful books inspired the award’s creation, the Printz immediately signaled that YA fiction deserved serious critical recognition alongside its adult counterparts. That inaugural year sent a clear message about the award’s ambitions: Monster by Walter Dean Myers took the inaugural honor, a groundbreaking novel told through multiple perspectives—journal entries, screenplay format, and stream-of-consciousness prose—that captures the psychological turbulence of a sixteen-year-old on trial for murder. Myers’s unflinching exploration of injustice, identity, and innocence proved that young adult literature could tackle morally complex subjects with literary sophistication.

The selection of Myers’s experimental work as the very first Printz winner established an enduring principle: this award would celebrate innovation in form and content, not merely popularity or mainstream appeal. Monster remains a stunning example of how YA fiction can push artistic boundaries while speaking authentically to teen readers’ experiences. The 2000 Michael L. Printz Award winners demonstrated that adolescent protagonists and coming-of-age narratives belonged at the heart of serious literary conversations, a position the award has fiercely maintained ever since. Here are the complete winners from that landmark year:

Young Adult

• Monster by Walter Dean Myers