‘Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed’ wins 2024 Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award

BALTIMORE — “Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed,” written by Dashka Slater, has been named the 2024 winner of the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award, the first national award that honors the best nonfiction books for teens.

The book is published by Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group. The award was announced today by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association during ALA’s LibLearnX: The Library Learning Experience held Jan. 19-22 in Baltimore.

When a high school student started a private Instagram account using racist and sexist memes to make his friends laugh, he thought of it as edgy humor. Once everyone found out, no one was laughing. The lingering question: Where does accountability start and end for online speech?

“The committee kept returning to ‘Accountable’ in our discussions because the timely topic resonated with us and our dealings with teens and social media,” said YALSA Nonfiction Award Committee Chair Janet Hilbun.

The YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults honors the best nonfiction book published for young adults (ages 12 – 18) during a Nov. 1 – Oct. 31 publishing year.

The 2024 YALSA Nonfiction Award finalists, which were announced in December, include:

• “America Redux: Visual Stories from our Dynamic History,” written and illustrated by Ariel Aberg-Riger and published by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
• “Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam,” written and illustrated by Thien Pham and published by First Second Books, an imprint of Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing.
• “From Here,” written by Luma Mufleh and published by Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
• “Nearer my Freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself,” by Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge, and published by Zest Books, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

The full list of official nominations for the award will be available online at www.ala.org/yalsa/nonfiction.

Members of the 2024 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults committee are:  Chair Janet Hilbun, Garland, Texas; Anne Dame, Seattle, Washington; Candace Fox, Parma, Ohio; Cyndi Hamann, Arlington Heights, Illinois; Thea Hashagen, San Francisco, California; Amy Ojserkis, Media Center, Atlantic County Institute of Technology, Mays Landing, New Jersey; Kali Olson, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Celeste Swanson, Richmond, Indiana; and Monica Toomer, Homestead, Florida.

The mission of the YALSA is to support library staff in alleviating the challenges teens face, and in putting all teens ‒ especially those with the greatest needs ‒ on the path to successful and fulfilling lives. For more information about YALSA or to access national guidelines and other resources, go to www.ala.org/yalsa or contact the YALSA office at e-mail: yalsa@ala.org.

For more information on the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults and other ALA Youth Media Awards, please visit www.ala.org/yma.

About the American Library Association

The American Library Association (ALA) is the foremost national organization providing resources to inspire library and information professionals to transform their communities through essential programs and services. For more than 140 years, the ALA has been the trusted voice for academic, public, school, government, and special libraries, advocating for the profession and the library's role in enhancing learning and ensuring access to information for all. For more information, visit www.ala.org.

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