Sharon Draper

Stella by Starlight was selected as the 2016 NCTE Charlotte Huck Award Winner.

She received the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 2015.

Panic was selected as a YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers, and a 2014 IRA Young Adult Choice.

Out of My Mind was chosen the winner of the 2013 Sasquatch Reading Award by the readers of Washington State and the 2013 Bluestem Award by the third through fifth graders of Illinois. It won the 2013 California Young Reader Medal and the 2013 Nevada Young Readers Award. It also received the 2011 Sunshine State Young Readers Award. It was a 2011 IRA Young Adult Choice.

In 2011, she received the 33rd annual Jeremiah Ludington Memorial Award by the Educational and Media Association. She donated her $2,500 prize money to Starfire Council of Greater Cincinnati.

Sassy: Little Sister Is Not My Name! received the 2009 Parents Choice Award.

Draper received the Beacon of Light Humanitarian award in 2008.

Fire from the Rock has been selected by the NCSS-CBC Notable Social Studies Committee as a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People for 2008 and is honored on the 2008 New York Public Library Best Books for the Teen Age.

November Blues received the 2008 Coretta Scott King Award and is honored on the 2008 New York Public Library Best Books for the Teen Age.

Copper Sun received the 2007 Coretta Scott King Award, was named as one of the Top Ten Historical Fiction Books for Youth by Booklist was nominated for the 2007 NAACP Image Award for Literature, and received the Ohioana Award for Young Adult Literature. Copper Sun is also a CBC/NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book, received the Heartland Award for Excellence in YA Literature, was named as an IRA Notable Book for a Global Society and was named as Best Book of the Year by School Library Journal. Copper Sun is also listed on the New York Times Bestseller List and was selected by the US State Department and the International Reading Association as the United States novel for the international reading project called Reading Across Continents. Students in the US, Nigeria, and Ghana are reading the book and sharing ideas.

She was chosen as one of four authors to speak at the Library of Congress's 2006 National Book Festival in Washington D.C. and represented the United States at the National Book Festival in Moscow.

We Beat the Street is listed on the New York Times Bestseller List and is on VOYA's Non-Fiction Honor List for 2006 and is honored on the 2006 New York Public Library Best Books for the Teen Age.

Darkness Before Dawn, the third book in the trilogy, is an ALA Top Ten Quick Pick, and has received the Children's Choice Award from the International Reading Association and received the Buckeye Book Award for 2005, and was named an IRA Young Adult Choice for 2003.

The Battle of Jericho is the 2004 Coretta Scott King Award, one of the New York Public Library's Book for the Teen Age, and is one of the 2005 Young Adult Choice Books named by the International Reading Association.

Double Dutch was honored as a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People by the Children's Book Council as well as one of the top ten sports books for young adults for 2003 by the ALA, and Best of the Best for 2004, and received the Sunshine State Young Readers Award for 2006.

Romiette and Julio is also listed as an ALA Best Book and has been selected by the International Reading Association as a 2000 Notable Book for a Global Society, and by the New York Public Library in their Books for the Teen Age.

Sharon Draper has five Coretta Scott King Book Awards - Author Award Winner: 1998 Forged by Fire, 2007 Copper Sun; Author Honor: 2004 The Battle of Jericho, 2008 November Blues; John Steptoe Award for New Talent: 1995 Tears of a Tiger.

In 1998 Draper was the Duncanson Artist-in-Residence for the Taft Museum.

She was 1997's National Teacher of the Year, and the Ohio State Department of Education named her Ohio Pioneer in Education.

Draper was awarded the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award in 1997. She was also a YWCA Career Woman of Achievement, received the Dean's Award from Howard University School of Education, was recognized with the Pepperdine University Distinguished Alumnus Award, received the Marva Collins Education Excellence Award, and earned the Governor's Educational Leadership Award.

Forged by Fire, the sequel to Tears of a Tiger, was the 1997 Coretta Scott King Award winner, as well was honored as a 1998 ALA Best Book for Young Adults. It also received the Parent's Choice Award and the Indiana Young Hoosier Award.

Tears of a Tiger earned the Coretta Scott King Award in 1995. It has been recognized as one of the best of the year by the Children's Book Council, the New York City Library, Bank Street College, and the National Council for Social Studies. It was also named as Best of the Best by VOYA.

She is married and has four children. Her own writing career began in 1990 when, as a teacher, she was challenged by a ninth-grade student to "write something." She entered a short story entitled "One Small Torch" to a writing contest through Ebony magazine. Upon winning, Draper was awarded five thousand dollars and her story was published. Among those who wrote to congratulate her was Roots author Alex Haley. She credits this letter with helping her realize that she could be a writer. In 2000, she retired from teaching in order to spend more time on her writing. Draper lives in Cincinnati with her husband.

Draper earned her Bachelor's Degree, majoring in English, from Pepperdine University and her Master's of Arts degree in English from Miami University of Ohio in 1974. Post-graduation, she began teaching in Cincinnati public schools. During this time she became locally famous for her "Draper Paper," a challenging research paper assigned to graduating seniors.

Sharon Mills Draper (born August 21, 1948) is an American children's writer, professional educator, and the 1997 National Teacher of the Year. She is a five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for books about the young and adolescent African-American experience. She is known for her Hazelwood and Jericho series, Copper Sun, Double Dutch, Out of My Mind and Romiette and Julio.