2021 CDA Book Award Winners
The recipients are:
The CDA Book Awards Committee led by Chair, Past President General Audrey Svensson has named the winners:
AWARD
Title:
Dreams of El Dorado: A History of the American West
Author:
H.W. Brands
About
In Dreams of El Dorado, H. W. Brands tells the thrilling, panoramic story of the settling of the American West. He takes us from John Jacob Astor’s fur trading outpost in Oregon to the Texas Revolution, from the California gold rush to the Oklahoma land rush. He shows how the migrants’ dreams drove them to feats of courage and perseverance that put their stay-at-home cousins to shame-and how those same dreams also drove them to outrageous acts of violence against indigenous peoples and one another. The West was where riches would reward the miner’s persistence, the cattleman’s courage, the railroad man’s enterprise; but El Dorado was at least as elusive in the West as it ever was in the East.
CITATION
Title:
Eleanor
Author:
David Michaelis
About
Eleanor Roosevelt’s life was one of profound transformation—from a shy, orphaned aristocrat to one of the most influential women of the 20th century. Though her marriage to Franklin Roosevelt was marked by betrayal and emotional distance, it also propelled her into public life, where she became a powerful advocate for justice, human rights, and global unity. Driven by a need for deep connection, Eleanor sought meaningful relationships and embraced emotional honesty. As First Lady, diplomat, and humanitarian, she redefined womanhood and public service, urging a nation to think beyond itself and imagine a more compassionate, interconnected world.
YOUNG READER
Title:
How Women Won the Vote – Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and Their Big Idea
Author:
Susan Campbell Bartoletti,
Illustrator:
Ziyue Chen
About
From Newbery Honor medalist Susan Campbell Bartoletti and in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in America comes the page-turning, stunningly illustrated, and tirelessly researched story of the little-known DC Women’s March of 1913.Bartoletti spins a story like few others—deftly taking readers by the hand and introducing them to suffragists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. Paul and Burns met in a London jail and fought their way through hunger strikes, jail time, and much more to win a long, difficult victory for America and its women. Includes extensive back matter and dozens of archival images to evoke the time period between 1909 and 1920.