The Odyssey Award is given to the producer of the best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States. The award is jointly given and administered by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), divisions of ALA, and is sponsored by Booklist.
The story of the wanderings of Ulysses, as he returns to his kingdom of Ithaca after the Trojan War, are ascribed to the blind poet Homer who either wrote, or dictated, the epic poem called THE ODYSSEY. Whether this odyssey of Ulysses was based on one specific event, or many different ones, is argued by researchers today, though they all seem to agree that the poems comprising THE ODYSSEY were originally told and retold in the oral tradition, hence the name for this award. The Odyssey Award allows us to return to the ancient roots of storytelling, while living in our modern world.
- The winner of the Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production is
ANNA AND THE SWALLOW MAN produced by Listening Library, written by Gavriel Savit and narrated by Allan Corduner.
- Four Odyssey Honor Recordings were also selected:
GHOST produced by Simon and Schuster Audio, written by Jason Reynolds and narrated by Guy Lockard;
DREAM ON, AMBER produced by Recorded Books, written by Emma Shevah and narrated by Laura Kirman; and
NIMONA produced by HarperAudio, written by Noelle Stevenson and narrated by Rebecca Soler, Jonathan Davis, Marc Thompson, January LaVoy, Natalie Gold, Peter Bradbury and David Pittu.