In 2008, African Americans made up 14 percent of the population, yet books that contained African American characters made up only .06 percent of books published. With so few books being published about African or African Americans, it is difficult for librarians and teachers to find books that feature characters to which African American youth can relate. One way to find such books is to look at book awards. The purpose of this study was to see what types of African American characters are portrayed in award winning books, and to determine if the portrayals are authentic. A sample of thirteen fictional Coretta Scott King and Michael L. Printz award or honor books between the years 2000-2009 that contained at least one African American character were chosen to be analyzed. Using content analysis, all thirteen books were analyzed in general and seven were chosen to be analyzed in depth. The results of the study found that between 2000 and 2009, there was no difference between the portrayal of African American characters in Coretta Scott King Award winning books and Michael L. Printz award and honor winning books. There was also no difference between the portrayal of African Americans by African American award winning authors and the portrayal by White award winning authors
