In 2004, "A Northern Light" won the Carnegie Medal for children's and young-adult books published in Britain - where it was entitled "A Gathering Light" and may have been her first work published in the U.K. In the U.S., it won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for young-adult literature and was a runner-up for the Printz Award from the American Library Association (ALA), recognizing the year's best book for young adults. In 2015, Time Magazine named A Northern Light one of the best YA books of all time.