According to the author's website, her book "Diamonds in the Shadow" is one of the latest creations that gives her the most pride. This book won a Christopher Award in 2008. The Christopher Awards were established in 1949 as a salute to media that "affirm the highest values of the human spirit," reminding both audiences and readers of their individual worth and ability to change and shape the world we live in.
Cooney's teen novel, "A Friend at Midnight," published in 2006, centers on Lily, a daughter of divorced parents, who must not only rescue her abandoned younger brother, but also rescue herself from ongoing family secrets and unresolved hatred. The Church and Synagogue Library Association awarded it the Helen Keating Ott Award for significant contribution in "promoting high moral and ethical values through children's literature." "A Friend at Midnight" was also nominated as an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults.
Another of Cooney's books, "Code Orange," published in 2005, was awarded a National Science Teachers Award as an outstanding science trade book. The association partners with The Childrens Book Council in New York City to select outstanding books based on their content and presentation in conveying "the thrill of science" to young readers. "Code Orange" focuses on a teenager researching smallpox, who may possibly unleash a new epidemic.
More of Cooney's books have garnered additional and varied awards. "Driver's Ed," published in 1994, was awarded the American Library Association's Best Book for Young Adults and Quick Pick for Young Adults awards. The book also won the Booklist Editors' Choice award. "The Face On the Milk Carton," published in 1990, won two awards, including an award for The American Library Association Recommended Books for the Reluctant Young Adult Reader and for the International Reading Association Children's Choice. "Among Friends," published in 1987, won a New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age award; 1991's "Twenty Pageants Later" won an American Library Association Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers award; and 1992's "Flight 116 Is Down" won a Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award.