Scarry received no awards for his work during his lifetime, but was posthumously awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Society of Illustrators in 2012. "My father would often say that the greatest compliment was to find a copy of one of his books, the spine broken, the pages torn, the covers bumped with softened corners, the book held together with transparent tape: the telltale signs of a book that is loved, and read over and over and over again," said his son.