CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2025 ALA AWARD WINNERS AND HONOREES!
Today, the American Library Association (ALA) announced the winners of the 2025 Youth Media Awards, honoring the top books, video and audio books for children and young adults! We are thrilled to have so many HarperCollins books and authors recognized at this illustrious award ceremony. Read on to see what books you need to add to your collections!
THE FIRST STATE OF BEING
by Erin Entrada Kelly
John Newbery Award Winner
When twelve-year-old Michael Rosario meets a mysterious boy from the future, his life is changed forever. From bestselling author Erin Entrada Kelly, winner of the Newbery Medal for Hello, Universe and a Newbery Honor for We Dream of Space, this novel explores themes of family, friendship, trust, and forgiveness.
UP, UP, EVER UP! JUNKO TABEI: A LIFE IN THE MOUNTAINS
Illustrated by Yuko Shimizu
Written by Anita Yasuda
Randolph Caldecott Honor
Anita Yasuda’s evocative picture book biography about Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Everest, is equal parts grit and grace. Dazzlingly illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist Yuko Shimizu.
JIMMY'S RHYTHM AND BLUES: THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF JAMES BALDWIN
Illustrated by Jamiel Law
Written by Michelle Meadows
CSK John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award
Celebrate James Baldwin’s one-hundredth birthday anniversary with the first-ever illustrated biography of this legendary writer, orator, activist, and intellectual.
BROWNSTONE
By Samuel Teer & Mar Julia
Michael L. Printz Award Winner
An exciting teen coming-of-age epic from author Samuel Teer and debut graphic novel artist Mar Julia, Brownstone is a vivid, sweeping, ultimately hopeful story about navigating your heritage even when you feel like you don’t quite fit in.
CYNTHIA LEITICH SMITH
ALSC Children's Literature Lecture
Cynthia Leitich Smith is the bestselling, acclaimed author of books for all ages, including Rain Is Not My Indian Name, Indian Shoes, Jingle Dancer, On a Wing and a Tear, Sisters of the Neversea, the Blue Stars series, Harvest House, and Hearts Unbroken, which won the American Indian Youth Literature Award. Cynthia is also the anthologist of Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids and was named the NSK Neustadt Laureate. She is the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint at HarperCollins Children's Books, and served as the Katherine Paterson Endowed Chair on the faculty of the MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Cynthia is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and lives in Denton and Austin, Texas.
Tiffany D. Jackson
Margaret A. Edwards Award
Tiffany D. Jackson is the New York Times bestselling author of Allegedly, Monday's Not Coming, Let Me Hear a Rhyme, Grown, White Smoke, and The Weight of Blood and coauthor of Blackout and Whiteout. A Walter Dean Myers Honor Book and Coretta Scott King–John Steptoe New Talent Award winner, she received her bachelor of arts in film from Howard University, earned her master of arts in media studies from the New School, and has over a decade of TV and film experience. The Brooklyn native is splitting her time between the South and the borough she loves. You can visit her at writeinbk.com.
HOW THE BOOGEYMAN BECAME A POET
By Tony Keith, Jr.
Odyssey Award Winner, Young Adult
Poet, writer, and hip-hop educator Tony Keith Jr. makes his debut with a powerful YA memoir in verse, tracing his journey from being a closeted gay Black teen battling poverty, racism, and homophobia to becoming an openly gay first-generation college student who finds freedom in poetry.
DISPATCHES FROM PARTS UNKNOWN
By Bryan Bliss
Odyssey Award Honor, Young Adult
Julie knows it’s unusual that a professional wrestler runs a constant commentary on her life that only she can hear. But grief can be awfully funny sometimes. National Book Award nominee Bryan Bliss delivers a thought-provoking, one-of-a-kind novel about how to tread the line between moving on and holding on.
GIRLS LIKE HER
By Melanie Sumrow
Odyssey Award Honor, Young Adult
A raw, gripping, authentic, and boldly original novel about a fifteen-year-old Texas girl set to stand trial for murder—and the one person who might be able to help her clear her name.
SHUT UP, THIS IS SERIOUS
By Carolina Ixta
Pura Belpré Author Award Winner, Young Adult
An unforgettable YA debut about two Latina teens growing up in East Oakland as they discover that the world is brimming with messy complexities, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Erika L. Sánchez.
LUNAR BOY
By Jes and Cin Wibowo
Stonewall Book Award - Mike Morgan & Lary Romans Children's & Young Adult Literature Award
From the Stonewall Honor–winning author of Like a Love Story comes a sweeping story of three generations of boys in the same Iranian family.
MURRAY OUT OF WATER
By Taylor Tracy
Stonewall Book Honor
This beautiful novel in verse explores one girl's struggle to regain her magic after a hurricane forces her to move away from her beloved ocean that, she believes, has given her special powers.
FOX VERSUS FOX
By Corey R. Tabor
Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor
Carefully crafted using basic language, word repetition, sight words, and whimsical illustrations, Fox versus Fox is ideal for sharing with your emergent reader. The active, engaging My First I Can Read stories have appealing plots and lovable characters, encouraging children to continue their reading journey. Other Fox books include Fox Has a Problem, Fox at Night, Fox versus Winter, Fox the Tiger, Fox Is Late, Fox and the Jumping Contest, and Fox and the Bike Ride.
AISLE NINE
By Ian X. Cho
William C. Morris Award Finalist
It’s Black Friday—and the apocalypse is on sale!
Ever since the world filled with portals to hell and bloodthirsty demons started popping out on the reg, Jasper’s life has gotten worse and worse. A teenage nobody with no friends or family, he is plagued by the life he can’t remember and the person he’s sure he’s supposed to be.
SHUT UP, THIS IS SERIOUS
By Carolina Ixta
William C. Morris Award Finalist
An unforgettable YA debut about two Latina teens growing up in East Oakland as they discover that the world is brimming with messy complexities, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Erika L. Sánchez.
A GREATER GOAL
By Elizabeth Rusch
YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist
More than 250 women have played on the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, and most contributed to the battle for equal pay. This narrative nonfiction book by the award-winning author and journalist Elizabeth Rusch traces the evolution of that fight, bringing this important rights issue in sports and in our culture to the attention of young readers. Features extensive back matter.
HOMEBODY
By Theo Parish
YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist
In their comics debut, Theo Parish masterfully weaves an intimate and defiantly hopeful memoir about the journey one nonbinary person takes to find a home within themself. Combining traditional comics with organic journal-like interludes, Theo takes us through their experiences with the hundred arbitrary and unspoken gender binary rules of high school, from harrowing haircuts and finally the right haircut to the intersection of gender identity and sexuality—and through tiny everyday moments that all led up to Theo finding the term “nonbinary,” which finally struck a chord.
CLAIRBOYANCE
By Kristiana Kahakauwila
Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature Honor, Children's
Clairboyance’s heartfelt and sweet coming of age story with a touch of magic follows Clara as her life is turned upside down when she discovers that she has boy-specific ESP abilities.
DRAGONFRUIT
By Makiia Lucier
Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature Honor, Young Adult
From acclaimed author Makiia Lucier, a dazzling, romantic fantasy inspired by Pacific Island mythology.
In the old tales, it is written that the egg of a seadragon, dragonfruit, holds within it the power to undo a person’s greatest sorrow. But as with all things that offer hope when hope had gone, the tale came with a warning.
Every wish demands a price.
FINN AND EZRA'S BAR MITZVAH TIME LOOP
By Joshua S. Levy
Sydney Taylor Book Award Honor, Middle Grade
Finn and Ezra’s bar mitzvah weekend takes on a Groundhog Day twist in this hilarious and magical middle grade novel from Joshua S. Levy.
NIGHT OWLS
By A. R. Vishny
Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner, Young Adult
In this thrilling paranormal YA romance debut steeped in folklore, two estries—owl-shifting female vampires from Jewish tradition—face New York's monstrous underworld to save the girl one of them loves with help from the boy one of them fears before they are, all of them, lost forever.