2026 Winners and Honors

Will’s Race for Home, written by Jewell Parker Rhodes and published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

The Library in the Woods, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, written by Calvin Alexander Ramsey, and published by Carolrhoda Books, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze written by Derrick Barnes and published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Split the Sky, written by Marie Arnold and published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

The Library in the Woods, written by Calvin Alexander Ramsey, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie and published by Carolrhoda Books, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

André: André Leon Talley–A Fabulously Fashionable Fairy Tale, illustrated by Lamont O’Neal, written by Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders, and published by Henry Holt and Company, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group. 

City Summer, Country Summer, illustrated by Alexis Franklin, written by Kiese Laymon, and published by Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Under the Neon Lights, written by Arriel Vinson and published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Random House.