Children's and Young Adult Book Awards
The International Literacy Association (ILA) Children's and Young Adult Book Awards are intended for newly published authors who show unusual promise in the children's and young adult book field. Awards are given for fiction and nonfiction in each of three (3) categories: Primary, Intermediate, and Young Adult. Books from all countries and published in English for the first time during the 2025 calendar year will be considered.
Open Date: August 1, 2025
Submission Deadline: November 1, 2025
Guidelines
Application
Recent recipients
2024
Primary Fiction Winner: Ruth Whiting for Lonely Bird (Candlewick)
Primary Fiction Honor: Kevin Johnson for Cape (Macmillan)
Primary Nonfiction Winner: Jessica Lanan for Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider (Macmillan)
Primary Nonfiction Honor: Shannon Earle for The Penguin of Ilha Grande: From Animal Rescue to Extraordinary Friendship (Charlesbridge)
Intermediate Fiction Winner: Zach Weinersmith for Bea Wolf (Macmillan)
Intermediate Fiction Honor: Malia Maunakea for Lei and the Fire Goddess (Penguin)
Intermediate Nonfiction Winner: Willie Mae Brown for My Selma: True Stories of a Southern Childhood at the Height of the Civil Rights Movement (Macmillan)
Intermediate Nonfiction Honor: Katharina Weiss-Tuider for Mission: Arctic: A Scientific Adventure to a Changing North Pole (Greystone Kids)
Young Adult Fiction Winner: Angeline Boulley for Warrior Girl Unearthed (Macmillan)
Young Adult Fiction Honor: Ari Tison for Saints of the Household (Macmillan)
Young Adult Nonfiction Winner: Sarah Myer for Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story (Macmillan)
Young Adult Nonfiction Honor: Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge for Nearer My Freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself (Lerner)
2023
Primary Fiction Winner: Young Vo for Gibberish (Levine Querido)
Primary Fiction Honor: Pearl AuYeung for The Best Kind of Mooncake (Page Street Kids)
Primary Nonfiction Winner: Shaelyn McDaniel for Hello, Opportunity: The Story of Our Friend on Mars (Page Street Kids)
Primary Nonfiction Honor: Justin Anderson for Narwhal: The Arctic Unicorn (Candlewick)
Intermediate Fiction Winner: Sarah Guillory for Nowhere Better Than Here (Macmillan)
Intermediate Fiction Honor: C. C. Harrington for Wildoak (Scholastic)
Intermediate Nonfiction Winner: Barbara Binns for Unlawful Orders: A Portrait of Dr. James B. Williams, Tuskegee Airman, Surgeon, and Activist (Scholastic)
Intermediate Nonfiction Honor: Olivia Meikle and Katie Nelson for The Book of Sisters: Biographies of Incredible Siblings Through History (Macmillan)
Young Adult Fiction Winner: Andrea L. Rogers for Man Made Monsters (Levine Querido)
Young Adult Fiction Honor: Jas Hammonds for We Deserve Monuments (Macmillan)
Young Adult Nonfiction Winner: Jetta Grace Martin, Joshua Bloom, and Waldo E. Martin Jr. for Freedom! The Story of the Black Panther Party (Levine Querido)
Young Adult Nonfiction Honor: Achut Deng and Keely Hutton for Don’t Look Back: A Memoir of War, Survival, and My Journey From Sudan to America (Macmillan)
Primary Fiction: Isabel and Her Colores Go to School by Alexandra Alessandri (Sleeping Bear Press)
Primary Fiction Honor: Archie Celebrates Diwali by Mitali Banerjee Ruths (Charlesbridge)
Primary Nonfiction: Mimic Makers: Biomimicry Inventors Inspired by Nature by Kristen Nordstrom (Charlesbridge)
Primary Nonfiction Honor: Areli Is a Dreamer by Areli Morales (Random House Children's Books)
Intermediate Fiction: Starfish by Lisa Fipps (Penguin Young Readers)
Intermediate Fiction Honor: Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna by Alda P. Dobbs (Sourcebooks)
Intermediate Nonfiction: It Takes Guts: How Your Body Turns Food Into Fuel (and Poop) by Dr. Jennifer Gardy (Greystone Kids)
Intermediate Nonfiction Honor: Orca Rescue! The True Story of an Orphaned Orca Named Springer by Donna Sandstrom (Kids Can Press)
Intermediate Nonfiction Honor: Why Longfellow Lied: The Truth About Paul Revere's Midnight Ride by Jeff Lantos (Charlesbridge)
Young Adult Fiction: Both Sides Now by Peyton Thomas (Penguin Young Readers)
Young Adult Fiction Honor: Where I Belong by Marcia Argueta Mickelson (Lerner)
Young Adult Nonfiction: No Way, They Were Gay?: Hidden Lives and Secret Loves (Queer History Project) by Lee Wind (Lerner)
Young Adult Nonfiction Honor: We Are Not Broken by George M. Johnson (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Primary Fiction: Magnificent Homespun Brown: A Celebration by Samara Cole Doyon (Tilbury House)
Primary Fiction Honor: I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House)
Primary Nonfiction: This Is a Seahorse by Cassandra Federman (Albert Whitman & Co)
Primary Nonfiction Honor: The Big Bang Book by Asa Stahl (Creston Books)
Intermediate Fiction: Brother’s Keeper by Julie Lee (Holiday House)
Intermediate Fiction Honor: When You Know What I Know by Sonja K. Solter (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Intermediate Nonfiction: The Suffragist Playbook: Your Guide to Changing the World by Lucinda Robb & Rebecca Boggs Roberts (Candlewick Press)
Intermediate Nonfiction Honor: Lizzie Demands a Seat: Elizabeth Jennings Fights for Streetcar Rights by Beth Anderson (Boyds Mills & Kane)
Young Adult Fiction: The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen (Random House Children’s Books)
Young Adult Fiction Honor: The Lucky Ones by Liz Lawson (Random House Children’s Books)
Young Adult Nonfiction: The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person by Frederick Joseph (Candlewick Press)
Primary Fiction: Bird Count by Susan Edwards Richmond (Peachtree Publishing Company)
Primary Fiction Honor: Ella McKeen, Kickball Queen by Beth Mills (Lerner Publishing Group)
Primary Nonfiction: A Green Place to Be: The Creation of Central Park by Ashley Benham Yazdani (Candlewick Express)
Primary Nonfiction Honor: Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom by Teresa Robeson (Sterling Publishing)
Intermediate Fiction: Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn (Bloomsbury USA)
Intermediate Fiction Honor: Emmy in the Key of Code by Aimee Lucido (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Intermediate Fiction Honor: A Kind of Paradise by Amy Rebecca Tan (Harper Collins Children's Books)
Nonfiction: No award given this year
Young Adult Fiction: Every Stolen Breath by Kimberly Gabriel (Blink)
Young Adult Fiction Honor: How to Make Friends With the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow (RH Children's)
Young Adult Nonfiction: Dissenter on the Bench: Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Life & Work by Victoria Ortiz (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Primary Fiction: Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love (Candlewick Press)
Primary Nonfiction: Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Primary Fiction Honor: Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal (Candlewick Press)
Primary Nonfiction Honor: Prickly Hedgehogs! by Jane McGuinness (Candlewick Press)
Intermediate Fiction: Hope in the Holler by Lisa Lewis Tyre (Penguin Young Readers)
Intermediate Nonfiction: Trash Revolution: Breaking the Waste Cycle by Erica Fyvie (Kids Can Press)
Young Adult Fiction: Dear Rachel Maddow: A Novel by Adrienne Kisner (Feiwel & Friends)
Young Adult Nonfiction: I Have the Right To: A High School Survivor's Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope by Chessy Prout and Jenn Abelson (Margaret K. McElderry)
Young Adult Fiction Honor: The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk (Random House Children's Books)
Primary Fiction: The Book of Mistakes by Corinna Luyken (Dial)
Primary Nonfiction: This Is How We Do It: One Day in the Lives of Seven Kids From Around the World by Matt Lamothe (Chronicle)
Intermediate Fiction: Train I Ride by Paul Mosier (HarperCollins Children's)
Intermediate Nonfiction: Martí's Song for Freedom by Emma Otheguy (Lee & Low)
Young Adult Fiction: Words on Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton (Random House Children's)
Young Adult Nonfiction: Obsessed: A Memoir of My Life With OCD by Allison Britz (Simon & Schuster)
2017
Primary Fiction: Delivering Dreams by Lori Preusch (Dandelion)
Primary Nonfiction: Miss Colfax's Light by Aimée Bissonette, Ill. Eileen Ryan Ewen (Sleeping Bear)
Intermediate Fiction: Hour of the Bees by Lindsay Eagar (Candlewick)
Intermediate Nonfiction: The Distance Between Us (Young Readers Edition) by Reyna Grande (Aladdin)
Young Adult Fiction: The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner (Crown Books for Young Readers)
Young Adult Nonfiction: Trying to Float: Coming of Age in the Chelsea Hotel by Nicolaia Rips (Scribner)
2016
Primary Fiction: A Dog Wearing Shoes by Sangmi Ko (Schwartz & Wade)
Primary Nonfiction: Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattick, Ill. Sophie Blackall (Little, Brown and Company)
Intermediate Fiction: A Blind Guide To Stinkville by Beth Vrabel (Sky Pony Press)
Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith (Clarion Books)
Intermediate Nonfiction: Big Top Burning: The True Story of an Arsonist, a Missing Girl, and The Greatest Show on Earth by Laura A. Woollett (Chicago Review Press)
Young Adult Fiction: Denton Little's Death Date by Lance Rubin (Alfred A. Knopf)
Young Adult Nonfiction: No award given
2015
Primary Fiction: Maddi's Fridge by Lois Brandt, Ill. Vin Vogel (Flashlight Press)
Primary Nonfiction: Polar Bears and Penguins: A Compare and Contrast Book by Katharine Hall (Abordale Publishing)
Intermediate Fiction: The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier (Amulet Books)
Intermediate Nonfiction: The Industrial Revolution for Kids: The People and Technology That Changed the World by Cheryl Mullenbach (Chicago Review Press, Inc.)
Young Adult Fiction: Beauty of the Broken by Tawni Waters (Simon Pulse)
Young Adult Nonfiction: No award given
For additional information, contact ILAAwards@reading.org.