2025 ALA Newbery Award – Nailed It!

Well, not exactly. We (especially I) were off on our predictions about the winners, but pretty accurate about what the Newbery Committee would be looking on with favor–and we’re happy to say we’ve covered all of them! Without further ado, here’s the 2025 Newbery slate:

Newbery Honor Titles:

• One Big Open Sky (starred review and buzz discussion)
• Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All (starred review and buzz discussion)
• The Wrong Way Home (roundup review)
• Across So Many Seas (review)

And the winner is:

• The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly (roundup review and egg-on-face prediction)

We didn’t do so well on the Caldecott award for illustration. The only picture book on our radar was Noodles on a Bicycle (which Megan loved—review coming soon). The others we hope to cover in the next few weeks. They full slate:

Caldecott Honor Titles:

• Home In a Lunchbox
• My Daddy Is a Cowboy
• Noodles on a Bicycle
• Up, Up, Ever Up!

And the winner:

• Chooch Helped by Andrea Rogers

What other books collected accolades? We’re always interested in the Sidney Taylor awards (Jewish focus), Schneider Family (disability experience), Coretta Scott King (African-American authors and illustrators), Pura bel Pre (Latino authors and illustrators), YALSA (YA nonfiction), Sibert (MG nonfiction), and the Batchelder award for books published elsewhere and translated into English. The Printz award titles for YA literature are often problematic, but we have our eyes on at least one.

So check back over the next few weeks as we survey the winners for worthwhile reads.