A Few Good Stories

The Newbery, Caldecott, and King awards honor the best books for kids and teens.

Courtesy of Bloomsbury Children’s Books; Cover art © 2025 by Cátia Chien; Excerpted from Will’s Race for Home by Jewell Parker Rhodes with illustrations by Olga and Aleksey Ivanov. Copyright © 2025. Reprinted with permission of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. All rights reserved; Photo composite Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

All the Blues in the Sky, Fireworks, and Will’s Race for Home took top prizes at the 2026 Youth Media Awards.

It’s the perfect time of year to find a good book. The best children’s books of 2025 were recently honored at the 2026 Youth Media Awards!

The American Library Association (ALA) presented the Youth Media Awards on January 26, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. The various awards honor printed books, audio books, video books, and digital media for kids and teens.

Here are a few highlights.

Courtesy of Bloomsbury Children’s Books

The John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature went to All the Blues in the Sky by Renée Watson. The book tells the story of Sage, a 13-year-old girl who experiences loss, grief, and healing after her best friend dies.

Here are the books that received a Newbery Honor, the second-place prize for outstanding children’s literature:

The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli, written and illustrated by Karina Yan Glaser
A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez, written by María Dolores Águila
The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story, written by Daniel Nayeri
The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest, written by Aubrey Hartman and illustrated by Marcin Minor

The Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book went to Fireworks, written by Matthew Burgess and featuring spectacular illustrations by Cátia Chien.

Here are the Caldecott Honor books:

Every Monday Mabel, illustrated and written by Jashar Awan
Our Lake, illustrated and written by Angie Kang
Stalactite & Stalagmite: A Big Tale from a Little Cave, illustrated and written by Drew Beckmeyer
Sundust, illustrated and written by Zeke Peña

Excerpted from Will’s Race for Home by Jewell Parker Rhodes with illustrations by Olga and Aleksey Ivanov. Copyright © 2025. Reprinted with permission of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. All rights reserved

The Coretta Scott King Author Award for an outstanding book by an African American author went to Will’s Race for Home, by Jewell Parker Rhodes. Will’s Race for Home was featured on a previous In the News page. Scroll down to learn more about it!

Here are the King Author Honor books:

The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze, written by Derrick Barnes
The Library in the Woods, written by Calvin Alexander Ramsey and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
Split the Sky, written by Marie Arnold

You can find these books at your local library!

NEWS EXTRA

Happening Now: The Winter Olympics

Tina (left) is the 2026 Olympic mascot, while Milo (right) is the 2026 Paralympic mascot. Both mascots are animals called stoats, which live in the mountains of Italy.

The 2026 Winter Olympics are underway! The world’s best athletes from more than 90 countries have gathered in Milan, Italy, to take part in what is possibly the biggest sporting occasion on the planet.

The Olympic Games take place every two years, alternating between winter events and summer events. Winter events include ice skating, skiing, snowboarding, and more!

You can find the Olympics on TV or streaming from February 6 to February 22.

Did You Know?

From The Young Visiters by Daisy Ashford (London, Chatto & Windus, 1919); Photo composite Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Daisy Ashford (right) and her book, The Young Visiters.

Daisy Ashford was 9 years old in 1919, when she wrote a book called The Young Visiters.

Being a kid author, Daisy made some spelling errors. (There’s even an error in the title.) But her book was so well loved that it’s still available to buy.

Will’s Race for Home

An illustration from Will’s Race for Home shows Will with his dad and his loyal mule, Belle.

Family, friendship, loyalty, action, and adventure. All of these are at the heart of Will’s Race for Home by Jewell Parker Rhodes, which won the 2026 Coretta Scott King Author Book Award.

Will’s Race for Home tells the story of Will, a 12-year-old who undertakes a difficult journey to help his family. It’s the year 1889, and Will’s family is living in Texas. They are sharecroppers, which means they grow crops on land they don’t own and must give the landowner most of the money they earn.

Will’s dad, who grew up as an enslaved person, longs for the freedom of owning his own land. When the family hears that there’s free land available in Oklahoma, Will and his dad set out to claim some of it.

It won’t be easy. Will and his dad must cross miles and miles of land and a raging river. And not everyone they meet is welcoming to a Black family. A new friend helps Will and his dad but also brings trouble. That’s when Will must make the hardest journey of his life—alone.

Even More Stories!

HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, © Marina Zlochin, irynaalex/stock.adobe.com; Photo illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Mr. Stink. The Dark-Thirty. The Tiger’s Apprentice. What do all of these have in common? They’re all part of Britannica’s recommended reading list. Check it out!

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