The finalists for the 2025 Kirkus Prize have been announced. Awards are given in three categories: Fiction, Nonfiction and Young Readers’ Literature. Winners receive $50,000 each. Here are the finalists in the Young Readers’ Literature category which is divided into subcategories with two finalists in each:

PICTURE BOOKS

Everybelly by Thao Lam

Island Storm by Brian Floca, illustrated by Sydney Smith

MIDDLE GRADE

The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze by Derrick Barnes

John the Skeleton by Triinu Laan, illustrated by Marja-Liisa Plats, trans. by Adam Cullen

YOUNG ADULT

Butterfly Heart by Moa Backe Åstot, trans. by Agnes Broomé

Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal and the Lost Dream of Jonestown by Candace Fleming