The Children’s Book Council has announced the 2026 Kids Favorites lists. The CBC is a nonprofit trade association of children’s book publishers in North America. The lists are chosen by children and teachers across North America through a voting process. The lists are available as a pdf on their website and include many books for each age range. Below are the top ten in each age group:

KINDERGARTEN – 2ND GRADE TOP TEN

Aggie and the Ghost by Matthew Forsythe

Axolotl and Axolittle by Jess Hitchman, illustrated by Sarah Rebar

Bruce Saves the Planet by Ryan T. Higgins

Buffalo Fluffalo and Puffalo by Bess Kalb, illustrated by Erin Kraan

Don’t Trust Fish by Neil Sharpson, illustrated by Dan Santat

E-I-UFO: Old MacDonald Had a Farm by Zach von Zonk, illustrated by Benjamin Chaud

Flat Cat: The Class Pet by Tara Lazar, illustrated by Pete Oswald

Piece Out by Alex Willan

POP! Goes the Nursery Rhyme by Betsy Bird, illustrated by Andrea Tsurumi

Recess by Lane Smith

3RD-5TH GRADE TOP TEN

Biggest Fake in the Universe by Johan Rundberg

Croco by Azul López

Dog Man: Big Jim Believes by Dav Pilkey

Duck and Moose: Moose’s Bad Hair Day! by Kirk Reedstrom

George Washington’s Spectacular Spectacles: The Glasses That Saved America by Selene Castrovilla, illustrated by Jenn Harney

Paw & Order Vol. 1 by Jason Platt

The Snips: A Bad Buzz Day by Raúl the Third

Swap-A-Word! Fun with a Sound-Alike-Words by Marvin Terban, illustrated by Andreas Wittmann

Why We Eat Fried Peanuts: A Celebration of Family and Lunar New Year Traditions by
Zed Zha, illustrated by Sian James

Zero! The Number That Almost Wasn’t by Sarah Albee, illustrated by Chris Hsu

6TH-8TH GRADE TOP TEN

Aarzu All Around by Marzieh Abbas

Billions to Burn by Taylor Banks

Blood in the Water by Tiffany D. Jackson

Chickenpox by Remy Lai

Coven by Soman Chainani, illustrated by Joel Gennari

Creaky Acres by Calista Brill and Nilah Magruder

Dial If You Dare by Alexandre Côté-Fournier, illustrated by Geneviève Bigué

Isle of Ever by Jen Calonita

J vs. K. by Kwame Alexander and Jerry Craft

The Trouble With Heroes by Kate Messner

9TH-12TH GRADE TOP TEN

After We Burned by Marieke Nijkamp

The Art of Drag by Jake Hall, illustrated by Sofie Birkin, Helen Li, and Jasjyot Singh Hans

Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers’ Rights by Ashley Hope Pérez

Buzz! by Ananth Hirsh, illustrated by Tess Stone

Dear Manny by Nic Stone

Fireblooms by Alexandra Villasante

The Flip Side by Jason Walz

Messi Mania: The Ultimate Story of the World’s Greatest Soccer Star by Luis Miguel Echegaray

Raven Boys: The Graphic Novel by Maggie Stiefvater, adapted by Stephanie Williams, illustrated
by Sas Milledge

Silenced Voices: Reclaiming Memories from the Guatemalan Genocide by
Pablo Leon

The shortlists for the Indies Choice Book Awards have been announced. The awards are voted on my indie booksellers in the US. Eligible titles must have appeared on one of the American Booksellers Association’s Indie Next List, Kids’ Indie Next List or Indies Introduce list. Here are the shortlisted titles in the juvenile categories:

CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOKS SHORTLIST

Bakery Dragon and the Fairy Cake by Devin Elle Kurtz

Buffalo Fluffalo and Puffalo by Bess Kalb, illustrated by Erin Kroan

Don’t Trust Fish by Neil Sharpson, illustrated by Dan Santat

If We Were Dogs by Sophie Blackall

Millie Fleur Saves the Night by Christy Mandin

A Snow Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead, illustrated by Erin E. Stead

MIDDLE GRADE SHORTLIST

All the Blues in the Sky by Renee Watson

Blood in the Water by Tiffany D. Jackson

Dragonborn by Struan Murray

Scarlet Morning by ND Stevenson

The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner

YOUNG ADULT SHORTLIST

Angelica and the Bear Prince by Trung Le Nguyen

The Last Bookstore on Earth by Lily Braun-Arnold

Legendary Frybread Drive-In edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley

They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran

DEBUT CHILDREN’S SHORTLIST

Murder at the Museum by Alasdair Beckett-King

One of the Boys by Victoria Zeller

The Queen’s Bees of Tybee County by Kyle Casey Chu

Trans History by Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett

Whale Eyes by James Robinson

The finalists for the 2025 Andre Norton Nebula Award have been announced. The award recognizes the best of science fiction and fantasy for middle grade and young adult fiction. Here are the finalists:

Gemini Rising by Jonathan Brazee

Goblin Girl by K. A. Mielke

Into the Wild Magic by Michelle Knudsen

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

The Tower by David Anaxagoras

Wishing Well, Wishing Well by Jubilee Cho

Peters Children’s Book of the Year celebrates the best children’s fiction and nonfiction published in the UK. A Book of the Year is selected from the four books that win their specific categories. Here are the winning titles:

BOOK OF THE YEAR

The Boy at the Window by Lucy Strange

PICTURE BOOK OF THE YEAR

Don’t Trust Fish! by Neil Sharpson and Dan Santat

JUNIOR FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

The Boy at the Window by Lucy Strange

TEEN FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

I Dare You by Tamsin Winter

NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

The Cave Explorer by Kate Winter

The shortlists for the 2026 Carnegie Medals for illustration and writing in books for young people have been announced. Here are the shortlisted titles for these UK awards:

ILLUSTRATION

The Endless Sea illustrated by Linh Dao, written by Chi Thai (available in US)

Freedom Braids illustrated by Oboh Moses, written by Monique Duncan (available in US)

Lord of the Flies: The Graphic Novel illustrated by Aimée de Jongh, written by Golding William

The Paper Bridge illustrated by Seng Soun Ratanavanh, written by Joelle Veyrenc (available in US)

The Sleeper Train illustrated by Baljinder Kaur, written by Mick Jackson (available in US)

Wiggling Words by Kate Rolfe

Wildful by Kengo Kurimoto (available in US)

WRITING

Birdie by J. P. Rose

The Boy I Love by William Hussey

Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody by Patrick Ness, illustrated by Tim Miller (available in US)

Ghostlines by Katya Balen

Not Going to Plan by Tia Fisher

Popcorn by Rob Harrell (available in US)

Twenty-Four Seconds from Now by Jason Reynolds (available in US)

Wolf Siren by Beth O’Brien

IndieBound has published their new list of recommended upcoming books which are nominated by independent booksellers across the country.

PICTURE BOOKS

Cat’s New Book by Nathalie Belhassen

The Future Book by Mac Barnett and Shawn Harris

The God of Sleep by Lev Grossman, illustrated by Huynh Kim Liên

I Really Want to Be a Cat by Helen Hancocks

Is This Spring? by Kevin Henkes

Judgy Bunny and the Terrible Beach by Scott Rothman, illustrated by Linzie Hunter

Loops by Jashar Awan

The Rare Bird by Elisha Cooper

Rumpelstiltskin by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Carson Ellis

Ruthie by Esmé Shapiro

MIDDLE GRADE

Aftermyth by Tracy Wolff

Bravepaw and the Heartstone of Alluria by L. M. Wilkinson, illustrated by Lavanya Naidu

The Curse Breaker by Jen Calonita

A Kid Like Me by Norm Feuti

The Lion’s Run by Sara Pennypacker

Oh Brother by Georgina Chadderton

Phoenix by Kim Brubaker Bradley

Queso, Just in Time by Ernesto Cisneros

Sweet, Tart by Kara Thom

The Unlikely Tale of Chase & Finnegan by Jasmine Warga

When Tomorrow Burns by Tae Keller

YOUNG ADULT

Carnival Fantastico by Angela Montoya

The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst

The Free Verse Society by Delali Adjoa

Her Hidden Fire by Cliodhna O’Sullivan

If We Never End by Laura Taylor Namey

Love Me Tomorrow by Emiko Jean

Meet Me Under the Lights by Cassie Miller

Queen of Faces by Petra Lord

Ramin Abbas Has Major Questions by Ahmad Saber

The Sun and the Starmaker by Rachel Griffin

The shortlists for the 2026 British Book Awards Books of the Year have been announced. There are two specifically children’s categories, but the new Graphic Novels category has several children’s books in it and Illustrator of the Year is entirely children’s illustrators. Children’s author AF Steadman also represents in the shortlist for Author of the Year.

Here are the shortlists:

ILLUSTRATOR OF THE YEAR

Dav Pilkey

Emily Gravett

Huw Aaron

Ingela P. Arrhenius

Mikey Please

Tom Percival

GRAPHIC NOVELS

Bunny vs. Monkey: Intergalactic Monkey Business by Jamie Smart

Dog Man: Big Jim Believes by Dav Pilkey (available in US)

Ginseng Roots by Craig Thompson (available in US)

Investigators: Case Files by John Patrick Green with Steve Behling and Chris Fenoglio (available in US)

This Slavery by Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, adapted by Sophie Rickard, illustrated by Scarlett Rickard (available in US)

Who Killed Nessie? by Paul Cornell, illustrated by Rachael Smith (available in US)

CHILDREN’S NON-FICTION & ILLUSTRATED

Fold-Out + Play: Doll’s House by Ingela P. Arrhenius (In US it’s called Fold-Out + Play: House)

My Rice Is Best by Selina Brown, illustrated by Maxwell A. Oginni

Oh Dear, Look What I Got! by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury (available in US)

Sammy Feels Shy by Tom Percival (available in US)

The Wizard’s Guide to Experiments by AJ Wood, illustrated by Jo Rioux (available in US)

You and Your Body by Dr. Punam Krishan, illustrated by Verónika Cháves Morales (available in US)

CHILDREN’S FICTION

The Adventures of Rap Kid by MC Grammar (available in US)

Fearless by Lauren Roberts (available in US)

A Language of Dragons by SF Williamson (available in US)

Lottie Brooks vs the Ultra Mean Girls by Katie Kirby

Skandar and the Spirit War by AF Steadman (available in US)

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (available in US)