So many books are being published for children and young adults all the time, and the ones given the most publicity are not always the best. If you don't have much time to browse or read reviews, picking prizewinning kids' books tends to be a safe bet.
At Five Books, we like to keep track of prizewinning books for kids as a way of drawing attention to quality reading material. These are books picked by judging panels of librarians and other specialists who do the quality checking for you. In general, prizewinning books for kids and young adults will be enjoyable, but educational or stimulating as well.
Below, you will find some of the recent winners of prestigious prizes for books for children and young adults (such as American Library Association awards in the US, and the Yoto Carnegie Medals in the UK) in various categories, in both print and audio.
Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion
Shannon Stocker, Devon Holzwarth (illustrator)
***Winner 2023 Schneider Family Book Award for young children***
This is a picture book story of the inspiring life of Evelyn Glennie, who started to go deaf from the age of 10. Instead of giving up on her love of music, she switched instruments from piano and clarinet to percussion, going on to become the world’s first full-time solo percussionist and winning Grammy Awards for her recordings. Having pushed the boundaries of percussion and access to music education, Dame Evelyn has also established a charitable foundation to Teach the World to Listen. Holzwarth’s pictures are clearly intended to illustrate that we can feel sound, that touch is another way of interpreting vibrating air.
Ages 3-6
Just a Girl: A True Story of World War II
Lia Levi, Jess Mason (illustrator), translated by Sylvia Notini
***2023 Mildred L. Batchelder Award for outstanding children’s book translated into English***
Six year old Lia has spent the summer of 1938 with her family at the seaside. To her, being Jewish means going to synagogue some Saturdays, lighting candles, getting presents for Hanukkah, and not eating bread at Passover. Why does it suddenly mean she is not allowed to go back to school? The young Lia is a perceptive and resilient narrator of her experiences as she is uprooted by fascism and war from her family life in Turin and sent to hide in a convent. This is an adaptation for children of Levi’s award-winning memoir published in 1994.
Ages 7-11
Hot Dog
by Doug Salati
***2023 Caldecott Medal Winner***
A dog is overwhelmed by the heat and noise of summer in the city. The loving owner understands, and they go to spend a fabulous day on an island beach. When they come back to the city in the evening things have cooled and calmed down. This picture book has sparse text; young readers will notice plenty to talk about in the colourful, detailed illustrations.
Ages 3-6
Freewater
by Amina Luqman-Dawson
***2023 Newbery Medal Winner***
Loosely based on maroon communities of escaped slaves and their descendants, this is an exciting novel of courage and resistance. With plantation overseers and their dogs hot on the trail, 12 year old Homer and his younger sister Ada flee into the swamp of the American South where they join a secret community named Freewater. Adventure inspired by history.
Ages 9-12
All My Rage
Sabaa Tahir, narrated by Deepti Gupta, Kamran R. Khan and Kausar Mohammed
***Winner 2023 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature***
***2022 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature (USA)***
“Of the three different characters, two are best friends who are in a difficult spot with each other. And the third is the mother, whose voice is telling her story in the past leading up to the present. It gets into some heavier topics, where the three of them are facing a lot of hardship. At the same time, there are beautiful relationships that you’re discovering. While there’s a lot of anger and grief, there’s also a lot of joy that’s found.” Read more...
The Best Audiobooks for Kids of 2022
Emily Connelly, Journalist
Stuntboy, In the Meantime
Jason Reynolds, Raúl the Third (illustrator), Guy Lockard (narrator)
***2023 Odyssey Award: Best Audiobook for Children***
“Stuntboy is a very dynamic and fun audiobook, and Jason Reynolds is a celebrated children’s author, for good reason. He has done it again, written a story that’s very good at meeting kids where they are…..I’d say for reluctant readers or for kids who haven’t seen themselves in children’s literature before, or for kids who are looking for a fun story, this is great. And the audiobook is a whole other amazing experience, narrated by a full cast. “ Read more...
The Best Audiobooks for Kids of 2021
Emily Connelly, Journalist
If the World Were 100 People
Jackie McCann, Aaron Cushley (illustrator)
***Winner of the 2022 Royal Society Young People’s Books Prize***
“It’s about percentages, it’s about showing the spread of characteristics across the world. It’s picking up interesting points, and it raises a lot of points that can be built on and explored. You don’t have to read the book, you can open it at a single page and form a lesson from it or form a discussion from it, be it at the dinner table at home or in the school room.” Read more...
Best Science Books for Children: the 2022 Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize
Alan Wilson, Scientist
Be Dazzled
by Ryan La Sala
***2022 Audie Awards Best Audiobook for Young Adults***
Raffy pours all his dreams and effort into his hobby: designing and crafting costumes based on anime and game characters. He is ready to participate in the world of competitive cosplay, but there is a complicating factor: his ex-boyfriend, Luca. Both boys are keeping their creative arts and crafts secret from their families; Raffy because his art gallerist mother looks down on it, Luca because his parents think boys should stick to soccer. Alternate chapters of the novel sensitively trace the development of their relationship and breakup. In the present, as the competition gets underway, can Raffy learn to be a team player, and can broken hearts be put back together?
October, October
Katya Balen, Angela Harding (illustrator)
***Winner of the 2022 Yoto Carnegie Medal***
The reader quickly feels close to October, the quirky 11 year old narrator who lives off-grid with her father. October loves to find objects in the woods and imagine their stories, until one day her world is turned upside down and she is forced to move to London. There, she discovers mudlarking: searching for objects in the Thames riverbed when the tide is out. October, October is a lyrical novel alive with the beauty of the natural world, and of relationships given the chance to heal.
Ages 8-12
Ambushed! The Assassination Plot against President Garfield
by Gail Jarrow
***Winner 2022 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults***
This is a book about the assassination plot against President James Garfield. But more than that, it is a fascinating – if gory – read for anyone interested in the history of medicine, with a focus on 19th century USA. Garfield wrote to his wife during the Civil War that the fight with disease “is infinitely more horrible than battle”. When Garfield was shot it need not have been fatal; indeed it took over two months for him to die. This book is a powerful reminder that we need to take antibiotic resistance seriously. Similarly, today we are seeing a rise in cases of illnesses such as diphtheria, polio and whooping cough, and this book helps us reflect on what it was like to live without vaccines against them (the Garfields lost a daughter to diphtheria and a son to whooping cough). Ambushed! is part of a series about medical fiascoes.
The Words in My Hands
by Asphyxia
***Winner 2022 Schneider Family Book Award for teens***
Deaf 16-year-old Piper is trying to figure out how to survive in a near-future Australia in chaos due to high inflation and fuel shortages. Learning to sign opens Piper’s world (until now she has been expected to fit in by lipreading and speaking) but complicates her relationship with her mother. Exploring how best to respond in a hearing world as she develops her identity, Piper expresses herself in a mixed media art journal. The result is this unique book, which was first published in Australia as Future Girl.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
by Malinda Lo
***2022 Stonewall Young Adult Book Award Winner***
***2021 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature (USA)***
In 1950s San Francisco, 17 year old Lily is a Chinese American who dresses conservatively and does her homework. When she realises that there is such a thing as lesbian romantic love, she feels as if she has “finally cracked the last part of a code she had been puzzling over for so long that she couldn’t remember when she had started deciphering it”. A relationship develops with her classmate Kath who shares Lily’s interest in mathematics. But in the face of the police’s drive against so-called “sex deviates” and the country’s campaign against people who are suspected of communist sympathies (pretty much anyone in Chinatown), can it survive?
The People's Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art
by Cynthia Levinson & Evan Turk (illustrator)
***Winner 2022 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal***
A picture book about the life and work of Benjamin Shahn (1898-1969), from his childhood in Lithuania as a Jew under Tsar Nicholas II to his life as a young immigrant and later an established artist in the United States. This book is very much about the process of being an artist, about knowing who you are in order to find out what kind of artist you are. Shahn used his art for social dialogue, insisting that the purpose was to communicate. Evan Turk effectively uses connected scenes, distorted shapes and symbolic forms to tell the visual part of the story.
Ages 4-7
Boogie Boogie, Y’all
by C. G. Esperanza
***2022 Odyssey Award: Best Audiobook for Children***
A picture book celebration of graffiti culture. Whilst the adults in the book either ignore or complain about the graffiti they see around them, kids notice the art and love it. The book has an infectious enthusiasm for urban culture and would be a great starting point for a discussion with children about life in art and art in life. The hip hop audiobook is narrated by the author/illustrator.
Ages 3-6
My City Speaks
Darren Lebeuf & Ashley Barron (illustrator)
***Winner 2022 Schneider Family Book Award for young children***
A visually impaired narrator describes the sounds, smells and tastes of the city on the way to a music recital in the park. The rhythmic, alliterative language and colourful textured collage illustrations will appeal to young children. An engaging picture book about the ways we experience the world, encouraging children to think about all the different senses.
Ages 2-6
When the Sky Falls
by Phil Earle
***British Book Awards 2022 – Children’s Fiction Winner***
Aged 12, Joseph still hasn’t learnt to read. Dyslexia is not widely understood, and being laughed at in school has made him angry. Loss has made him more furious still. While other children are being evacuated from London in 1941 he gets sent to London to be looked after by his grandmother’s gruff old friend, Mrs F, who runs a zoo. In Joseph’s experience, friendship and trust count for nothing, but gradually a special bond forms between the boy and Adonis, the zoo’s remaining gorilla. But what happens if Adonis’ cage is damaged by the bombs? A silverback on the loose during the blitz? Sometimes doing the right thing feels completely wrong.
Ages 8-12
King and the Dragonflies
by Kacen Callender, narrated by Ron Butler
***2020 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature (USA)***
Ages: 9 – 12
Narrator: Ron Butler
Length: 5 hours and 3 minutes
“In this story we’re in Louisiana with a young Black boy, who is grieving his older brother who had just died, suddenly. It’s a tough topic, certainly, but we’re in a year where so many people are experiencing such trauma. Ron Butler’s narration just brings these different characters off of the page and into your ears.” Read more...
The Best Audiobooks for Kids of 2020
Emily Connelly, Journalist
The Last Cuentista
by Donna Barba Higuera
***Winner of the 2022 Newbery Medal**
Science fiction blended with Mexican folklore. If you leave Earth in the knowledge that you can never return, what will you want to take with you? 12 year old Petra Peña chooses her grandmother’s stories. But on board her spaceship a fanatical Collective is bent on creating a utopia by erasing everyone’s memories and purging those they are unable to reprogramme. If we make a new society by forgetting what we have left behind, will we know what it is to be human? A novel about the importance of remembering stories and passing them on, and of creating our own stories. Ages 10-14
Firekeeper's Daughter
Angeline Boulley, narrated by Isabella Star LaBlanc
***Winner 2022 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature***
“It’s a great combination of a young adult thriller and a love story… It’s a story of a community, the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians on reservation in Michigan. The story takes place on and off the reservation. The main character, whose name is Daunis, has grown up between those two cultures. She gets caught up in an investigation into a new street drug that has very devastatingly been impacting their communities… There’s a lot about understanding yourself and your family as well. It’s an engrossing story.” Read more...
The Best Audiobooks for Kids of 2021
Emily Connelly, Journalist
Clap When You Land
by Elizabeth Acevedo
***2021 Audie Awards Best Audiobook for Young Adults***
This novel in verse by multi-award winning writer Acevedo is alternately narrated by two teenagers, Camino and Yahaira. Camino lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. Yahaira lives in New York with her father. When their father dies in a plane crash they learn of each other for the first time. The story brims with both grief and love for their imperfect father, questions of identity, and an emerging sisterhood. Based on the crash in New York of Flight AA587 on its way to the Dominican Republic, this story is also an exploration of what it means to have tragedies that are both private and public.
The Good Hawk
by Joseph Elliott
***2021 Audie Awards Best Audiobook for Middle Grade***
The first book in the Shadow Skye series, this fast-paced novel is alternately narrated by Agatha, who probably has Down’s syndrome, and Jaime. When disaster strikes in the form of “deamhain” (demon Vikings), the two teenagers set out on a terrifying rescue mission from the Isle of Skye across a ravaged Scotia to Norveg. They don’t feel particularly brave, but they are their clan’s only hope, and they are aided by Agatha’s gift of communicating with animals. This gripping fantasy adventure has won the Audie Award in the middle grade (8-12) category. However, given the level of violence, it is probably better suited for readers in the 12-14 age range.
Small in the City
by Sydney Smith
***Winner of the 2021 Kate Greenaway medal***
This book is set in Toronto, but will resonate with kids in any snowy city. A child guides the reader along busy streets, past building sites and yards, down an alley, up a tree and past a bench… Gradually it is revealed that the narrator isn’t speaking to the reader so much as to a missing cat. The illustrations are tightly woven with the text, in a simple story expressing loneliness and worry, but also comfort and confidence.
Ages 4-6
I am a book. I am a portal to the universe.
by Stefanie Posavec & Miriam Quick (illustrator)
***Winner of the 2021 Royal Society Young People’s Books Prize***
“My very favourite of the books. In fact, I liked it so much that I bought fifteen copies and I’ve been giving them out to everyone…. I wasn’t the only one who loved this book. I think everyone was intrigued by it, because it’s so interactive. It’s a true and very creative art and science fusion.” Read more...
Best Science Books for Children: the 2021 Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize
Katharine Cashman, Scientist
Throwaway Girls
by Andrea Contos
***Winner of the International Thriller Writers' Awards best young adult novel 2021***
Caroline can’t wait to turn eighteen and finish school, to leave her conservative family who refuse to accept her sexual identity. She struggles with mental health problems and is trying to keep her head down, but when her best friend Madison disappears Caroline gets involved in the investigation. She soon discovers that Madison is not the only girl who has disappeared. This book raises important questions about inequality, entitlement and abuse of power, and how class differences are reflected in law enforcement outcomes.
Look Both Ways
by Jason Reynolds
***Winner of the 2021 Carnegie Medal***
A mixed collection of short stories, some of them very lovely, by The US National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. The stories are bound by a common thread: they all take place on the way home from school, in that space where children are unsupervised by teachers or parents. A myriad thoughts and words form along the city blocks that separate school and home, as relationships are built and events unfold on the children's separate but interconnected journeys.
Ages 8-10
Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera
by Candace Fleming & Eric Rohmann (illustrator)
***Winner 2021 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal***
Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera is a scientific picture book about the short, busy life of the honeybee. It contains the usual facts that an information book should but also provides food for thought about how we all follow a similar cycle of life and death, and how much work really goes into a spoonful of honey. What lifts this book is the seamless interweaving of the text with the detailed, magnified oil painting illustrations.
Ages 4-8
Kent State
by Deborah Wiles
***2021 Odyssey Award: Best Audiobook for Children and/or Young Adults***
Most of us know it happened: that during protests against the Vietnam War in the United States, at Kent State University on May 4th, 1970, the National Guard opened fire, killing four students and wounding more. What many of us don't know is exactly how and why it happened. Written in verse and a work of historical fiction, Kent State tells the story and answers those questions in the voices of people who were there.
Everything Sad Is Untrue (a true story)
by Daniel Nayeri
***Winner of the 2021 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature***
Khosrou’s mother converts to Christianity, which leads her to flee Iran with her children in the middle of the night. Following an extended trip via an Italian refugee camp, Khosrou stands in front of his middle school class in Oklahoma explaining how he got there. Doing his best impression of Scheherazade, the legendary storyteller of 1001 Nights, he speaks of blood sacrifices, forbidden love and libraries in the desert. He is weaving memories to help define himself, but his classmates mainly perceive a boy whose lunch smells funny, who makes things up and talks too much about poop. Everything Sad Is Untrue is a true story in that it is autobiographical, but memories are unreliable, they are the stories we choose to tell ourselves. There is sadness (Khosrou - now known as Daniel - will never be able to make new memories with loved ones who are still in Iran) and there is hardship. At the same time, there is truth in the beauty of family tales in jasmine-scented Isfahan, of sensory memories, of food shared, of love and everyday survival.
When You Trap a Tiger
by Tae Keller
***Winner of the 2021 Newbery Medal***
“Long, long ago, when tiger walked like man…” Thus start the folktales which Halmoni (grandmother in Korean) has been telling Lily and her older sister since they were little girls. Now that Halmoni is ageing and Lily is coming of age, a magical tiger appears straight out of Lily’s favourite tale to strike a bargain: healing for Halmoni if she releases the history she has kept bottled up. A sparkling novel about the power of stories.
Ages 8-12
Overground Railroad
by Lesa Cline-Ransome, illustrated by James Ransome, narrated by Shayna Small and Dion Graham
***2021 Audie Awards Best Audiobook for Young Listeners***
“They’re beautiful pictures, and they really did such a marvellous job making a soundscape that goes along with it… It’s a piece of history that is great to explore with children.” Read more...
The Best Audiobooks for Kids of 2020
Emily Connelly, Journalist
Cats React to Science Facts
by Izzi Howell
*** Winner of the 2020 Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize***
“This one is fascinating. It really captures, for example, why the Earth has a magnetic field. It explains force and energy balances, the idea of electromagnetism. It’s really, really good, well explained science. And you’ve got the added fun of cats in it! We wanted to try and have some books that might reach out to children who are maybe a bit intimidated by science or don’t think they’re very good at it, or perhaps just aren’t very interested in it. And we thought this book could do that: it would appeal to a much wider audience.” Read more...
The Best Science Books for Kids: the 2020 Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize
Mike Kendall, Scientist
Dig
by A.S. King
***Winner of the 2020 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature***
The anxieties and individual stories of five teenage cousins are woven together as multigenerational secrets are revealed and an extended family implodes. Said the Printz Award Committee Chair: Dig “unapologetically explores the generational impacts of white privilege and the alienation of fractured families”.
Lark
by Anthony McGowan
***Winner of the 2020 Carnegie Medal***
Lark by Antony McGowan was the winner of the 2020 Carnegie Medal, the UK's most prestigious children's book prize. It's the fourth book about two brothers, Nicky and Kenny, but was described by the chair of the judges, Julia Hale, as a "standalone masterpiece". The book was published by Barrington Stoke, a publisher that focuses on kids with dyslexia or who find reading a bit tougher. More details are available here.
Hey, Kiddo
by Jarrett Krosoczka
***2020 Odyssey Award: Best Audiobook for Children and/or Young Adults***
***2020 Audie Awards Best Audiobook for Young Adults***
Hey Kiddo is a graphic memoir so you’d think it would be hard to turn into an audiobook. Instead, it’s won two major audiobook awards. The author, Jarrett Krosoczka, narrates the story himself, with a cast that includes actors but also some family members.
Narrator: Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Jeanne Birdsall, Richard Ferrone, Jenna Lamia
Length: 2 hours and 50 minutes
Ages: Young Adult
“Hey, Kiddo was a National Book Award finalist as a graphic memoir, recognising the literary power of Krosoczka’s personal story of his mother’s heroin addiction and childhood with alcoholic grandparents. It’s told from the point of view of Krosoczka at age 17, and teens forge an immediate connection with the author’s description of how his artistic talent helped him survive his upbringing.” Read more...
Charlotte's Web
by E.B. White & Garth Williams (illustrator)
***2020 Audie Awards Best Audiobook for Middle Grade***
This audiobook of EB White’s classic tale, Charlotte’s Web, is narrated by Meryl Streep and a full cast of actors.
Narrator: Meryl Streep, full cast
Length: 4 hours and 2 minutes
Ages: 8-11
“It is very nice having a title that’s for younger children recognized as a truly stellar audiobook, because sometimes people think that audiobooks are to help kids learn to read and not for them to fall in love with literature. But that’s what the audiobook recording of Charlotte’s Web does. It lets young kids and their parents revisit a beautiful title and fall in love with the book.” Read more...
The Undefeated
Kwame Alexander, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
***Winner of the 2020 Caldecott Medal***
“It’s about the contributions that African Americans have made to America and celebrating and exploring those. The poetry is striking and it’s such a perfect partnership between Kadir Nelson’s illustrations and Kwame Alexander’s words. It’s just this beautiful love letter to America.” Read more...
The Best Children’s Books: The 2020 Newbery Medal and Honor Winners
Krishna Grady, Librarian
New Kid
by Jerry Craft
***Winner of the 2020 Newbery Medal***
New Kid by Jerry Craft is wonderful graphic novel about a Black kid who goes to a private school and feels out of place. It won the 2020 Newbery Medal, America's most prestigious prize for a children's book, but is relatable for kids anywhere.
Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story
Kevin Noble Maillard & Juana Martinez-Neal (illustrator)
***Winner 2020 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal***
“First of all, the cover totally drew me in. Juana Martinez-Neal’s illustrations are always so warm and inviting and made me want to read it straight away. What I love about this book is that while it’s specifically a Native American family story, it really could be any family that is connecting and bonding over a tradition and over food. The text is brief and delightfully bubbles along, it’s poetic. Between the pictures and the words, you can imagine all the scrumptious food smells and the joy of the togetherness.” Read more...
Bianca Schulze, Children's Author
“Tomi Adeyemi’s action-filled and incredibly fast-paced novel is about 17 year old Zélie and her companions who have all suffered in different ways at the hands of the cruel king and their unjust world. In a tight race against time, they are on a quest to bring magic back to the land of Orïsha and restore power to the oppressed maji.” Read more...
Best West African Fantasy Books for Teenagers
Efua Traoré, Children's Author
Planetarium: Welcome to the Museum
Raman Prinja (illustrated by Chris Wormell)
*** Winner of the 2019 Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize***
“If you’re interested at all in what’s out there in space, this book is particularly gorgeous.” Read more...
The Best Science Books for Kids: the 2019 Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize
Sheila Rowan, Physicist
The Poet X
by Elizabeth Acevedo
*** Winner of the 2019 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature***
***Winner of the 2019 Carnegie Medal***
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo has also won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and the Pura Belpré Award, which celebrates a "Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience."
It's about a girl (with a twin brother) coming of age in Harlem in New York City. Her mum is religious and would have preferred to be a nun. "If Medusa was Dominican and had a daughter, I think I'd be her," says the narrator, Xiomara, who eventually finds herself through poetry and the support of an inspiring teacher.
The Lost Words
Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris (illustrator)
***Winner of the 2019 Kate Greenaway Medal***
“This is a book of poems about nature for children. Each poem describes an individual animal, creature or plant and contains words that are going out of usage. It’s very playful and compelling. The illustrations are utterly breathtaking. Jackie Morris… she’s got to be one of the most brilliant artists working in children’s books at the moment.” Read more...
The Best Picture Books of 2017
Zoe Greaves, Children's Author
