Our 2026 Nominees

All the Noise at Once

DeAndra David

Realistic Fiction

A Black, autistic teen tries to figure out what happened the night his older brother was unjustly arrested.  Gr. 8-12 🎧

Best of All Worlds

Kenneth Oppel
Thriller, Psychological Suspense

Xavier Oaks doesn't particularly want to go to the cabin with his dad and his dad's pregnant new wife, Nia. But family obligations are family obligations, and it's only for a short time. So he leaves his mom, his brother, and his other friends behind for a week in the woods. Only... one morning he wakes up and the house isn't where it was before. It's like it's been lifted and placed... somewhere else. Gr. 7-12🎧

Breathing Underwater

Abbey Lee Nash
Realistic Fiction, Sports

Seventeen-year-old competitive swimmer Tess Cooper grapples with the upheaval of her carefully planned future following an epilepsy diagnosis, and works to get back in the pool despite her doctor's advice or her distracting feelings for the new guy.  Gr. 9-12 

The Dead of Summer

Ryan La Sala
Horror

Seventeen-year-old Ollie fights to survive a deadly summer on an island off the coast of Maine after it is placed under quarantine due to a long-sunken horror rising from the sea.  Gr. 10-12🎧

Death in the Jungle

Candace Fleming
Nonfiction

A chronicle of one of American history’s most notorious cults, a book including first-person accounts follows Jim Jones from humble origins to “Jonestown” in Guyana, South America, and traces his transformation of Peoples Temple into a nefarious experiment in mind control. Gr. 8-12

Fable for the End of the World

Ave Reid
Dystopian

In a society controlled by one corporation, Inesa's mother has accrued enormous debt and offers Inesa as a sacrifice, who is then pursued by Melinoe, an assassin. Gr. 8-12

Heir of Storms

Lauryn Hamilton Murray

Fantasy

Seventeen-year-old Blaze, a Rain Singer, endeavors to master her powers as she competes in a series of deadly trials that decide the future rulers of the four elemental kingdoms. Gr. 9-12🎧

If We Were a Movie

Zakiya N. Jamal
Romance

Rochelle “The Shell” Coleman gets a job working at Horizon Cinemas, the Black-owned movie theater, to boost her chance of getting into her dream school, but her nemesis and academic competitor, Amira Rodriguez, will be her boss.  Gr. 8-12

Into the Sunken City

Dinesh Thiru
Dystopian/Sci-Fi

In a world where the rain never stops, impoverished Jin Haldar is offered the score of a lifetime--a massive stash of gold hidden in the sunken ruins of Las Vegas--and must do what she promised herself she'd never do again: dive. Gr. 9-12 

Joined at the Joints

Marissa Eller
Romance

Chronically ill seventeen-year-old Ivy, finds solace in baking and watching the Food Network to cope with her illness and social anxiety, but when she meets a cute classmate with the same juvenile rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis, she must decide whether to maintain a façade or be brave and let go in their budding romance. Gr. 10-12 

Legendary Frybread Drive-In: Intertribal Stories

Cynthia Leitich Smith
Anthology

Featuring the voices of both new and acclaimed Indigenous writers and edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith, this collection of interconnected stories serves up laughter, love, Native pride, and the world’s best frybread. Gr. 7-9

Libertad

Bessie Flores Zaldivar
Realistic Fiction

In 2017 Honduras, as the 2017 presidential election looms, queer high school senior Libertad faces homophobia at home and school and threats to her political poetry online, and when tragedy strikes, she must speak her truth or leave the only home she's ever known. Gr. 9-12

Lunar New Year Love Story

Gene Luen Yang & LeUyen Pham

Romance, Graphic Novel

Val is ready to give up on love. It's led to nothing but secrets and heartbreak, and she's pretty sure she's cursed—no one in her family, for generations, has ever had any luck with love. But then a chance encounter with a pair of cute lion dancers sparks something in Val. Is it real love? Could this be her chance to break the family curse? Or is she destined to live with a broken heart forever?  Gr. 6-12

Nobody in Particular

Sophie Gonzales
Romance

Seventeen-year-old Princess Rosemary of Henland, working to restore her reputation after a scandal that caused the death of her best friend, falls for new student Danni at her all-girls boarding school, but their growing relationship risks destroying her reputation and drawing the wrath of the palace.  Gr. 9-12 🎧

Shut Up, This is Serious

Carolina Ixta
Realistic Fiction

Belén Dolores Itzel del Toro wants the normal stuff, but nothing is normal in East Oakland. Her father left her family. She’s at risk of not graduating. And Leti, her super-Catholic, nerdy-ass best friend, is pregnant. Gr. 9-12 🎧

Spacewalking With You, Vol. 1

Inuhiko Doronoda

Manga

Kobayashi just can’t focus--not on studying, not on work--and the adults in his life think he's in danger of becoming a worthless dropout. Then, one day, a strange new presence arrives in his class: an energetic and naive kid named Uno. Kobayashi saves Uno from getting scammed, and that close encounter launches a new friendship. Uno's definitely a space cadet, but Kobayashi can't help admiring the way he floats through life, and before he knows it, he might start feeling his feet lift off the ground, too...  Gr. 7-12

The Thrashers

Julie Soto
Thriller

Seventeen-year-old Jodi Dillon, the outsider in an exclusive high school group, is caught between loyalty and self-preservation after the mysterious death of a former friend, as strange events and unsettling truths begin to unravel about the group's dark secrets.  Gr. 9-12 🎧

This Thing of Ours

Frederick Joseph
Realistic Fiction

After an injury ends Ossie Brown’s basketball career, Brown, a Black teen who doesn’t come from wealth or privilege, navigates his new place in his predominately white school, discovering the power of words and of finding his true voice. Gr. 10-12 🎧

Truth Is

Hannah Sawyerr
Realistic Fiction

Seventeen-year-old Truth uses slam poetry to address her personal struggles with college, relationships, and an unexpected pregnancy, but she never intended for a video of her poem to go viral.  Gr. 8-12 

Under the Same Stars

Libba Bray
Historical Mystery

Three timelines converge to unveil the mysterious disappearance of two girls during World War II.  Gr. 9-12🎧

A World Without Summer

Nicholas Day
Nonfiction

Discover how Mount Tambora’s catastrophic eruption plunged the world into darkness, altering the global climate and inspiring the likes of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, in a nonfiction story of disaster and survival.  Gr. 4-8 🎧