As we near the end of the year, the “Best of 2015” lists are pouring in almost daily. This post collects links to end-of-year book lists and award winners in children’s and young adult literature as they are published or announced by professional organizations, journals, newspapers, blogs, etc. These are great resources to aid in finding new books to purchase for library collections and to recommend or promote to students and teachers. This post will be updated and bumped to the top of the website again as new resources are added to it. If you have other lists or resources to add here, please share them in the comments below and we will add them to the post!
Awards from Professional Organizations
ALA Youth Media Awards
The American Library Association Youth Media Awards, including the Newbery, Caldecott, Printz, and many more, were announced on January 11, 2016. Click here for more information on the ALA Youth Media awards.
CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Children’s Book Awards
These British awards are roughly analogous to the American-based Newbery and Caldecott Medals.
Ezra Jack Keats Book Award
Given to new and emerging writers and illustrators of children’s books. Next winners to be announced in February 2016.
National Book Awards
Scroll down their 2015 awards page to find the winner, finalists, and long list for the Young People’s Literature category. These are primarily YA titles. Other categories of the award are for adult books, which may also be of interest to teachers and high school students.
National Council of Teachers of English
- NCTE Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children – Winner, honors, and other recommended books.
- NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children – Winner, honors, and other recommended books.
- NCTE 2015 Notable Poetry List – A list of notable children’s poetry collections. See also the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children.
New York Public Library
Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction
Library and Professional Publications
Booklist’s Best Books of 2015 – Editor’s Choice
- Books for Youth, 2015
- Adult Books for Young Adults, 2015
- Audio for Youth, 2015
- ‘Top of the List’ and All Other Categories
The Horn Book Fanfare 2015
Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2015
- Middle Grade
- Picture Books
- Teen
- Fiction (Adult)
- Nonfiction (Adult)
Publishers Weekly Best Books 2015
School Library Journal’s Best of 2015
- Picture Books
- Middle Grade
- Young Adult
- Nonfiction
- Top 10 Graphic Novels
- Top 10 Latin@ Books
- Top 10 Audiobooks
- Best Adult Books 4 Teens
VOYA Perfect Tens 2015
General Publications (Newspapers, Magazines, Blogs, &c.)
Nerdy Book Club
- The 2015 Nerdies: Early Reader and Chapter Books
- The 2015 Nerdies: Fiction Picture Books
- The 2015 Nerdies: Graphic Novels
- The 2015 Nerdies: Middle Grade Fiction
- The 2015 Nerdies: Nonfiction
- The 2015 Nerdies: Nonfiction Picture Books
- The 2015 Nerdies: Poetry and Novels in Verse
- The 2015 Nerdies: Young Adult Fiction (Part One)
- The 2015 Nerdies: Young Adult Fiction (Part Two)
- New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2015
- New York Times Notable Children’s Books of 2015 (Picture Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult)
- New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2015 (Adult)
- NPR Best Books 2015 – Kid’s Books
- NPR Best Books 2015 – Young Adult
- NPR Best Books 2015 – All (Adult)
- Time Top 10 YA & Children’s Books
- We Need Diverse Books End of Year Book Lists (Young Adult, Middle Grade, Picture Books)
Granite Media’s Best New Books
These lists gather all of our published book reviews receiving at least a 4 out of 5 star rating. Books are added to these lists frequently as we publish new reviews. If you are a Granite library staff member or teacher and don’t see one of your favorite titles on these lists, please submit a review!
- Best Picture Books
- Best Middle Grade Fiction
- Best YA Fiction
- Best Children’s Nonfiction
- Best YA Nonfiction
- Best Chapter Books
- Best Children’s Graphic Novels
- Best YA Graphic Novels
Other
- Best Books, Children’s and YA, Collated (downloadable spreadsheet) – Compiled by www.earlyword.com, this spreadsheet lists all books mentioned in various end-of-year “best of” lists, sorting them by number of inclusions. Updated as new end-0f-year lists are released.
- Starred Titles – this Google spreadsheet lists all children’s and young adult titles that receive starred reviews from professional library journals. It is compiled and updated month-by-month by Jennifer Jazwinksi, a Chicago-area young adult librarian.
Just updated this post with a couple of new lists, including the New York Public Library’s 100 Children’s Books for Reading and Sharing (http://www.nypl.org/browse/recommendations/staff-picks/annual/childrens/), which is probably my favorite list of all.