The International Literacy Association (ILA) proudly announces the recipients of its 2026 Children’s and Young Adult Book Awards. These awards honor newly published authors who demonstrate exceptional talent in literature for children and young adults, with a focus on authentic stories that connect with readers around the globe.
This year’s selected titles highlight the power of individuals and communities who challenge obstacles, reclaim their voices, and reshape the world around them. Together, these stories encourage readers to see the world through different perspectives.
Join us in celebrating the 2026 award winners:
Primary Fiction
- Winner: Katie Venit, Forts (Penguin Young Readers)
- Honor: Anaïs Lambert, Giant Steps (Blue Dot Kids Press)
Primary Nonfiction
- Winner: Jennifer Cooper, This Skirt Won’t Work!: How Women Athletes Changed Their Clothes and Changed the Game (Sourcebooks Explore)
- Honor: Leah Schanke, Freedom at Dawn: Robert Smalls’s Voyage Out of Slavery (Albert Whitman & Company)
Intermediate Fiction
- Winner: Caris Avendaño Cruz, The Boy, the Mountain, and the Serpent Who Ate the Moon (Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group)
- Honor: Ruchira Gupta, The Freedom Seeker (Scholastic Press)
Intermediate Nonfiction
- Winner: James Robinson, Whale Eyes: A Memoir About Seeing and Being Seen (Penguin Workshop)
- Honor: Kamalani Hurley, Kahoʻolawe: The True Story of an Island and Her People (Learner Publishing Group)
Young Adult Fiction
- Winner: Gloria Muñoz, This Is the Year (Holiday House)
- Honor: Briana Loewinsohn, Raised By Ghosts (Fantagraphics)
Young Adult Nonfiction
- Winner: Jerry Faivish, Can Posters Kill?: Antisemitic Propaganda and World War II (Second Story Press)
- Honor: Raymond Santana, Pushing Hope: An Illustrated Memoir of Survival (Astra Books for Young Readers)
For more information and a full list of past winners, visit literacyworldwide.org/awards.
