The winners and honor titles are now public!!! Watch the video announcement here!
Fiction/Poetry
Winner
The Lie Tree by Frances HardingeHonor
The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz
Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead
Picture Books
Winner
Jazz Day: The Making of a Famous Photograph by Roxane Orgill, illustrated by Francis Vallejo
Honor
One Day, The End.: Short, Very Short, Shorter-Than-Ever Stories by Kai Dotlich, illustrated by Fred Koehler
Thunder Boy Jr. by Sherman Alexie, illustrated by Yuyi Morales
Nonfiction
Winner
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin
Honor
Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson
Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Ekua Holmes
Having read a host of titles this year, I can vouch for the excellence and brilliance of each and every one of our final selected titles. I couldn’t have been prouder or more grateful to having served on this committee. Hope more readers will discover/rediscover these books!
Below are many other titles that I would also highly recommend to readers, by categories:
Fiction/Poetry:
   |
Bardugo, Leigh: Six of Crows
Brown, Peter: The Wild Robot
DeStefano, Lauren: A Curious Tale of the In-Between
Fogliano, Julie: When Green Becomes Tomatoes
Lu, Marie: Rose Society
Nelson, Marilyn: My Seneca Village
Oppel, Kenneth: The Nest
Reynolds, Jason & Brendan Kiely: All American Boys
Riordan, Rick: Sword of Summer
Rundell, Katherine: Wolf Wilder
Savit, Gavriel: Anna and the Swallow Man
Selznick, Brian: Marvels
Sepetys, Ruta: Salt to the Sea
Picture Books:
   |
Atinuke: Double Trouble for Anna Hibiscus!
Barnett, Mac: Leo: A Ghost Story
Buitrago, Jairo: Two White Rabbits
Daywalt, Drew: The Day the Crayons Came Home
Fan, Terry & Eric Fan: The Night Gardener
Goodrich, Carter: We Forgot Brock
Henkes, Kevin: Waiting
Hurley, Jorey: Hop
Jenkins, Emily: Toys Meet Snow
Joyce, William: Billy’s Booger
Light, Steve: Swap
Miyakoshi, Akiko: The Tea Party in the Woods
Miyares, Daniel: Float
Nelson, Vaunda: The Book Itch
Park, Linda Su: Yaks Yak
Smith, Lane: There Is a Tribe of Kids
Stead, Philip C: Ideas Are All Around
Tate, Don: Poet
Weatherford, Carole Boston: Freedom in Congo Square
Yoon, Salina: Be A Friend
Nonfiction:
   |
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell: Terrible Typhoid Mary
Brown, Don: Drowned City
Engle, Margarita: Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir
Freedman, Russell: We Will Not Be Silent
Hendrix, John: The Miracle Man
Murphy, Jim: Breakthrough
Pinkney, Andrea Davis: Rhythm Ride
Samanci, Ozge: Dare to Disappoint: Growing Up in Turkey
Silverberg, Cory: Sex is a Funny Word
Tonatiuh, Duncan: Funny Bones
Turner, Pamela S.: Samurai Rising: The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune
Fairrosa Cyber Library 
Great choices by your committee, Roxanne! I’ve read MOST of the winners and honors, and I appreciate you sharing your other favorites (you know I’m with you on All American Boys!!!) I’m curious about the categories: what makes Funny Bones and Miracle Man NF instead of Picture Books? Do you guys choose that or is that part of the criteria for the award?
LikeLike
I put them in Picture Books just for my own sorting — so many titles are actually crossovers — don’t you agree? Like Jazz Day or Voice of Freedom. Also Fiction & Poetry as one category is also an interesting quirk of this award.
LikeLike
Yes, I agree completely! So did you guys make that call as a committee? Like, when you began talking about Jazz Day, you did so with the understanding that it was up for the Picture Book award and NOT the Fiction/Poetry award? BGHB has always intrigued me and now you’ve REALLY sucked me in with these extra lists!
LikeLike
Since the judging panel is truly autonomous, we definitely had a lot of leeway in both how we evaluated the books and how we might categorize them. Jazz Day has a lot more “made up” moments that makes it tonally and effectively fictional and since so many fiction titles are not illustrated, we kind of decided to move most of the pictorial poetic renditions to the picture books category. It is hard — with so many crossed-over titles on the slate.
LikeLike