SLJ

From Pakistan to Spain to ordinary neighborhoods, the power of books has never been more visible than in these 65 gems plucked from the mines of picture books published in the first half of 2025. 

These three titles feature tweens with parents navigating incarceration and detention in the United States.

This month includes transitional books, holiday titles, poetry reads, and more receiving special recognition.

Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT) and the ACLU of Texas will challenge the constitutionality of a law that bars all programs and activities that mention race, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation in Texas K-12 public schools, including charter schools.

Margarita Engle’s collection of poetry heralds Latinx heroes and Juana Martinez-Neal’s latest celebrates a Peruvian scientist. A sprinkling of self-help titles round out the list.

In these stories, tween and teen protagonists with a range of abilities face real and fantastical challenges, from time loops to dust storms to going viral. Share these titles with readers in time for Disability Pride Month in July, and all throughout the year.

The winners of the 2025 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards are I Know How to Draw an Owl by Hilary Horder Hippely, illus. by Matt James; Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay; and Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown by Candace Fleming.

Freedom to read advocates ask Florida legislators to probe books removed without review in Florida; an audit finds Utah school librarians preemptively removed titles in fear; and more of the latest in censorship news.

These Juneteenth offerings include various formats, ranging from cookbooks to early readers to audiobooks, so all your young readers can find their preferred way to learn more about this holiday.