Fiction

Picture book series that help readers consider their place in the world.

This season’s additions to early reader series appeal to developing passions in science, animal welfare, and more.

Additions to beloved, well-established series and exciting new adventures await readers in this season’s middle grade selections.

The best of these hi-lo titles hit on the perfect mix of layered characterization, compelling plots, and sharp writing that will appeal to readers of any skill level.

These graphic novels series and sequels bring lessons about friendship, care, and self-determination into sharp focus.

NCTE has announced Stealing Little Moon: The Legacy of American Indian Boarding Schools by Dan SaSuWeh Jones and The Last Stand by Antwan Eady, illus. by Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey, as the 2025 Orbis Pictus and Charlotte Huck award winners, respectively. 

Whether portraying a humble farming community, a home in the south of Korea, a synagogue filled with love and hope, or a neighborhood where more than small things are mended, the best picture books of 2024 celebrate how those working together are the models for humanity we want our children to witness.

Shifa Saltagi Safadi's novel in verse about an immigrant family, the 2016 Muslim ban, and a boy trying to balance school and family earned the prestigious prize.

Gripping fantastical journeys, family secrets, unbridled joy, and inconceivable loss: in these pages, tweens are facing it all. These 26 middle grade titles are exemplars across genre of the power of truth telling and embracing one's authentic self, even when it seems impossible.