Congratulations to the ALA Youth Media Awards Winners!

The American Library Association’s annual Youth Media Awards are the Oscars of children’s literature. Over the years, I’ve found the authors I’ve interviewed in the previous year (or am about to interview this year) are often recognized by ALA. So fun! To celebrate these winners, I’m linking to their interviews. Please join me in honoring these fabulous authors and their books!

The Schneider Family Book Award Winner, Where Only Storms Grow by Alyssa Colman

The Schneider Family Book Awards “honor an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.”

Here’s the jacket copy for Where Only Storms Grow:

It’s been four years since rain fell on the Oklahoma panhandle and the closeness between the Stanton twins has dried up as much as the land. Howe Stanton has been practicing running away and longs for the family to quit this land of dust where only troubles grow. Despite the scoliosis that causes Joanna Stanton near-constant pain, she isn’t ready to give up like her brother. But when Daddy leaves the family behind to find work in California, saving the farm from ruin falls on Howe’s unwilling and Joanna’s uneven shoulders.

To pay the mortgage, Joanna takes a job at the local hospital and discovers purpose in helping others. Howe finds unexpected joy in caring for his father’s horse and escapes in a borrowed book.

But then a tragedy in town reveals the dust’s deadly dangers. With the worst storm of the Dust Bowl bearing down on their home, Howe and Joanna must put aside their differences and work together, or everyone and everything they love will be lost to the dust.

The Schneider Family Book Award Honor Book, Octopus Moon by Bobbie Pyron

And here’s a description of Octopus Moon:

Pearl loves watching the majestic loggerhead turtles and octopuses glide through the water at the aquarium. Pearl finds it especially easy to identify with the octopuses, who have millions of touch receptors all over their bodies. They feel everything. Sometimes, Pearl wishes she was more like a turtle, with a hard outer shell—it hurts too much to feel everything.

And the changes at the start of fifth grade don’t feel good to Pearl at all. New teachers, lockers, and being in different classes than her friends is unsettling. Pearl tries her best to pretend she’s fine, but she starts to struggle with things that used to come easy, like schoolwork, laughing and skateboarding with her best friend, Rosie, running and even sleeping.

After a disastrous parent-teacher conference, her parents decide to bring Pearl to Dr. Jill, who diagnoses her with depression. At first Pearl is resistant to Dr. Jill’s help; she doesn’t like feeling different, but she also doesn’t want to continue feeling so bad all the time. When Dr. Jill asks Pearl to try one Impossible Thing each day, like running, skateboarding, or walking her dog Tuck, she decides to try. For each impossible thing she attempts, Pearl puts a bead on a string. Bead by bead, and with the support of family and friends, Pearl finds her way back to herself. She discovers just like the moon is always there in the sky, even if it isn’t full, she’ll always be herself even when she doesn’t feel whole.

In this tender novel-in-verse, critically acclaimed author Bobbie Pyron draws from her own experiences to tell the story of a brave girl learning to take care of and love herself.

Saadia Faruqi, who won a Schneider Honor for The Strongest Heart, will be on the blog this spring to discuss her new book, Some of Us Are Brave.

Asian/Pacific American Award Picture Book Winner, Many Things at Once by Veera Hiranandani

The Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature “celebrate Asian/Pacific American culture and heritage.”

The publisher’s description of Many Things at Once:

In this poignant picture book about family and belonging, the child of a Jewish mother and a South Asian father hears stories about her family history. Sometimes she doesn’t feel Jewish enough or South Asian enough, but comes to realize you can feel–and be–many things at once.

Based on the author’s own family history, here is a moving story about a young girl from two different backgrounds. The girl’s mother tells her stories about her mother, a Jewish seamstress in Brooklyn, New York. She lived in a tiny two-bedroom apartment and sewed wedding dresses shimmering in satin and lace.

Her father tells stories of his mother, the girl’s other grandmother, who liked to cook bubbling dal on a coal stove in Pakistan. They tell stories about how both sides came to America, and how, eventually, her parents met on a warm summer evening in Poughkeepsie.

The girl sometimes feels as if she’s the “only one like me.” One day, when she spots a butterfly in her yard, she realizes it’s okay to be different—no two butterflies are alike, after all. It’s okay to feel alone sometimes, but also happy and proud. It’s okay to feel– and be– many things at once.

The John Newbery Award Honor Book, The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest by Aubrey Hartman

The Newbery Medal “was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.”

From Fox‘s jacket copy:

In one of the best-reviewed children’s books of 2025, an undead fox and an entirely dead badger begrudgingly team up to change their destinies—perfect for fans of Kate DiCamillo and Tim Burton.

Clare is the undead fox of Deadwood Forest. Here, leaves grow in a perpetual state of fall: not quite dead, but not quite alive—just like Clare. Long ago, he was struck by a car, and, hovering between life and death, he was given the choice to either cross into the Afterlife or become an Usher of wandering souls. Clare chose the latter: a solitary life of guiding souls to their final resting place.
 
Clare’s quiet and predictable days are met with upheaval when a badger soul named Gingersnipes knocks on his door. Despite Clare’s efforts to usher her into the Afterlife, the badger is unable to leave Deadwood. This is unprecedented. Baffling. A disturbing mystery which threatens the delicate balance between the living and the dead. 

Desperate for help, Clare and Gingersnipes set out on a treacherous journey to find Hesterfowl—the visionary grouse who recently foretold of turmoil in Deadwood. But upon their arrival, Hesterfowl divulges a shocking revelation that leaves Clare devastated, outraged, and determined to do anything to change his fate.

Look for an interview with Aubrey Hartman discussing The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest this spring.

For a full list of winners, click through. Congratulations, all!

*All descriptions of awards were taken from ala.org.