National Book Award: young people's literature

The National Book Award for Young People's Literature is one of four annual National Book Awards, which recognize literary works by American citizens. The other prizes honor works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. The young people's literature category was established in 1996.

2025: The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story, by Daniel Nayeri

2024: Kareem Between, by Shifa Saltagi  Safadi

2023: A First Time for Everything, Dan Santat

 

2022: All My Rage, by Sabaa Tahir

2021: Last Night at the Telegraph Club, by Malinda Lo

2020: King and the Dragonflies, by Kacen Callender

2019: 1919: The Year That Changed America, by Martin W. Sandler

2018: Poet X, by Elizabeth Acevedo

2017: Far from the Tree, by Robin Benway

2016: March: Book Three, by John Lewis, Nate Powell and Andrew Aydin

2015: Challenger Deep, by Neal Shusterman

2014: Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson

2013: The Thing About Luck, by Cynthia Kadohata

2012: Goblin Secrets, by William Alexander

2011: Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai

2010: Mockingbird, by Kathryn Erskine

2009: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, by Philip Hoose

2008: What I Saw and How I Lied, by Judy Blundell

2007: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie

2006: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1, by M.T. Anderson

2005: Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy, by Jeanne Birdsall

2004: Godless, by Pete Hartman

2003: The Canning Season, by Polly Horvath

2002: The House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer

2001: True Believer, by Virginia Euwer Wolff

2000: Homeless Bird, by Gloria Whelan

1999: When Zachary Beaver Came to Town, by Kimberly Willis Holt

1998: Holes, by Louis Sachar

1997: Dancing on the Edge, by Han Nolan

1996: Parrot in the Oven: Mi vida, by Victor Martinez