2026 Youth Media Awards for Teens

The American Library Association (ALA) 2026 award winners and honor books for teens!

This list includes the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, the Schneider Young Adult Award -- Ages 14-18, the Odyssey Award for Young Adults, the Belpré Young Adult Author Award, the Stonewall Book Awards - Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Young Adult Literature Award, the Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults, the American Indian Youth Literature Award for Best Young Adult Book, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature, and the Sydney Taylor Book Award Gold Medalist.


"American Library Association announces 2026 Youth Media Award winners", American Library Association, January 26, 2026

https://www.ala.org/news/2026/01/american-library-association-announces-2026-youth-media-award-winners (Accessed February 20, 2026)

Document ID: e8e66408-a08f-4afc-9ec4-f7bb01a819ce

Updated February 20, 2026
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D.J. Rosenblum Becomes the G.O.A.T
White, Abby
"A fresh new voice, Abby White delivers the perfect dose of humor and heartbreak with her debut D.J. Rosenblum Becomes the G.O.A.T. Readers will root for D.J. as she navigates a new home, friends, even a crush, with such insight and truth. A standout especially-young adult from an exciting new...
Death in the jungle /
Fleming, Candace
How did Jim Jones, the leader of Peoples Temple, convince more than 900 of his followers to commit "revolutionary suicide" by drinking cyanide-laced punch? From a master of narrative nonfiction comes a chilling chronicle of one of the most notorious cults in American history. ...
The favorites :
Fargo, Layne,
Ebook
To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession. NATIONAL BESTSELLER * An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice--now with bonus material including...
The girls who grew big /
Mottley, Leila,
From the author of Oprah's Book Club pick and New York Times bestseller Nightcrawling, here is an astonishing new novel about the joys and entanglements of a fierce group of teenage mothers in a small town on the Florida panhandle. Adela Woods is sixteen...
Harriet Tubman: live in concert :
Bob the Drag Queen,
Legendary frybread drive-in /
Michael L. Printz Award Winner American Indian Youth Literature Award Winner Featuring the voices of both new and acclaimed Indigenous writers and edited by bestselling Muscogee author Cynthia Leitich Smith, this collection of interconnected stories serves up laughter...
The rebel girls of Rome
Taylor, Jordyn
Sheine Lende /
Little Badger, Darcie,
Ebook
Shane works with her mother and their ghost dogs, tracking down missing persons even when their families can't afford to pay. Their own family was displaced from their traditional home years ago following a devastating flood--and the loss of Shane's father and her grandparents. They don't think they...
Sisters in the wind /
Boulley, Angeline,
A Printz Honor Book! An AIYLA Honor Book! A Good Morning America Book Club Pick! From the instant New York Times bestselling author of Firekeeper''s Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed comes a daring new mystery about a foster teen claiming her heritage on her own...
What kind of paradise :
Brown, Janelle.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * A teenage girl breaks free from her father's world of isolation to discover that her whole life is a lie in this "absorbing and well-crafted" (The Washington Post) novel from the New York Times bestselling author...
Where wolves don't die /
Treuer, Anton.
Ebook
Best of the Year: NYPL - Chicago Public Library - American Indians in Children''s Literature - CCBC Ezra Cloud hates living in Northeast Minneapolis. His father is a professor of their language, Ojibwe, at a local college, so they have to be there. But Ezra hates the dirty...
White lies :
Bausum, Ann.
This powerful and unflinching examination of racism in America by award-winning historian Ann Bausum deconstructs the warped history of the Civil War, perfect for fans of STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING and JUST MERCY. Warning: This is not your average U.S. history book.

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