2021 Booklist Editors Choice (Awarded by ALA: The American Library Association)

Awards List

Adult

The Sentence
(Top of the List)
Louise Erdrich

Adult Audio

A Master of Djinn
(Top of the List)
P. Djeli Clark

Adult: Graphic Novel

And Now I Spill the Family Secrets: An Illustrated Memoir
(Top of the List)
Margaret Kimball

Youth

The Lion of Mars
(Top of the List)
Jennifer L. Holm

Youth Audio

Firekeeper's Daughter
(Top of the List)
Angeline Boulley

Youth: Picture Books

Little Witch Hazel
(Top of the List)
Phoebe Wahl

Youth: Young Adult

Himawari House
(Top of the List)
Harmony Becker

Adult

Girl A
(*)
Abigail Dean

That Old Country Music
(*)
Kevin Barry

Vera
(*)
Carol Edgarian

Who is Maud Dixon?
(*)
Alexandra Andrews

The Five Wounds
(*)
Kirstin Valdez Quade

The Night Always Comes
(*)
Willy Vlautin

That Summer
(*)
Jennifer Weiner

Legends of the North Cascades
(*)
Jonathan Evison

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
(*)
Honoree Fanonne Jeffers

Radiant Fugitives
(*)
Nawaaz Ahmed

Sisters in Arms
(*)
Kaia Alderson

The Book of Form and Emptiness
(*)
Ruth L. Ozeki

Harlem Shuffle
(*)
Colson Whitehead

Martita, I Remember You
(*)
Sandra Cisneros

Matrix
(*)
Lauren Groff

Cloud Cuckoo Land
(*)
Anthony Doerr

My Monticello: Fiction
(*)
Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky
(*)
Margaret Verble

Beasts of a Little Land
(*)
Juhea Kim

Adult Audio

Finnegans Wake
(*)
James Joyce

The Ex Talk
(*)
Rachel Lynn Solomon

My Heart Is a Chainsaw
(*)
Stephen Graham Jones

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
(*)
George Saunders

A Lady's Formula for Love
(*)
Elizabeth Everett

The Removed
(*)
Brandon Hobson

Infinite Country
(*)
Patricia Engel

Klara and the Sun
(*)
Kazuo Ishiguro

The Heart Principle
(*)
Helen Hoang

The Anthropocene Reviewed
(*)
John Green

The Maidens
(*)
Alex Michaelides

Night Came with Many Stars
(*)
Simon Van Booy

Island Queen
(*)
Vanessa Riley

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
(*)
Quentin Tarantino

Sisters in Arms
(*)
Kaia Alderson

Harlem Shuffle
(*)
Colson Whitehead

Cloud Cuckoo Land
(*)
Anthony Doerr

The Lincoln Highway
(*)
Amor Towles

No One Goes Alone
(*)
Erik Larson

Born on the Water
(*)
Nikole Hannah-Jones

Adult Books for Young Adults

My Heart Is a Chainsaw
(*)
Stephen Graham Jones

Infinite Country
(*)
Patricia Engel

Gold Diggers
(*)
Sanjena Sathian

Libertie
(*)
Kaitlyn Greenidge

How to Kidnap the Rich
(*)
Rahul Raina

A Psalm for the Wild-Built
(*)
Becky Chambers

The Turnout
(*)
Megan Abbott

Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body
(*)
Megan Milks

Adult: Genre Fiction

Incense and Sensibility
(*)
Sonali Dev

My Heart Is a Chainsaw
(*)
Stephen Graham Jones

On Fragile Waves
(*)
E. Lily Yu

Dead of Winter
(*)
Stephen Mack Jones

Dream Girl
(*)
Laura Lippman

The Jasmine Throne
(*)
Tasha Suri

A Lowcountry Bride
(*)
Preslaysa Williams

The Queen of the Cicadas
(*)
V. Castro

The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu
(*)
Tom Lin

Razorblade Tears
(*)
S.A. Cosby

Billy Summers
(*)
Stephen King

Blind Tiger
(*)
Sandra Brown

Light From Uncommon Stars
(*)
Ryka Aoki

Five Decembers
(*)
James Kestrel

A Thorn in the Saddle
(*)
Rebekah Weatherspoon

City on Fire
(*)
Don Winslow

Youth

The Deepest Breath
(*)
Meg Grehan

Voyage of the Sparrowhawk
(*)
Natasha Farrant

The Electric Kingdom
(*)
David Arnold

The Year I Flew Away
(*)
Marie Arnold

Amber and Clay
(*)
Laura Amy Schlitz

Boy, Everywhere
(*)
A.M. Dassu

Firekeeper's Daughter
(*)
Angeline Boulley

Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls
(*)
Kaela Rivera

The Republic of Birds
(*)
Jessica Miller

Cool for the Summer
(*)
Dahlia Adler

A Boy Named Isamu
(*)
James Yang

The Darkness Outside Us
(*)
Eliot Schrefer

One Great Lie
(*)
Deb Caletti

Pawcasso
(*)
Remy Lai

Me (Moth)
(*)
Amber McBride

Kaleidoscope
(*)
Brian Selznick

Kneel
(*)
Candace Buford

The List of Unspeakable Fears
(*)
J. Kasper Kramer

Playing the Cards You're Dealt
(*)
Varian Johnson

Salt Magic
(*)
Hope Larson

The Secret of the Magic Pearl
(*)
Elisa Sabatinelli

Second Sleep
(*)
Diane Stanley

Youth Audio

We Are Water Protectors
(*)
Carole Lindstrom

Ikenga
(*)
Nnedi Okorafor

Allergic
(*)
Megan Wagner Lloyd

An Emotion of Great Delight
(*)
Tahereh Mafi

Iron Widow
(*)
Xiran Jay Zhao

Kaleidoscope
(*)
Brian Selznick

Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World
(*)
Benjamin Alire Saenz

The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne
(*)
Jonathan Stroud

Stuntboy, in the Meantime
(*)
Jason Reynolds

Youth: Picture Books

I Dream of Popo
(*)
Livia Blackburne

Sheepish (Wolf Under Cover)
(*)
Helen Yoon

The Midnight Fair
(*)
Gideon Sterer

The Night Walk
(*)
Marie Dorleans

Fred Gets Dressed
(*)
Peter Brown

Out into the Big Wide Lake
(*)
Paul Harbridge

Memory Jars
(*)
Vera Brosgol

Harry Versus the First 100 Days of School
(*)
Emily Jenkins

The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess
(*)
Tom Gauld

Everybody in the Red Brick Building
(*)
Anne Wynter

Youth: Young Adult

Last Night at the Telegraph Club
(*)
Malinda Lo

Love Is a Revolution
(*)
Renee Watson

When We Were Infinite
(*)
Kelly Loy Gilbert

Between Perfect and Real
(*)
Ray Stoeve

A Sitting in St. James
(*)
Rita Williams-Garcia

Instructions for Dancing
(*)
Nicola Yoon

This Poison Heart
(*)
Kalynn Bayron

Little Thieves
(*)
Margaret Owen

Oksi
(*)
Mari Ahokoivu

Award Categories

Adult

Adult Books for Young Adults

Adult: Audio

Adult: Genre Fiction

Adult: Graphic Novel

Youth

Youth: Audio

Youth: Graphic Novel

Youth: Middle Readers

Youth: Older Readers

Youth: Younger Readers

Award Years

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2016

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010