2025 Booklist Editors Choice (Awarded by ALA: The American Library Association)

Awards List

Adult

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
(*)
Omar El Akkad

Death of the Author
(*)
Nnedi Okorafor

The Three Lives of Cate Kay
(*)
Kate Fagan

The Unexpected Diva
(*)
Tiffany L. Warren

Old School Indian
(*)
Aaron John Curtis

The Antidote
(*)
Karen Russell

Back After This
(*)
Linda Holmes

The Colony
(*)
Annika Norlin

The Filling Station
(*)
Vanessa Miller

Goddess Complex
(*)
Sanjena Sathian

Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert
(*)
Bob the Drag Queen

The Jackal's Mistress
(*)
Chris Bohjalian

Tilt
(*)
Emma Pattee

The Unwanted
(*)
Boris Fishman

Flashlight
(*)
Susan Choi

The Girls Who Grew Big
(*)
Leila Mottley

How to Dodge a Cannonball
(*)
Dennard Dayle

The Listeners
(*)
Maggie Stiefvater

The View From Lake Como
(*)
Adriana Trigiani

We Are Green and Trembling
(*)
Gabriela Cabezon Camara

Indian Country
(*)
Shobha Rao

An Oral History of Atlantis: Stories
(*)
Ed Park

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
(*)
Kiran Desai

The Phoebe Variations
(*)
Jane Hamilton

What We Can Know
(*)
Ian McEwan

A Guardian and a Thief
(*)
Megha Majumdar

Heart the Lover
(*)
Lily King

Minor Black Figures
(*)
Brandon Taylor

A Love Story from the End of the World
(*)
Juhea Kim

The Wonderous Life and Loves of Nella Carter
(*)
Brionni Nwosu

Song of Ancient Lovers
(*)
Laura Restrepo

Adult Books for Young Adults

All the Water in the World
(*)
Eiren Caffall

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
(*)
Grady Hendrix

The Filling Station
(*)
Vanessa Miller

Our Beautiful Boys
(*)
Sameer Pandya

Woodworking
(*)
Emily St. James

Freakslaw
(*)
Jane Flett

Killer on the Road/The Babysitter Lives
(*)
Stephen Graham Jones

The El
(*)
Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

To the Moon and Back
(*)
Eliana Ramage

Cursed Daughters
(*)
Oyinkan Braithwaite

I, Medusa
(*)
Ayana Gray

Adult: Genre Fiction

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
(*)
Stephen Graham Jones

Promise Me Sunshine
(*)
Cara Bastone

The River Has Roots
(*)
Amal El-Mohtar

Say You'll Remember Me
(*)
Abby Jimenez

Esperance
(*)
Adam Oyebanji

Don't Let Him In
(*)
Lisa Jewell

Fox
(*)
Joyce Carol Oates

The Ghostwriter
(*)
Julie Clark

The Build-a-Boyfriend Project
(*)
Mason Deaver

Gray Dawn
(*)
Walter Mosley

Katabasis
(*)
R.F. Kuang

What About the Bodies
(*)
Ken Jaworowski

Youth: Graphic Novel

Halfway to Somewhere
(*)
Jose Pimienta

Hunger's Bite
(*)
Taylor Robin

I'm a Dumbo Octopus!
(*)
Anne Lambelet

The Cartoonists Club
(*)
Raina Telgemeier

Don't Cause Trouble
(*)
Arree Chung

The Flip Side: A Graphic Novel
(*)
Jason Walz

Lu and Ren's Guide to Geozoology
(*)
Angela Hsieh

Spacewalking With You 1
(*)
Inuhiko Doronoda

A Witch's Life in Mongol, Vol. 1
(*)
Tomato Soup

Cat + Crazy Volume 1
(*)
Wataru Nadatani

Tall Water
(*)
S.J. Sindu

Hello Sunshine (A Graphic Novel)
(*)
Keezy Young

Angelica and the Bear Prince: (A Graphic Novel)
(*)
Trung Le Nguyen

Cabin Head and Tree Head
(*)
Scott Campbell

Kamudo, Vol. 1
(*)
Akira Himekawa

Youth: Younger Readers

Raven's Ribbons
(*)
Tasha Spillett

Let's Be Bees
(*)
Shawn Harris

Don't Trust Fish!
(*)
Neil Sharpson

Everybelly
(*)
Thao Lam

Mistaco
(*)
Eliza Kinkz

The Bi Book
(*)
A.J. Irving

Fireworks
(*)
Matthew Burgess

Where Are You, Bronte?
(*)
Tomie DePaola

I Got You
(*)
Derrick Barnes

Popo the Xolo
(*)
Paloma Angelina Lopez

The Invisible Parade
(*)
Leigh Bardugo

The Witch in the Tower
(*)
Julia Sarda

And They Walk On
(*)
Kevin Maillard

Don't Eat Eustace
(*)
Lian Cho

Little Moments in a Big Universe
(*)
Todd Stewart

A Knot Is Not a Tangle
(*)
Daniel Nayeri

Adult: Graphic Novel

Tongues, Volume 1
(*)
Anders Nilsen

Veil Volume 1: Temperature of
(*)
Orange Kotteri

Saint Catherine
(*)
Anna Meyer

Ginseng Roots
(*)
Craig Thompson

Insectopolis: A Natural History
(*)
Peter Kuper

Drome
(*)
Jesse Lonergan

Cannon
(*)
Lee Lai

More Weight: A Salem Story
(*)
Ben Wickey

The Once and Future Riot
(*)
Joe Sacco

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
(*)
Anais Flogny

Youth: Middle Readers

It's All or Nothing, Vale
(*)
Andrea Beatriz Arango

Bad Badger
(*)
Maryrose Wood

Chidori
(*)
Jennifer Maruno

Max in the Land of Lies
(*)
Adam Gidwitz

The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest
(*)
Aubrey Hartman

Benny on the Case
(*)
Wesley King

The Queen Bees of Tybee County
(*)
Kyle Casey Chu

Unboxing Libby
(*)
Steph Cherrywell

Graciela in the Abyss
(*)
Meg Medina

Junius Leak and the Spiraling Vortex of Doom
(*)
Allan Wolf

The Teacher of Nomad Land
(*)
Daniel Nayeri

The Dark Times of Nimble Nottingham
(*)
Ryan James Black

The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli
(*)
Karina Yan Glaser

Scarlet Morning
(*)
N.D. Stevenson

Wolf Club
(*)
James Bird

Xolo
(*)
Donna Barba Higuera

Youth: Older Readers

The Map that Led to You
(*)
Ella McLeod

This Is the Year
(*)
Gloria Munoz

Under the Same Stars
(*)
Libba Bray

Fable for the End of the World
(*)
Ava Reid

Songs for Ghosts
(*)
Clara Kumagai

They Bloom at Night
(*)
Trang Thanh Tran

The Corruption of Hollis Brown
(*)
K. Ancrum

A Fix of Light
(*)
Kel Menton

One of the Boys
(*)
Victoria Zeller

And They Were Roommates
(*)
Page Powars

Lady or the Tiger
(*)
Heather M. Herrman

We Can Never Leave
(*)
H.E. Edgmon

Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire
(*)
Don Martin

Legendary Frybread Drive-In
(*)
Cynthia Leitich Smith

Hollow
(*)
Taylor Grothe

Last Chance Live! Helena
(*)
Haywoode Henry

The Leaving Room
(*)
Amber McBride

Cry
(*)
Alisa Valdes

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