News & Features

The blossoming ranks of stellar biographies for young readers continue to crowd the shelves. Japanese athletes hit their summits in two vastly different ways, an author attempts to right the record on Rosalind Franklin, and a forgotten sports hero at last gets his due. And that's just the start of the Best Books in the category of nonfiction for the elementary grades. Come have a look.

SLJ's 2024 best middle and high school nonfiction selections run the gamut from insightful memoir; thoughtful explorations of cultural, biological, and environmental phenomena; to unrelenting exposures of dark times in our world's sociopolitical history—and the crucial lessons we must learn from the past.

Utah has added Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott to its list of books banned at all public schools; the Texas state board of education wants legislation giving it  control of school library collections; and Crank by Ellen Hopkins remains on South Carolina high school shelves, but students will need parental permission.

Shifa Saltagi Safadi's novel in verse about an immigrant family, the 2016 Muslim ban, and a boy trying to balance school and family earned the prestigious prize.

If confirmed by the Senate, McMahon is expected to advance the school choice and conservative agenda while trying to fulfill the president-elect's campaign promise of shutting down the Department of Education.

The best poems educate with their facts and inspire with their beautiful flow of words. These 11 titles contain poems that do both exceptionally for young readers of all ages. 

Cozy fantasies, immigration stories, and reimagined classics—2024’s Best Graphic Novels list isn’t just a collection of 25 unforgettable reads, it’s a showcase of comics that push storytelling to new heights.

Mythology and animal stories compose a large part of this early reader and chapter book list, alongside contemporary tales of young protagonists staying true to themselves and the things they love while figuring out how to act among peers. These titles will help children learn how to read as well as model ideas for how they can be authentically themselves.

Gripping fantastical journeys, family secrets, unbridled joy, and inconceivable loss: in these pages, tweens are facing it all. These 26 middle grade titles are exemplars across genre of the power of truth telling and embracing one's authentic self, even when it seems impossible.