MORE 2025 ALA YMA Predictions! American Indian Youth, Asian/Pacific American Awards, and Schneider Family

As odd as it may seem, I just can’t keep myself from making more and more predictions on what might win the upcoming ALA Youth Media Awards. I already did my Fall Prediction list of Newbery and Caldecott titles. But lest we forget, those are hardly all the awards out there.

Today, let’s consider the potential winners of the following awards:

• American Indian Youth Literature Awards
• Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature
• Schneider Family Awards

Let us begin!

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American Indian Youth Literature Award 2026

Awarded biennially, the AIYLA identifies and honors the very best writing and illustrations by Native Americans and Indigenous peoples of North America. Which means, naturally, that it won’t be awarded in 2025 since they were last given out in 2024. That said, it would behoove the ALA to consider turning this into an annual award. I’m sure that in the past there might not have been enough books being published to warrant such frequency, but these days we’re getting not simply a bunch of books but a bunch of incredible titles. Some of these may be familiar to you. Some may be new. They are all incredible, though.

Picture Books

Being Home by Traci Sorrell, ill. Michaela Goade

“Today is moving day!” A happy tale of one indigenous family’s relocation from the city to ancestral lands and a “change in tempo”. Oh, absolutely. This is what you want to see in a book. First off, I’m fairly certain I’ve never even encountered a cheerful moving day book before. Most picture books that tackle moving are instructional, or trying to get the kids on board with such a major life change. This book takes an entirely different tactic, and I think it works wonders! I truly feel like Goade is just becoming more and more accomplished as an artist with every book she does. Here, the art seems to be all about juxtapositions. The mesh of the city life and people, and then later the very different crush of friends and family in the outdoors. And those images of the kids running in the twilight? They should be sold as framed art. Gotta love this.

Chooch Helped by Andrea L. Rogers, ill. Rebecca Lee Kunz

By now my co-workers have also seen this book, and they agree with me. This book has “award winner” written all over it. A lot to love in this one. Written and illustrated by a Cherokee author and artist, respectively, I hope we see a lot more from them in the future. This is an exceedingly simple text, but one that packs a big punch. In this story, Sissy has had it up to HERE with her little “baby” brother (she would be quick to inform you that he’s actually two-years-old) Chooch. As far as she’s concerned, the kid gets away with murder. She then recounts all the times that Chooch has “helped” their various relatives, never effectively. When Chooch attempts to “help” Sissy as she makes a bowl, she explodes at him. This leads to a rather clever part of the book where it reads, “My parents yelled, ‘Shouting is no help!’ ” This is one of those under-the-radar titles that may well win things come award season. The art is an incredible mix of Cherokee iconography and traditional motifs and symbols, all worked seamlessly into the story. Part of the reason this book works as well as it does is that everything about Cherokee life is built into both the text and the art without having to tell rather than show. It’s an elegant book when you get right down to it. Very much hope we see more from these two in the future.

Dance Fast by AR Cribbins

Bizzy cannot WAIT to make her own dance regalia dress for an upcoming ceremony. But what happens when a mistake in it is evident to everyone? A great Pomo tale on how perfection is the enemy of good. We’ve just seen so many picture books about dancing recently. From Jam Too to Soul Step to Why We Dance, it’s been a dancing year! But looking at all these books, I find that the ones I like best are the ones that are about more than just dancing. I like the dancing to be worked into a bit of a storyline. AR Cribbins is a Pomo author/illustrator and this story about Bizzy wanting to have her own regalia for an upcoming ceremony largely appeals to me because the art is just so charming. I love how Cribbins does faces and emotions. I love the sheer levels of frustration on display. This author/artist cleverly tied in the idea of purposefully leaving in imperfections (so that you can strive for quality and not perfection), which is a fantastic lesson for kids out there. I just have a lot of affection for this little book.

This Land: The History of the Land We’re On by Ashley Fairbanks, ill. Bridget George

Dang, this book is informative! I feel like this particular title didn’t get sufficient attention this year. This is a pity because Fairbanks and George (both Anishinaabe) do a great job of encapsulating what it means to live on land that was once inhabited by different tribal nations. Before you go any further, check out the endpapers on this book, which show a series of postcards from around America that show, say, NYC and say “Hello from Lenape Territory”. Of course, what the book does so well is show for very young kids what precisely happened to a great number of Indigenous people historically while also reinforcing the fact that they didn’t just “disappear” after that and have families and lives and homes today. The main character (who looks to be white) travels with her friend (who is Anishinaabe) and his grandmother to the Grand Canyon where she learns that eight tribes currently call it home (the Havasupai, Yava pai, Paiute, Hopi, Zuni, Hualapai, Apache, and Diné). There’s additional information about Land Acknowledgments (again, made simple so that kids can understand), as well as discussion questions and how to “Learn More About Indigenous People In Your Area.” As the book says so succinctly, “This land all has a history. Even my backyard.” There’s really nothing quite like this book out there. Perfect for literally every American library you can name.

Wings of an Eagle: The Gold Medal Dreams of Billy Mills by Billy Mills and Donna Janell Bowman, ill. S.D. Nelson

If you had asked me to name an Indigenous Olympian champion off the top of my head prior to reading this book, I admit that my first and only association would have been Jim Thorpe. And while I think we probably need a couple half dozen more Thorpe bios for kids, there’s something so thrilling about reading picture book AUTObiography to kids from someone who’s still alive to tell the tale. Here we’ve Billy Mills of the Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge Reservation paired up with Donna Jenell Bowman who knows precisely how to tell a picture bio for kids. But this book gets particular props for S.D. Nelson’s art. In this book he includes a fantastic note that explains how his art is inspired by the Lakota people’s paintings on discarded ledger books, which I really didn’t know much about (and, I suspect, is worthy of a picture book work of nonfiction in and of itself). Fantastic backmatter (with lots and lots of photographs!), key dates, and a marvelous list of Selected Sources. This is prime picture book bio material.

Middle Grade

On a Wing and a Tear by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Everyone I know who has read this book says the same thing. First, that it is great. Second, that it really shouldn’t work as well as it does. I mean, talking animals and realistic fiction? They should not gel. Road trips with loquacious furry creatures should, by definition, be impossible to write well, yet my librarians were just GOOFY for this book this year. As one of them wrote, “Although she has mostly written a comedy (something the book’s description seems to hide), Smith also makes some potent observations about appropriation, humans turning their backs on the natural world (always staring at their screens), and trying to erase hard facts about US history. She also gives shout outs to other Indigenous writers throughout the book and in her backmatter.” Pairs oddly well with the easy book The Good Game by Arihonni David.

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Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature 2025

The Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature honors and recognizes individual works by Asian/Pacific American authors that highlight Asian/Pacific American cultures and experiences. For whatever reason, this particular award only ever seems to give out one Honor and one Winner in each of its categories. And, again, we’re just seeing so many incredible books out this year that the idea of just a single Honor? Impossible! If I could, I would give every single one of the books you’re about to see here ALL the things!

Picture Book Category

Home in a Lunchbox by Cherry Mo

A nearly wordless tale tells the story of one little immigrant girl from Hong Kong to America, and the ways that her favorite foods tie her to her memories. Evocative, engulfing art tells a tale of empathy and delicious dumplings. See, this is what I mean when I say that you take any subject, even one that’s been done a hundred times before, and put an entirely new spin on it. This book has a lot of similarities to others we’ve seen before (Gibberish by Young Vo comes to mind) in that it uses illustration to show disconnect, but Cherry Mo is so good at changing her illustration style throughout the story that the emotions of the reader are completely guided by how she switches from one kind of art to another. I actually had to look at the book again right now to remember whether or not it was wordless, because honestly it’s so good that you kind of put your own words onto it. A standout of the year.

My Lost Freedom: A Japanese American World War II Story by George Takei, ill. Michelle Lee

What would it feel like if your country went to war and then imprisoned you for no reason? A kid’s-eye-view of living through the Japanese internment camps. I really shouldn’t be surprised that this is good, but I admit that I kind of am. Actors write picture books all the time and only the smallest smidgen of them are ever any good. But Takei has been telling this story already to adults and then later in graphic novel form to teens. I guess it was just a matter of time before he’d make it into a picture book, but I sort of imagined it would be so-so. Instead, he does this really interesting thing where he explains everything in an authentically kid-friendly manner. You understand the plot from his very young point of view every step of the way, and I found it extraordinarily effective.

Simone by Viet Thanh Nguyen, ill. Minnie Phan

When Simone and her mom have to flee a wildfire threatening their home, she learns about  her mom’s long ago flight from Vietnam and considers how people can help one another.  I interviewed the author of this book earlier in the year, and did a kind of quick read of the book beforehand. In doing so, I think I did it a bit of a disservice, or maybe I just needed to see a physical copy in my hands. Whatever the case, something about this story and its writing hit a lot harder this second time around. It isn’t just the fact that it centers Vietnamese people who’ve had to flee war (in the past) and forest fires (in the present), though that’s a powerful connection for any picture book creator to make. There are just these little moments that stick with me so hard. Like when the girl finds out that prisoners fight fires and asks if they did bad things. The mom’s answer is, “Maybe, but now they’re doing good things.” This is just a deeply caring book.

Middle Grade (“Children’s”) Category

Alterations by Ray Xu

“Sometimes you have to take risks … and DEAL with the consequences!” When Kevin Lee brings a century egg to lunch, he has no idea the chaos he’s about to unleash (or the nickname he’s about to acquire). A hilarious tale of owning who you are.  I read this to my son and was surprised how much he enjoyed the book, in spite of the fact that there are only a few space invader sequences. Those parts read a lot like the Spaceman Spiff parts of Calvin and Hobbes, actually, which I really enjoyed. And both of us liked flipping to Ray Xu’s photo at the back of the book, where he looks completely badass, comparing him to the illustrated nerdy version of himself as a kid. We’re seeing a lot of nice memoirs these days and this one’s a bit more fictionalized than most. As a roller coaster enthusiast, my son was in no way buying that a kid would be able to sneak onto a roller coaster on his own, but that didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy the thrill ride anyway. This story has a nice relatable weirdness to it that I enjoy.

Continental Drifter by Kathy Macleod

Kathy may live in Thailand but her heart is filled with a love of America. When her family, including her Thai mom and American dad, visit Maine for the summer, will it live up to her expectations? You know, sometimes I pick up these books with an eye for elimination from my various Best Of lists, but this was incredibly honest and adept. After reading tons of camp-is-awesome-in-the-end stories, this one struck me as a lot more true to life. I’ve never really encountered a book where someone had a really old dad, and I loved the reveal with the sister at the end. This is hugely accomplished.

Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All by Chanel Miller

Magnolia Wu and new friend Iris are on the hunt to locate the owner of every missing sock found at her parents’ laundromat. An investigation that delves into the heart of what makes NYC special. I love a NYC middle grade where it feels like the author has actually lived in NYC for a significant amount of time. And I thought this book did such a nice job of showing both the dirty, grimy, hot and annoying side of the city as well as what makes it so special. It’s nice too to have a shorter middle grade work of fiction in the mix. Too often chapter books for kids are either early chapter books or heavy tomes. This book slots neatly into older but not too old fiction. Loved the characters and thought this was an original take on trying to see your immigrant parents through the lens of others.

Uprooted: A Novel About What Happens When Your Family Moves Back by Ruth Chan

You’re thirteen and you’ve just been informed that your family is moving to Hong Kong for a while. What do you do? A fun fictionalized memoir rife with utter and complete culture shock. This works exceedingly well. A great deal of that is because Chan’s style (which I’d only ever really seen in picture books before) adapts well towards balancing out the lightness of her 90s experience and her ancestors’ experiences on the run during the second Sino-Japanese War. That kind of serious content shouldn’t gel with this style, but Chan makes it work. I thought she did a great job of putting the reader into her shoes. Definitely one deserving of more reads and serious award consideration.

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Schneider Family 2025

The Schneider Family Book Awards honor an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences. I’d love additional suggestions in this area.

Picture Books

Henry and the Something New by Jenn Bailey, ill. Mika Song

Jenn Bailey has a talent. She knows precisely how to write a neurodivergent kid character in such a way that the reader FEELS what he feels. We are all Henry. Now the previous Henry book (A Friend for Henry) was such a delight that when it won the Schneider Family Book Award Honor, I was vastly relieved. The next Henry book has now come out and I’d say it rivals the first in sheer literary goodness. In this story Henry’s class is going to the museum, which is something he is not really all that sure about. A class trip means a lot of new things, but it also means dinosaurs and he does love dinosaurs. Personally, one of the reasons I adore this series so much is because of Henry’s relationship to fellow classmate Samuel. Samuel seems to have some kind of attention deficit issues of his own, and so Henry keeps a close eye on that kid. Other times when Henry wants to see the dinosaurs at the museum but doesn’t want to say it out loud, oh man did I feel that. A delightful companion to the other Henry books with a happy ending. 

Terrible Horses by Raymond Antrobus, ill. Ken Wilson-Max

A little brother adores his older sister but when they clash he writes stories of terrible horses and the pony they ignore. An amazing inclusive story of sibling love and frustration. Do you happen to remember the picture book Can Bears Ski? that came out a couple years ago? I only mention it because its author is back with a new picture book, and to my mind it’s even better than his first. Recently a friend of mine reached out and wondered if I could recommend any books where a kid happened to have hearing aids. I had just read this book and I pretty much told her that this not only did I think it was perfect for her, it’s one of my favorites of the year. Antrobus does so much with so little. He just taps into that little sibling longing to be with the older kids so well. Plus just listen to his language. “… their terrible trampling, their ghastly galloping, their nagging neighing…” And I’ve been guilty of thinking of Ken Wilson-Max as a fairly simply illustrator in the past. I’ll never make that mistake again. This man KNOWS how to draw a horse. You gotta check this out.

Middle Grade

The Lumbering Giants of Windy Pines by Mo Netz

Jerry’s mom swears that this will be their last move, but Jerry’s not so sure. Adept in her wheelchair, she soon comes to suspect that her mom’s new job is not all that it seems. Particularly when folks have been disappearing in the nearby woods. So when it comes to Jerry, her use of the wheelchair, and her emotional state of being, the book is really strong. And I liked the fantasy elements considerably. Netz plays fair, never doing that thing I really hate where the author seemingly has forgotten what her character can and can’t do. Jerry’s wheelchair is always present but not the focus of the book itself. Yet, at the same time, the author never forgets about it. A delicate balancing act of writing.

Paige Not Found by Jen Wilde

What would you do if you discovered your parents had a device placed in your brain without your knowledge? Paige is autistic, and now she’s in serious danger of having her brain sold off to the highest bidder. The only thing to do? Bring the whole system down. At about page 17 I looked up from this book and exclaimed to my family, “This thing is REALLY moving!” This book doesn’t just hop. It runs into its own plot at a breakneck speed. By page 17 you already know that our heroine, who is autistic, is going to have to take down an Elon Musk-esque billionaire who has had a chip (essentially) implanted into her brain. And that’s not even getting into the fact that Paige is beginning to think that she may be nonbinary (this isn’t resolved by the story’s end, so I think the descriptions can continue to refer to Paige as “she/her”), that she has a crush on her best friend, and that there’s a wide range of different types of kids on the autism spectrum. By the point she’s rounding up the other kids with chips, I was reminded of one of my favorite books as a kid, The Girl With the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts. It rushes the ending, and gives the story a kind of deus ex machina of a scientist that strains credulity, but it’s a wild sci-fi ride all the same and the autism content is really very good.

Puzzled by Pan Cooke

When the intrusive thoughts first appeared in Pan’s mind when he was ten, he had no idea what they were. Now they’re taking over his entire life. A smartly rendered memoir on the puzzle that is OCD. Does the Schneider Family Awards consider OCD? I’m not sure, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to include this. We’ve a lot of GNs to look through this year, but this one really breaks down OCD in a way that felt far more real to me than some of the other OCD comics I’ve encountered in the past. Some of it really hit home too, since I had a best friend who went through this at the same ages as Pan in this book. I was particularly impressed by thinking of OCD as a puzzle that absolutely has to be completed. Certainly worth a couple more reads, I’d say.

Shiny Misfits by Maysoon Zayid and Shadia Amin

Bay Ann is a star. But when her show stopping tap routine is overshadowed by a classmate’s viral video “helping her” because of her cerebral palsy, she’ll do anything to get the video clicks she feels she deserves. I experienced a bit of a rollercoaster ride with this one. I’ll tell you right now that in the first three or so pages I was NOT on board. It takes a little while to get used to the cadences and rhythms of Zayid’s writing. But once I was on board I was locked in. The jokes run fast and furious, like you’re watching a sitcom on triple speed. Is there a cat that talks in rhyme? There is. Did I somehow still like it? I did. Zayid skillfully makes it clear that while Bay Ann’s cerebral palsy is a part of who she is, the focus of the story is on her debilitating desire for internet fame more than anything else. And if you can think of another vegetarian Muslim heroine in a MG comic, I’d like to hear it. Now where we’re going to have to debate things out is on whether or not Bay Ann is too mean. Our heroine has to suffer and learn, but you might come away from this feeling like Davey Matt needs to find himself some new friends and stat. I dunno. I thought it worked enough in the end (and having a crush on your enemy felt a bit real as well). I’m very interested in what folks will think of this one.

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Okay, folks. What are we missing in this line-up? Tell me your own favorites!

Filed under: Newbery / Caldecott Predictions