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Find The New Yorker’s announcement here.
The National Book Foundation announced the Longlist for the 2024 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature (YPL). The Finalists in all five categories will be revealed on Tuesday, October 1 with the New York Times; Winners will be announced live at the 75th National Book Awards Ceremony & Benefit Dinner on Wednesday, November 20, 2024.
This year’s Longlist includes one author who has been previously honored by the National Book Awards: Randy Ribay was a Finalist for Young People’s Literature in 2019. The authors on this year’s list have been honored by the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Novel, the Newbery Honor and Medal, the Pura Belpré Award, and the Walter Dean Myers Award Honor for Outstanding Children’s Literature, among others.
Through fiction, nonfiction, and novels-in-verse, the protagonists of the 2024 YPL Longlisted titles traverse societal, familial, and individual expectations, and teach young readers the importance of self-love and forgiveness. These characters consider historical and environmental issues, their personal impact on our present and future, and reflect on their insecurities and strengths. The stories span place and time, from a small town in Delaware visited by a time traveling teenager from 2199 to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Through thoughtful dialogue and character development, these authors deftly represent mental health issues, body dysmorphia, and much more, and reflect the complexity of how young people grow, think, and change.
Three Longlisted titles navigate the interior lives of young people as they grapple with a destabilizing world. In The First State of Being, while Michael Rosario is preparing for the impending Y2K crisis by stockpiling supplies and catastrophizing, his life is forever altered by the arrival of Ridge, a mysterious, disoriented teenage boy from the year 2199. Set in the months leading up to January 1, 2000, Erin Entrada Kelly’s novel reminds readers of the importance of living in the present moment. Bridging decades and crossing state lines, Everything We Never Had follows protagonist Enzo Maghabol as he negotiates with his own anxiety at the start of the global pandemic. Confronted with his family’s history when his estranged grandfather moves in, Randy Ribay captures the dreams, doubts, and journeys of four generations of Maghabol boys in this story of assimilation, masculinity, and finding your own way. In Buffalo Dreamer, 12-year-old Summer eagerly anticipates summer vacation until she begins to have vivid, unnerving dreams about an Indigenous girl attempting to escape the real-life residential school nearby—that her grandfather was forced to attend. The story, inspired by Violet Duncan’s own family history, introduces to young readers the history and devastating impact of institutions that tore apart Native communities and actively erased Indigenous cultures, and offers an important tale of intergenerational resilience.
This year’s Longlist also features multiple novels-in-verse. In Ariel Crashes a Train, readers are introduced to Ariel Burns, a queer 17-year-old grappling with intrusive, uncontrollable thoughts about harming others in this moving story about the power of naming and community. Olivia A. Cole’s novel-in-verse compassionately depicts the complicated realities of living with obsessive compulsive disorder, all while Ariel balances familial expectations, new friendships, and explores her gender expression and sexuality. In Shifa Saltagi Safadi’s coming-of-age story, Kareem’s seventh grade school year is already off to a rough start when he is tasked with helping the new student, a Syrian refugee, acclimate. Told through verse, Kareem Between chronicles the story of a Syrian American Muslim teen stuck in the middle of cultures, parents, and countries as he courageously forges his own moral compass. Margarita Engle’s Wild Dreamers centers two teenagers—Cuban American Ana who has been living in a car with her mother, and Leandro who has been struggling emotionally ever since his family escaped Cuba. In this novel-in-verse told in alternating perspectives—including that of Leandro’s service dog, Cielo—the teens serendipitously meet, and soon discover their shared passion for environmental conservation and the transformative capacity of first love.
Two titles in verse beautifully depict and reflect on the innocence, adultification, and joys of Black young people with nuance and heart. After losing one of his best friends in a tragic hit-and-run accident, Isaiah is tormented with guilt and grief in Mid-Air by Alicia D. Williams. Featuring captivating illustrations by Danica Novgorodoff, this novel-in-verse tenderly portrays the struggles and joys of Black boyhood, and weaves together a heartfelt story about self-acceptance and forgiveness in the face of unspeakable tragedy. Angela Shanté reflects on the personal and the political in her ode to Black girlhood—skillfully addressing racism, sexual violence, and mental health, and recounting the stereotypes that the world often forces upon Black girls and women. Told in vignettes and poems influenced by the author’s upbringing in New York City, The Unboxing of a Black Girl serves as a reminder to be gentle with your heart and your mind in defiance of a society that insists on boxing you in.
Two debut young adult novels feature on this year’s Longlist. Following his adoptive mother’s cancer diagnosis, Brett tries to temper his anxiety by pouring his energy into his self-authored comic book series, Kid Condor, in Josh Galarza’s debut novel, The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky. After his journal goes viral on social media, Brett is forced to deal with his peers’ scrutiny and judgement, and ultimately—with the help of unexpected friends—face his own internalized fatphobia, disordered eating, and, even, real life. In Ali Terese’s debut novel, Free Period, when Helen and Gracie attempt to pull off their most extravagant prank yet, they receive an unconventional punishment: joining the middle school’s Community Action Club. With only one month to leave a positive mark on the school, the duo campaigns to provide free menstrual products in all school bathrooms in this story about friendship, period equity, and the impact we can make on our communities.
Publishers submitted a total of 333 books for the 2024 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. The judges for Young People’s Literature are Rose Brock, Huda Fahmy, Leah Johnson, Mike Jung, and Brein Lopez (Chair). Judges’ decisions are made independently of the National Book Foundation staff and Board of Directors, and deliberations are strictly confidential. For more information about the 75th National Book Awards Ceremony & Benefit Dinner and to register for the broadcast, please visit nationalbook.org/awards.
Olivia A. Cole, Ariel Crashes a Train
Labyrinth Road / Penguin Random House
Violet Duncan, Buffalo Dreamer
Nancy Paulsen Books / Penguin Random House
Margarita Engle, Wild Dreamers
Atheneum Books for Young Readers / Simon & Schuster
Josh Galarza, The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky
Henry Holt and Company (BYR) / Macmillan Publishers
Erin Entrada Kelly, The First State of Being
Greenwillow Books / HarperCollins Publishers
Randy Ribay, Everything We Never Had
Kokila / Penguin Random House
Shifa Saltagi Safadi, Kareem Between
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House
Angela Shanté, The Unboxing of a Black Girl
Page Street Publishing
Ali Terese, Free Period
Scholastic Press / Scholastic Inc.
Alicia D. Williams, Mid-Air
Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books / Simon & Schuster
