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Find the New Yorker announcement here.
The National Book Foundation today announced the Longlist for the 2026 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature (YPL) with The New Yorker. The Finalists in all five categories will be revealed on Tuesday, October 6 with the New York Times; Winners will be announced live at the 77th National Book Awards Ceremony & Benefit Dinner on Wednesday, November 18, 2026. For more information and to register to watch the livestream, please visit nationalbook.org/awards.
This year’s Longlist includes two past honorees for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature: Elana K. Arnold, a 2017 Finalist for What Girls Are Made Of, and David Levithan, a 2013 Longlister for Two Boys Kissing. The list also includes one publisher appearing on the Longlists for the first time: Peachtree Publishing. The authors on this year’s Longlist have been honored by the Asian Pacific American Award for Literature, the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the National Jewish Book Award, the Newbery Honor, the Printz Award, the Pushcart Prize, and many others. Through fiction, nonfiction, novels-in-verse, and a picture book, the 2026 Young People’s Literature Longlisted titles feature coming-of-age stories that inspire readers of all ages to revisit our collective histories in order to shape a better tomorrow.
Three of this year’s honorees bridge the gap between past, present, and speculative futures through different genres—historical fiction, narrative nonfiction, and horror. Nora, a neurodivergent Jewish teenager, travels to Paris during the summer of 2021 to lay her vaccine-skeptic mother to rest following her death from COVID-19 complications in Elana K. Arnold’s Holloway. When Nora wakes up in the summer of 1946, her journey takes an unexpected turn, and she must find a way to honor herself and her mother in this story about generational trauma, healing, and forgiveness. Through first-person interviews, poetry, essays, speeches, obituaries, artwork, and more, David Levithan and Gabriel Duckels capture the magnitude of the AIDS crisis in the United States for young readers. By threading together cultural and historical touchpoints, key figures, and medical milestones, The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in America demonstrates the importance of youth activism to create social change. That Which Feeds Us: A Hawaiian Gothic by Keala Kendall interrogates the lasting effects of colonization on Hawai‘i and its people, embedding Indigenous folklore within a supernatural thriller. When a native Hawaiian teen travels to a secluded luxury island resort in search of her missing twin sister, she must face the ghosts that eat away at cultures, stories, and—unless we fight back—our own souls.
Creative writing, sports, and mental health intersect in two of this year’s honored titles, both through novel-in-verse. Delali Adjoa’s debut The Free Verse Society follows Jae Aƒenyo, a teen mom who placed her baby for adoption and intends to keep her past a secret, and Derek Patel, a talented athlete navigating his father’s death and mother’s health issues. As the newest members of the poetry club, the teens clash while planning an end-of-semester poetry reading before learning how the written word can build bridges and repair hearts. Shook by Julian Randall stars Malik “Shake” Page, a 12-year-old whose big dreams of making the varsity basketball team come to a halt when he fractures his ankle. After his injury, Shake starts therapy to cope with his anxiety and reimagine his life off the court in this novel-in-verse, with illustrations by Nathan Walker, that highlights the importance of asking for—and accepting—help.
The 2026 Young People’s Literature Longlist features two titles with characters whose hobbies—zine-making and fashion design—open up the world to them. Best friends Luna Noon and Scott Mango create zines that capture a range of young adult topics—from periods to queerness. When one of the zines catapults Luna into the popular crowd, she must contend with what, if anything, she’s willing to sacrifice to be accepted by her peers. The Moon Without Stars, written and illustrated by Chanel Miller, is a story about self-exploration, friendship, and the life-changing, but often awkward, middle school experience. Eric Darnell Pritchard and illustrator Shannon Wright bring a picture book to this year’s Longlist with a biography of the Black fashion designer Patrick Kelly. Clothes to Make You Smile: Patrick Kelly Designs His Dreams tells the story of a young boy from Vicksburg, Mississippi who discovered a passion in sewing clothing for people who, like him, don’t quite fit in. Clothes to Make You Smile is a joyful celebration of diverse body shapes, sizes, and skin colors that brims with self-love, self-expression, and self-acceptance.
Three 2026 Longlisters take readers on journeys across the universe, from Seattle, to the moon, to the great unknowns of outer space. Three middle school students—Nomi, Vi, and Arthur—set off on a journey to find a mysterious book of prophecies that might change their lives in When Tomorrow Burns. As raging wildfires pollute their Seattle hometown, the trio’s paths diverge and collide, and Tae Keller reminds readers of the transformative—and even magical—power of friendship, community, and hope. In Life on the Moon, written by Matthew Swanson and illustrated by Robbi Behr, 12-year-old Leo Brightstar is sent to live on the first moon colony, but things quickly go astray when his dad is sent on a mission from which he never returns. Residents of the moon colony live by an odd and contradictory set of rules, which embolden Leo to explore further, ask questions, and raise his voice about the life he finds, on the moon and across the universe. In another corner of space, we meet Ishara Ming—the only survivor of a spaceship destroyed by a legendary sentient spacecraft, the Ballena. When a mysterious ship mechanic asks to join Ishara’s ragtag interstellar crew in search of vengeance and adventure, the misfits instead find family and discover what it means to belong across space and time in T. A. Chan’s debut novel The Celestial Seas.
Publishers submitted a total of 290 books for the 2026 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. The judges for Young People’s Literature are Edith Campbell, Brandy Colbert (Chair), Tricia Ebarvia, Jarrett J. Krosoczka, and Anne Ursu. Judges’ decisions are made independently of the National Book Foundation staff and Board of Directors, and deliberations are strictly confidential.
Delali Adjoa, The Free Verse Society
Peachtree Teen / Peachtree Publishing
Elana K. Arnold, Holloway
Clarion Books / HarperCollins Publishers
T. A. Chan, The Celestial Seas
Viking Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House
Tae Keller, When Tomorrow Burns
Random House Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House
Keala Kendall, That Which Feeds Us: A Hawaiian Gothic
Random House Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House
David Levithan and Gabriel Duckels, The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in America
Knopf Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House
Chanel Miller, The Moon Without Stars
Philomel Books / Penguin Random House
Eric Darnell Pritchard and Shannon Wright, Clothes to Make You Smile: Patrick Kelly Designs His Dreams
Abrams Books for Young Readers / Abrams
Julian Randall, Shook
Henry Holt and Company (BYR) / Macmillan Publishers
Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr, Life on the Moon
Knopf Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House
