The 2026 Newbery Medal winners have been announced – All the Blues in the Sky takes the crown.

On Jan­u­ary 26th local time, the Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion (ALA) unveiled its major results.2026 New­bery Medal!

This year’s gold medal was award­ed byRenée Wat­son He won the award for his deeply mov­ing verse nov­el, *All the Blues in the Sky*. In addi­tion, four oth­er mas­ter­pieces of diverse themes received hon­or­able men­tions (sil­ver awards), cov­er­ing his­tor­i­cal, fan­ta­sy, and real­ist sub­jects.

The fol­low­ing is a detailed intro­duc­tion to the win­ning entries; we rec­om­mend you save it!

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🥇 2026 Newbery Medal Winner

All the Blues in the Sky (Ten­ta­tive trans­la­tion: All the Melan­choly in the Sky)

• author: Renée Wat­son (USA)
• Pub­lish­er: Blooms­bury Chil­dren’s Books

[Offi­cial Award Cita­tion]

Jury chair Ramona Capone­gro com­ment­ed, “Through the char­ac­ter of Sage, Wat­son offers a wise and poet­ic med­i­ta­tion on loss and grief, point­ing out that love and com­mu­ni­ty are the only sure answers.”

[Sto­ry Syn­op­sis] This is a sto­ry about find­ing light in despair. For 13-year-old Sage, her birth­day should have been the hap­pi­est day, but a sud­den hit-and-run acci­dent takes the life of her best friend, Angel. Sage is con­sumed by guilt and immense grief, even feel­ing respon­si­ble for the tragedy. To over­come her grief, she joins a grief sup­port group for teenagers. There, she meets a group of peers also car­ry­ing sim­i­lar bur­dens. Through short but pow­er­ful vers­es, the author del­i­cate­ly por­trays how Sage grad­u­al­ly learns to find solace in mem­o­ries, redis­cov­er the col­ors of life, and ulti­mate­ly for­give her­self.

[Author­i­ta­tive Eval­u­a­tion]

• 🌟 Kirkus Reviews starred review: ““A heart­break­ing­ly beau­ti­ful nov­el… a mas­ter­ful cap­ture of the real­i­ty of loss. It is a poignant por­trait of the com­plex­i­ty of grief and the indomitable spir­it of human­i­ty.””
• 🌟 Book­list star rat­ings: ““A phe­nom­e­nal work! It real­is­ti­cal­ly por­trays the psy­cho­log­i­cal state of teenagers when they face death for the first time. This is a must-have book in every library for mid­dle and high school stu­dents.””
• 🌟 The Horn Book (starred reviews): ““A poignant sto­ry suit­able for every­one to read, and a valu­able resource for those who are expe­ri­enc­ing the pain of los­ing a loved one.””

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🥈 2026 Newbery Honor Books

1. The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli (Ten­ta­tive trans­la­tion: Han Yu and Luli’s Nine Moons)

• author: [US] Kari­na Yan Glaser
• Pub­lish­er: All­i­da (Harper­Collins)

[Sto­ry Syn­op­sis] A time­less epic from the best­selling “Van­der­beek­ers” series. The fol­low­ing titles in the series have already been trans­lat­ed into Chi­nese: *The Van­der­beek­ers and the Hid­den Gar­den*, *The Van­der­beek­ers of 141st Street*, *The Van­der­beek­ers Lost and Found*, *The Van­der­beek­ers to the Res­cue*, and *The Van­der­beek­ers Make a Wish*. This lat­est nov­el inter­twines two time­lines: in 731 AD, dur­ing the Tang Dynasty in Chi­na, Han Yu embarks on a per­ilous jour­ney along the Silk Road to save his fam­i­ly’s liveli­hood; while in 1931, in New York’s Chi­na­town, Luli strug­gles to save her fam­i­ly’s restau­rant dur­ing the Great Depres­sion. Though sep­a­rat­ed by a mil­len­ni­um, art, fam­i­ly respon­si­bil­i­ty, and a mys­te­ri­ous silk thread bind their fates togeth­er. This is a heart­warm­ing sto­ry about courage, sac­ri­fice, and the bonds of fam­i­ly that tran­scend time.

[Media Reviews]

• 🌟 Pub­lish­ers Week­ly Starred Review: ““The author uses pol­ished prose to depict the char­ac­ters’ per­ilous jour­ney of explo­ration… This is a cap­ti­vat­ing ode to courage and friend­ship.””
• 🌟 Book­list star rat­ings: “A cap­ti­vat­ing narrative…that seam­less­ly blends two dis­tant worlds.”

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2. A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Cor­ri­do of Rober­to Alvarez (Ten­ta­tive title: The Sea of Lemon Trees: Rober­to Álvarez’s Cor­ri­do)

• author: [US] María Dolores Águila
• Pub­lish­er: Roar­ing Brook Press

[Sto­ry Syn­op­sis] A nov­el in verse adapt­ed from the true his­tor­i­cal event of “The Lemon Grove Inci­dent.” In the 1930s, 12-year-old Rober­to Álvarez was just an ordi­nary boy who loved read­ing. How­ev­er, when the school board attempt­ed to force all Mex­i­can-Amer­i­can stu­dents to attend a dilap­i­dat­ed “sta­ble” school, Rober­to was thrust onto the stage of his­to­ry. He became the lead plain­tiff in the first suc­cess­ful anti-seg­re­ga­tion school case in Amer­i­can his­to­ry. The author uses pow­er­ful vers­es to tell the sto­ry of how a child brave­ly stood up against injus­tice for jus­tice and dig­ni­ty.

[Media Reviews]

• 🌟 Kirkus Reviews starred review: “Pow­er­ful and lyrical…this is a mov­ing por­trait of the spir­it of com­mu­ni­ty resis­tance.”
• 🌟 Pub­lish­ers Week­ly Starred Review: ““An inspir­ing and empow­er­ing work.””

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3. The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Sto­ry (Ten­ta­tive title: Teach­ers in Nomadic Lands: WWII Sto­ries)

• author: [US] Daniel Nay­eri
• Pub­lish­er: Levine Queri­do

[Sto­ry Syn­op­sis] Anoth­er mas­ter­piece from Prinz Prize-win­ning author Daniel Nay­er­ly. His pre­vi­ous work, *Anoth­er Faust*, is already avail­able in Chi­nese. *The Teacher in the Nomadic Land* is set in Iran dur­ing World War II. Thir­teen-year-old Babak and his sis­ter Sana are sep­a­rat­ed from their fam­i­ly dur­ing the war. To sur­vive, Babak takes up his father’s black­board, attempt­ing to emu­late his father and become a “teacher,” thus find­ing a place among the var­i­ous fac­tions (refugees, sol­diers, spies). Along the way, they also encounter a Jew­ish refugee boy flee­ing Nazi per­se­cu­tion. This is a pro­found nov­el about how lan­guage and edu­ca­tion can elim­i­nate hatred, and how human­i­ty can be pre­served under the shad­ow of war.

[Media Reviews]

• 🌟 Pub­lish­ers Week­ly Starred Review: ““It strikes right at the heart… Even in the face of tragedy, kind­ness still has pow­er. The plot is tight, the details are rich, and it is very immer­sive.””
• 🌟 Kirkus Reviews starred review: ““A grip­ping and deeply per­son­al account of a neu­tral nation caught up in a war.””

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4. The Undead Fox of Dead­wood For­est (Ten­ta­tive title: The Immor­tal Fox of the Dead For­est)

• author: Aubrey Hart­man (USA)
• Illus­tra­tor: Marcin Minor
• Pub­lish­er: Lit­tle, Brown Books for Young Read­ers

[Sto­ry Syn­op­sis] A fan­ta­sy nov­el with a unique set­ting, blend­ing humor and pathos. Clare is an “immor­tal” fox, the guide of the Dead­wood For­est, respon­si­ble for lead­ing the souls of the dead to the after­life. He enjoys grow­ing mush­rooms and lives a peace­ful, soli­tary life. His tran­quil­i­ty is shat­tered when the spir­it of a bad­ger named Gin­ger­snipes enters the for­est. To help this unex­pect­ed vis­i­tor, Clare must ven­ture out of the for­est and con­front his own fears of death, aban­don­ment, and self-worth.

[Media Reviews]

• 🌟 School Library Jour­nal (SLJ): ““A won­drous tale of loss, dis­cov­ery, and the after­life. A per­fect choice for fan­ta­sy fans.””
• 🌟 Kirkus Reviews: ““Heart­break­ing, yet utter­ly hilar­i­ous, and full of redemp­tive pow­er.””

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The 2026 New­bery Medal once again proved the bound­less pos­si­bil­i­ties of chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture in explor­ing pro­found issues. Whether fac­ing the loss of loved ones, the injus­tice of his­to­ry, or the cru­el­ty of war, these books use the gen­tlest lan­guage to give chil­dren (and us) the courage to face the world.