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SLJ has selected 191 titles for our 2025 Best Books of the year! Take a look at our fabulous December issue cover, dedicated to this year's list.

From sensory-filled illustrations to relentlessly funny characters, the 2025 Best Picture Books make for excellent read-alouds, heartfelt one-on-ones, and heartrending reads.

These Best Transitional Books of 2025 for beginning, emerging, and newly independent readers include relatable friendship tales, challenges overcome, and everyday slice-of-life stories that are pitch-perfect for the age group.

The Best Middle Grade titles of 2025 feature action-packed fantasies, resonant realistic fiction, and heart-pounding horror stories for tweens.

The 2025 YA Best Books list has a choice for every teen—long-anticipated companion novels, adorable rom-coms, and genre-bending romantasy.

Vibrant anthologies, powerful celebrations of groundbreaking figures, and volumes filled with concrete poems and traditional rhymes make their appearance on our Best Poetry list.

From poo and tentacles to contemplative picture book biographies, this year’s picks for the Best Nonfiction for Elementary readers are filled with facts, information, and wonder.

This year’s Best Nonfiction for Middle and High School students features true crime, an inclusive puberty book, sports titles, and lots of STEM.

Every one of our picks on the Best 2025 Graphic Novel list, ranging from early readers to adaptations of popular kid lit prose, has illustrations to be pored over and a narrative to be enjoyed.