This story will be updated throughout the day with quotes and reactions from across the children's publishing world.

Erin Entrada Kelly won her second John Newbery Medal, receiving the 2025 award for her middle grade novel The First State of Being. It is the second Newbery win for Kelly, whose Hello, Universe won the medal in 2018. She also earned a Newbery Honor in 2021 for We Dream of Space.

"I'm in a state of shock and awe," Kelly told SLJ after the announcement. 

The Randolph Caldecott Medal was awarded to Chooch Helped, illustrated by Rebecca Lee Kunz, written by Andrea L. Rogers. A fine artist for more than 20 years, this is Kunz's first book. 

The Michael L. Printz Award went to graphic novel Brownstone by Samuel Teer, illustrated by Mar Julia.

The winners of the big three awards were created by and shared stories of BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities at a time when books with diverse characters and themes are under attack. Kelly is FIlipino America, Kunz and Rogers are citizens of Cherokee Nation, Teer and Julia are both mixed-race. And Brownstone has LGBTQIA+ characters among its ensemble cast.

"Having these kinds of books in libraries and young readers having access to them is super important," said Teer.

It was a day of celebration for a diverse group of creators beyond the most well-known winners.

Four Newbery Honor books were selected: Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar; Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All by Chanel Miller; One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome; and The Wrong Way Home by Kate O'Shaughnessy.

"2024 was a very strong year for fiction, especially," Newbery committee chair Maeve Knoth told SLJ. "We had many excellent books that were set during, or dealt with the aftermath of, World War II, and, boy, did we have a lot of moms struggling with addiction or mental health crises or trauma of their own that impacted their ability to care for their kids. There have always been ways for authors to get rid of their protagonists' parents (Betsy Byars used the 'parents travel with the rodeo' trope!), but we are starting to see more honest and realistic parent issues that force kids to make hard choices and take care of themselves."

There were also four Caldecott Honor titles: Home in a Lunchbox, illustrated and written by Cherry Mo; My Daddy Is a Cowboy, illustrated by C.G. Esperanza and written by Stephanie Seales; Noodles on a Bicycle, illustrated by Gracey Zhang, written by Kyo Maclear; Up, Up, Ever Up! Junko Tabei: A Life in the Mountains, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu, written by Anita Yasuda, and Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar.

The four Printz Honor books were: Bright Red Fruit by Safia Elhillo; Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White; The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag; and Road Home by Rex Ogle.

The prestigious awards were presented during a ceremony at LibLearnX in Phoenix, AZ. It was the last LibLearnX event, and there is no word yet on what will happen to the American Library Association's winter conference or the YMA ceremony in the future. 

On Monday, though, no one was concerned with the future, as titles were honored for their excellence and contribution to the lives of young readers.

The Coretta Scott King Author Award went to Jason Reynold for Twenty-Four Seconds From Now... .The Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award was given to C.G. Esperanza for My Daddy Is a Cowboy. The  Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award went to Craig Kofi Farmer for Kwame Crashes the Underworld and Jameil Law won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award for Jimmy's Rhythm & Blues: The Extraordinary Life of James Baldwin, respectively.

There were many multiple winners, including The Girl Who Sang: A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival by Estelle Nadel and Sammy Savos with Bethany Strout (Sydney Taylor middle grade gold medalist and a Sibert Honor); Black Girl, You Are Atlas by Renée Watson (Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor and Odyssey Honor); Rex Ogle's Road Home (Printz Honor and Stonewall Young Adult Honor); My Daddy Is a Cowboy illustrated by C.G. Esperanza and written by Stephanie Seales (Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Author Honor); One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome (Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Author Honor), and Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar (Newbery Honor and Sydney Taylor middle grade silver medalist).

Every year, YMA day brings back memories for past winners, who are the only ones who can truly know the impact of those annual coveted phone calls.

"2 years ago when I heard from the Newbery Committee telling me I won a Newbery Honor, it threw me into a tizzy that I have yet to recover from," Lisa Yee, author of honor title Maizy Chen's Last Chance, wrote on BlueSKy over the weekend. "I'm in Denver doing Misfits Tour school visits on Mon when the Newbery+other awards are announced. Sending a (pre)congrats to all the medalists! #Kidlit"