Recognition during the Youth Media Awards—particularly the prestigious Caldecott or Newbery Medals—typically translates into higher sales and broader reach for a book.

That was the case, at least in part, this year for Erin Entrada Kelly’s Newbery winner, The First State of Being, which vaulted onto the New York Times best-seller list the week after being named the 2025 Newbery Medalist, but had fallen off a week later. Caldecott winner Chooch Helped, illustrated by Rebecca Lee Kunz and written by Andrea L. Rogers, did not find itself on the Times list or atop Amazon’s best sellers. Nor did the Printz Award winner, graphic novel Brownstone, written by Samuel Teer and illustrated by Mar Julia.

While not getting a YMA sales bounce is not unheard of, in the current political climate, it will be interesting to see if these books are added to school and public library collections—once almost automatic for titles with the prestigious stickers on the cover. According to data from the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and PEN America, censorship attempts across the United States have targeted authors of color, women, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and any titles that reflect the stories of those communities. The winners of the Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz all fall into those categories—as do most of those awards’ honor titles.

Kelly is a Filipino American woman. Kunz and Rogers are both citizens of the Cherokee Nation. Teer and Julia are mixed race, and Julia identifies as LGBTQIA+. All of the books share stories of the creators’ communities.

“I understand that it’s a book that could potentially be banned, and we’ll deal with that when we come to it,” says Teer. “But right now, I’m just hoping that as many people who can get access to the book will get access to the book however they need to.… Without being super political about it, the next few years are going to be really difficult for everybody, and so having these kind of books in libraries where young readers have access to them is super important.”

For librarians, the decisions are dictated state by state, district by district. There are factors such as budget and school population to consider.

“I always consider the YMA winners,” says Bob Hassett, head librarian at Luther Jackson Middle School in Falls Church, VA. “But I don’t necessarily purchase them based only on the award. In some cases, they may not be wholly appropriate or popular for our students.”

This year is no different for Hassett.

“I’m fortunate to work in a district where the school board and the community are very supportive of librarians and teachers,” he says. “We have durable and comprehensive policies for acquiring books and for challenging and removing books where necessary.... For now, at least, none of that has changed for me, though I know this is certainly not the case in many other places.”

South Carolina, for example.

“In previous years, these books would have been ordered, not just without hesitation, but with much enthusiasm,” says South Carolina Association of School Librarians (SCASL) president Jamie Gregory.

“SCASL has heard from school librarians across the state who are confused about what they can and cannot place in their school libraries,” says Gregory. “Some have been instructed not to purchase new fiction titles at all this year. Some have chosen to only order the exact same books as other schools in their districts in order to provide themselves some sort of protection. Because the consequences for violating the regulation are equally ill-defined (being summoned in front of the state board and given whatever punishment is deemed appropriate), school librarians are understandably erring on the side of caution.”

She expects that winning the biggest awards in children’s literature won’t be enough to change things as the librarians make their purchasing decisions.

“I’m imagining that this same approach will be utilized toward the recent YMA winners,” says Gregory. “In line with national trends, we see that books by and about marginalized communities are disproportionately targeted in South Carolina. And with no clear guidance and, quite frankly, a lack of will to provide any straightforward guidance and collaboration from the SC State Board of Education, school librarians will feel they have no choice but to censor these types of books preemptively out of fear for their jobs.”

Books that won the Coretta Scott King or Stonewall awards would definitely be avoided, she says, because “it seems the state board will label those as ‘inappropriate’ or ‘divisive’ and as violating the regulation and budget proviso.”