Renée Watson (photo: Shawnte Sims)

This week, Renée Watson received the 2026 John Newbery Medal for her middle-grade title All the Blues in the Sky (Bloomsbury Children's Books). She previously received a Newbery Honor and a Coretta Scott King Award for Piecing Me Together (Bloomsbury YA). Watson splits her time between Portland, Ore., and New York City.

Your 2018 title, Piecing Me Together, won a Newbery Honor. How does it feel to now get the gold?

I am truly overjoyed. When I was a little girl, I roamed the North Portland Library tracing my fingers over the Newbery medals, lovingly calling them "sticker books." I didn't fully understand the weight of the award back then, but I knew something was special about those books with the stickers, so to be here--having my own stories in the world with the Newbery seal--is very meaningful to me.

This call came at a time in my life when I am grieving the recent passing of my dear friend, DéLana Dameron, and still aching from the loss of poet Nikki Giovanni. Getting the call while my heart is tender, for a book about grief, felt validating and comforting. I am truly navigating the themes of the book: holding joy and sorrow all at once.

Shelf Awareness's review of All the Blues in the Sky calls it "an intimate, intense portrayal of grief as well as the uncertainty and promise of tomorrow. Watson's hybrid style skillfully makes use of poetry and lyrical prose to crack open the heart of her protagonist, while grounding Sage in a realistic middle school experience." Does this feel right to you--does it feel like we got what you were doing?

Absolutely! Especially the exploration of "the uncertainty and promise of tomorrow." I wanted to give readers a practical hope--the kind of hope that understands that life is full of uncertainties. There is no guarantee that we will have only one heartbreak. We may have several losses, we may cry many tears, but we will also have countless joys. And neither has to cancel out the other. Both can exist together, grief and joy, disappointment and dreams. Sage doesn't know exactly how things will turn out, but she knows she will be okay because she's learned that she can survive hard things.

I also love your understanding of why I chose to write the novel in verse. Poetry indeed "cracks open the heart" and I wanted to get straight to the emotion of the story. I wanted the page to have space and not be overwhelmed with words since I knew the story itself was overwhelming. The line breaks and variation of switching from prose to poetry allowed me to give the reader moments of pause and reflection while reading Sage's story.

Your win, of course, immediately makes me think of your 2024 Children's Institute keynote in New Orleans. You said, "I do not write for children to escape reality... I write to help them cope with it." Do you feel you succeeded at that with All the Blues in the Sky?

I hope so. I want my storytelling first and foremost to be a compelling, engaging tale. I start from a place of just wanting to tell a good, interesting story. But the layering comes with developing nuanced characters that pull readers in and offer examples of how to survive a world that is sometimes hard, sometimes unpredictable. I believe our young people need spaces where they can ask questions, be vulnerable, practice empathy, and imagine a world other than the one they've inherited. They need spaces that help them process what is happening in their world. Books can offer that space. 

Do you think this bittersweet aspect may be, in part, why this title appealed to the Newbery committee? That, while it depicts reality, it is also "a soft place to land" for young readers?

Yes, and I think that's the beauty of realistic fiction. I am writing not only how the world is, but how it can be. Many people don't talk openly about sadness. We are not comfortable with tears. I wanted to show a world where a character can feel all her emotions--including anger--and where she is learning healthy ways to express those feelings. Grief comes after all kinds of loss, not only death: moving, parents divorcing, friends changing, switching grades. I wanted readers to see a character who is learning how to live with grief, not get over it or ignore it.

What do you hope young readers hold with them after finishing All the Blues in the Sky?

I hope young readers apply the lessons Sage learned to their own lives. Sage leans on her friends, parents, teachers to heal and process what's happened. For those grieving, I hope they learn to lean on the people who care and love them. For people supporting someone who is grieving, I hope they think about how they are showing up for their friends who are hurting.

Have you had any experience talking to young readers about this book?

The tour for All the Blues in the Sky was so meaningful. So many young readers shared stories of their own loss. I facilitated poetry workshops where participants wrote tribute poems to honor the people and places they love. I had many profound conversations and interactions in schools across the nation, and I was reminded that our young people want to talk, they long to be asked, "How are you?" and have adults truly listen for their answer.

Is there anything you're working on now that you'd like to talk about?

My next book is a young adult novel titled Everything New Again. It will be published in October (Bloomsbury).

Is there anything else you'd like to say to Shelf Awareness readers?

Thank you for making sure our young people have access to diverse books. Thank you for providing spaces that nurture our future and show them the many ways they can heal. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness

Half Full Bookstore opened last month in Portsmouth, Va., the Virginian-Pilot reported.

Located at 507 F Washington St., Half Full carries general-interest titles for all ages with an emphasis on local authors and independent publishers. Along with books, there are greeting cards, puzzles, candles, and gifts, and the business is also a tea bar, serving a selection of loose-leaf tea.

Owner Tiana Skinner, a former librarian, told the Virginian-Pilot it was always a dream of hers to own her own business. She explained: "My aha moment was when my dreams of the bookstore started becoming more like instructions rather than visions. I thought I had to try because I couldn't stop talking or dreaming about my own bookstore."

The store's event plans include book clubs, open mic nights, author signings, storytime sessions, and community workshops. There is a dedicated children's area, and space for customers to sit, read, and work.

"My favorite part of the store is the community engagement," Skinner added. "It's a business with a heart and soul. It's what the kids call a 'vibe' on a sunny corner of High Street and Washington Street in Olde Towne Portsmouth. People walk in and instantly smile."

Beginning in 2027, the London Book Fair will move to Excel in east London from its current home in the Olympia as part of a multi-year deal. The first fair at Excel is scheduled for March 16-18 next year. For the past several years, renovations and an expansion have been underway at the Olympia.

The LBF was held at Excel once, in 2006, and as the Bookseller wrote, it "reverted back to west London after complaints from exhibitors and agents. However, new fair director Emma Lowe believes that the venue--much improved since that time--now offers the space and level of service a modern book business requires, as well as allowing for expansion."

A statement issued to the Bookseller read that after "careful and extensive consultation with the industry, the LBF Advisory Board felt the need to look for a new venue for the fair, to ensure a more inclusive and accessible event, world-class facilities, better internet connectivity, and a tangible, long-term commitment to sustainability."

Lowe commented: "The London Book Fair is moving in 2027 because we've found a place and a partner to deliver our vision for a truly improved show experience. At Excel we want to set the new standard for what a global publishing show should be--to lead. And to lead, we need to be better.... Excel has been purpose-built for scale and ambition; not just for its size, but the quality of experience across every touchpoint--from seating and catering, to Wi-Fi, meeting space, and transport links."

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Applications are open for the RISE Booksellers Exchange Program, through which selected participants spend three days working in a bookshop abroad and experience the day-to-day realities of bookselling in another country. Interested booksellers should check the Frequently Asked Questions page for information about eligibility criteria, financial support, and the selection process. Applications will be open until February 15.

At the same time, the exchange program also offers booksellers the opportunity to host a visiting bookseller, with the aim of fostering international collaboration and exchanging valuable know-how. Interested parties can apply here.

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The Canadian Independent Booksellers Association's "Meet Our Member" series spoke with Lindsay Casey, owner of the Wandering Albatross in Bloomfield, Ont. Among the highlights from the q&a: 

How do you decide what books to sell?
The collection is very much a reflection of my interests. I grew up with my head buried in books, always exploring far-off places & histories. I feel like I've travelled the world through books, and I want my little shop to feel like a gateway to anywhere a customer can imagine. Sometimes, I think of it as more of an art project than a retail space.

Someone came into the store recently and said to their friend: 'Welcome to the inside of Lindsay's brain!' I loved that. I carry backlist titles that are meaningful to me and bring in new books that spark my interest. I have a big selection of translated fiction, a section just on walking books, and a lot of nonfiction travel writing. I also carry quite a bit of off-beat history, folklore, mythology and geography.

What do you love most about being an independent bookseller?
Everything. Nothing I've done before has ever felt this natural. 

Barnes & Noble is opening two new bookstores on today, January 28, in Strongsville, Ohio, and in Katy, Tex. 

The 26,000-square-foot Strongsville store, located in the Plaza at Southpark at 16700 Royalton Rd., will launch with author Misty Wilson cutting the ribbon and signing copies of her book Falling Like Leaves (Margaret K. McElderry Books).

"It has been 15 years since the Borders closed in Strongsville and we now restore a dramatically large, full-scale bookstore to the same location," B&N said. "There is an unmatched excitement to bookstores of this ambition. Our Strongsville bookselling team are creating a fabulous bookstore and look forward to welcoming customers into their brand-new Barnes & Noble."

The new B&N store in Katy is located in Greentree Shopping Center at 435 S. Fry Rd. in a former Party City. The 22,000-square-foot bookstore, which includes a B&N Café, will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony and book signing with author ReShonda Tate, whose newest book is With Love from Harlem: A Novel of Hazel Scott (Morrow).

"We received more e-mails suggesting, in Texan terms, that we open a bookstore in Katy than for any other location in the United States," B&N said. "It has taken some time to find the right location and a store of sufficient scale, and now we have a seriously good store about to open. Our Katy bookselling team is creating a bookstore of great ambition. They look forward to welcoming the Katy community into this beautiful bookstore."

Hal Wake, a former Vancouver Writers Fest artistic director, CBC Radio journalist, and honorary member of the Writers' Union of Canada, died January 7, Quill & Quire reported. He was 73. In a brief statement, his family said: "He loved words. He loved books. He loved writers. He enjoyed a good ball game. And above all, he loved his family." 

Wake worked as a journalist at CBC Radio for 17 years. He was the book producer for Morningside with Peter Gzowski in the mid-1980s and hosted CBC's Vancouver morning show for three years in the mid-1990s. He served as Vancouver Writers Fest artistic director from 2006 to 2017. 

"During that time, he infused our programming with discoveries from around the world, and a keen eye for writers who'd go on to be the next big name in literature," the festival said. "He savored intimate events that focused on one-on-one conversations with authors, and was adept at convincing them to share more than what you'd find on the dust jacket of their books."

When Wake retired from the festival in 2017, more than 100 authors wrote to share their memories of working with him, Q&Q noted.

He also served on the board of directors of the Writers' Trust of Canada, and was a member of the jury for the Writers' Trust's Matt Cohen Award for the last three years.

Camino Books in Del Mar, Calif., hosted a literary lunch at a local restaurant for author and filmmaker John Sayles, who discussed and signed Crucible (Melville House), his new historical novel about Henry Ford.

In an impressive feat of book identification, Matt Stowe, buyer at Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, N.Y., recently was able to find a book for a customer who couldn't remember the author's name or the title but drew a picture of what he remembered of the cover (l.). The book: a collection of three Richard Brautigan titles, Trout Fishing in America, The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, and In Watermelon Sugar, published as a collection in 1989. The iconic photograph had been used on the cover of Trout Fishing in America when it was first published in 1967.

"Did you know there are Little Free Library book-sharing boxes on all seven continents?" Little Free Library posted on Facebook, highlighting a literally cool LFL that has recently been set up at the South Pole by Dr. Russell Schnell, an atmospheric scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the International Panel on Climate Change.

Schnell built his LFL at his home in Boulder, Colo., in November, then shipped it to the South Pole, where he had previously traveled for work. It is located inside the NOAA's Atmospheric Research Observatory and features novels, science fiction, equipment manuals, and more for staff members to share.

"Books with photos of colorful trees, warm deserts, water, beaches, wheat fields, and animals and birds are popular at the South Pole," he said. "Everything else is white for hundreds of miles in all directions."

"Welcome to the BOOKSELLER OLYMPICS! Who will win?! Watch to find out!" Words on Warren in New York City posted on Instagram.

Young World by Soman Chainani (Random House Books for Young Readers).

Tomorrow:
The View: Sarah Shahi, author of Life Is Lifey: The A to Z's on Navigating Life's Messy Middle (Regalo Press, $28.99, 9798895650288).

Tamron Hall: Jennifer Breheny Wallace, author of Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose (Portfolio, $30, 9780593850596).

Kelly Clarkson Show: Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney on An Unlikely Story, his bookstore in Plainville, Mass.

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Jacob Soboroff, author of Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America's New Age of Disaster (Mariner, $30, 9780063467965).

Apple TV released a trailer for season two of The Last Thing He Told Me, the series starring and is exec produced by Jennifer Garner. The eight-episode series will debut globally with the first episode on February 20, followed by one episode every Friday through April 10. The second season is based on Laura Dave's bestselling novel The First Time I Saw Him. 

In addition to Garner, returning stars include Angourie Rice, David Morse, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, with new additions Judy Greer and Rita Wilson. New and returning cast members are Augusto Aguilera, Josh Hamilton, Nick Hargrove, Michael Galante, John Noble, Michael Hyatt, Luke Kirby, and Elizabeth O'Donnell.

In season two, Owen (Coster-Waldau) shows up after five years on the run. Hannah (Garner) and her stepdaughter Bailey (Rice) find themselves in a race to figure out how to reunite their family before the past catches up to them.

The Last Thing He Told Me is created and adapted by Dave, alongside Josh Singer. It is produced by 20th Television and Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine. Aaron Zelman joins season two as co-showrunner and executive producer. 

The longlist has been released for the £20,000 (about $27,565) Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize, recognizing "exceptional literary talent aged 39 or under, celebrating the international world of fiction in all its forms including poetry, novels, short stories, and drama." See the full longlist here. 

This year's longlist, featuring works by authors the U.K., U.S., Ireland, Pakistan, and Nigeria, comprises seven novels, three poetry collections, and two short story collections. A shortlist will be unveiled March 19 and the winner named May 14, on International Dylan Thomas Day, during an evening ceremony in Swansea.

credit: Angelina Rose Photography

Moniquill Blackgoose is the author of To Shape a Dragon's Breath, which has won both the Nebula and Lodestar Awards, and its sequel, To Ride a Rising Storm (Del Rey Books, January 27, 2026). Her Nampeshiweisit series follows a young Indigenous woman and her dragon. She began writing science fiction and fantasy when she was 12 and hasn't stopped writing since. She is an enrolled member of the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe and a lineal descendant of Ousamequin Massasoit. She is an avid costumer and an active member of the steampunk community. She has blogged, essayed, and discussed extensively across many platforms the depictions of Indigenous and Indigenous-coded characters in science fiction and fantasy.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

Indigenous girl acquires a baby dragon and is forced to leave her insular community to attend a colonizer-controlled dragon riding school in steampunk alt-history New England.

On your nightstand now:

Currently reading: Beyond the Glittering World: An Anthology of Indigenous Feminisms and Futurisms, from Torrey House Press. I just finished reading A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger and enjoyed it very much! Next on my reading list is A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Watership Down by Richard Adams--it was a far more interesting and complicated story, with more going on in it, than most of the media that was presented to me when I was five or six. A lot of media intended for children is very "dumbed down." Watership Down had conlanging and expansive lore. It talked about political systems, acceptance of mortality, religion, and the importance of storytelling. Also everyone was a bunny.

I have written whole essays about this.

Your top five authors:

Octavia Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, Terry Pratchett, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Naomi Novik.

Book you've faked reading:

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway--apologies to my professors at the time, but both books bored me to tears.

I got A's on the papers anyway. Thank you, CliffsNotes.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer--one of the best books ever to illuminate the very different worldviews of indigenous (sustaining) versus colonizer (extractivist) cultures. I quote this book all the time.

"In the Western tradition there is a recognized hierarchy of beings, with, of course, the human being on top--the pinnacle of evolution, the darling of Creation--and the plants at the bottom. But in Native ways of knowing, human people are often referred to as "the younger brothers of Creation." We say that humans have the least experience with how to live and thus the most to learn--we must look to our teachers among the other species for guidance. Their wisdom is apparent in the way that they live. They teach us by example. They've been on the earth far longer than we have been, and have had time to figure things out." --Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

Book you've bought for the cover:

Quozl by Alan Dean Foster, which has been featured over in r/badscificovers.

It is exactly the story that the cover advertised and I was delighted. I wish we could return to sci-fi and fantasy covers that are like that.

Book you hid from your parents:

I never had to do this; I was allowed to read whatever I wanted. I read Pictorial Anatomy of the Cat by Stephen G. Gilbert when I was five.

Book that changed your life:

Every book I've ever read has changed or revealed something about me; that's the nature of art! I am clinically hyperlexical and was reading fluently by age three. I think that I've been shaped by reading/having read to me (by my mom) a lot of material "not specifically intended for children" when I was a small child; the whole Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis when I was about six, The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien when I was eight--both after asking for more information regarding animated adaptations of those works.

Favorite line from a book:

"Westerners are fond of the saying 'Life isn't fair.' Then, they end in snide triumphant: 'So get used to it!' What a cruel, sadistic notion to revel in! What a terrible, patriarchal response to a child's budding sense of ethics. Announce to an Iroquois, 'Life isn't fair,' and her response will be: 'Then make it fair!"--Barbara Alice Mann, Make a Beautiful Way: The Wisdom of Native American Women

Five books you'll never part with:

After reading a book and really enjoying it, my first action is usually to give it to a friend who will also enjoy it. I actually don't keep many physical books around in my house, and those that I do are usually because they're out of print and thus hard to replace (not necessarily because they're my favorites). I am a library patron more often than a bookstore patron.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

I do not experience this desire. I don't want to "read again for the first time"; I want to reread with deeper understanding. I never want to lose or forfeit knowledge/experience. Surprise and discovery are nice, but they're not worth ignorance.

Books that made you want to become a writer:

I cannot remember ever NOT being a writer, but around age 12 it clicked for me that I could write whole novels and publish them. At the time, I was reading a lot of Anne McCaffrey--Dragonriders of Pern and Acorna series, and also K.A. Applegate's Animorphs. I thought to myself, "I could write stories like this!" And then proceeded to spend a couple of decades getting better at telling stories well.

A teen desperate to demolish the sentient spaceship that killed her previous crew goes to extreme lengths to hunt it down in T.A. Chan's YA debut, The Celestial Seas, an exciting queer space opera inspired by Moby-Dick.

MOBIS, known colloquially as "whales," are autonomous spacecraft whose artificial intelligences "developed methods of circumventing programmed limitations" more than 50 years ago. For this reason, they were banned, and anyone in the Seven Systems is free to hunt those that still float in the celestial seas to obtain the ships' valuable biocores.

Eleven-year-old Ishara Ming left her home planet of Qiāndǎo, arrived in the Halo System, and joined the whaler Essex. While pursuing the legendary Ballena, an elusive white MOBIS, it attacked; Ishara lost her arm, "parts" of her memories, and her entire crew. Now 18, Ishara is tracking the Ballena with a new crew--retrieving the whale's biocore would mean getting both revenge and a huge payout. It would also prove she's worth something to this system and not simply a broken outsider. So when a stranger claims he has intel on how to track the elusive white whale, Ishara hires him on the spot. His ability to locate the Ballena, though, relies on "problematic augments" that have him stammering out info he can't possibly know while experiencing episodes of dizziness. Nonetheless, Ishara shares his "bone-deep need" to find the Ballena--and a willingness to risk "lunacy" and death to take it out.

Ishara's first-person narrative frankly deals with the crushing weight of survivor's guilt, the compulsive need to act, and the yearning to belong. Having come from a different star system, she battles with an internalized worthlessness and, consequently, an Ahab-like drive to hunt down her own symbolic white whale: belonging. Compounding this feeling of isolation, Ishara thinks herself a fraud for embarking on a mission that is "insanity incarnate," especially since she cannot even remember the people she means to avenge (except through brutal flashbacks). Yet the bonds Ishara now enjoys shine: "if you're heading toward the edge of insanity," her first mate tells her, "I'll be there with you." Chan beautifully contrasts their softly burgeoning romance with breath-stealing battle sequences, gruesome deaths, and g-force heavy gunship maneuvers in this impressively imagined world of space mercs, scavengers, and pirates. An exhilarating spacefaring adventure. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer

Shelf Talker: A teen bent on avenging her former crew furiously seeks to kill the sentient spaceship responsible for their deaths in this thrilling YA sci-fi inspired by Moby-Dick.