The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, in partnership with the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM), announced the winners of the 2025 Ezra Jack Keats Awards and four honors recipients. The awards are given annually to an outstanding new writer and new illustrator. The awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, April 10, during the Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival at USM in Hattiesburg, Miss. The ceremony will be livestreamed beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern.
The 2025 Ezra Jack Keats Award Winner for Writer:
Breanna J. McDaniel, Go Forth and Tell: The Life of Augusta Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller, illustrated by April Harrison (Dial Books for Young Readers)
The 2025 Ezra Jack Keats Award Winner for Illustrator:
X. Fang, We Are Definitely Human, written by X. Fang (Tundra Books)
The 2025 Ezra Jack Keats Writer Honors:
Antwan Eady, The Last Stand, illustrated by Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey (Knopf)
Carlos Matias, Emergency Quarters, illustrated by Gracey Zhang (Katherine Tegen Books)
The 2025 Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Honors:
Kara Kramer, Ernö Rubik and His Magic Cube, written by Kerry Aradhya (Peachtree)
Bo Lu, Bao's Doll, written by Bo Lu (Abrams Books for Young Readers)
For more information, visit the Ezra Jack Keats Award website.
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10/7: 100 Human Stories by Lee Yaron (St. Martin's Press) has been selected as the Winter 2025 Natan Notable Book, sponsored by Natan and the Jewish Book Council and highlighting nonfiction books that "promise to catalyze conversations aligned with the themes of Natan's grantmaking: reinventing Jewish life and community for the twenty-first century, shifting notions of individual and collective Jewish identity, the history and future of Israel, understanding and confronting contemporary forms of antisemitism, and the evolving relationship between Israel and world Jewry." The author receives $5,000 and promotional support.