This year marks the 150th anniversary of the American Library Association, and at the 2026 Youth Media Awards announcement yesterday in Chicago, ALA executive director Dan Montgomery noted the many special events that will be held throughout the year to celebrate.
All the Blues in the Sky (Bloomsbury Children's Books) by Renée Watson won the oldest of the Youth Media Awards, the John Newbery Medal, which is awarded annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
Cátia Chien won the Randolph Caldecott Medal, awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children, for her illustrations for the picture book Fireworks (Clarion Books) by Matthew Burgess.
The anthology collection Legendary Frybread Drive-In (Heartdrum), edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith, won the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature as well as both the American Indian Youth Literature Award (Young Adult) and an Odyssey Award Honor (for the best audiobooks produced for children and young adults). Author Candace Fleming, who won the Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults with Death in the Jungle (Anne Schwartz Books), received the Children's Literature Legacy Award and the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults.
The full list of winners is here. We'll have interviews with some of this year's winners throughout this week.