Nancy Brashear and Carolyn Angus
As in previous years, we prioritized the identification of outstanding trade books with curriculum connections and considered the diversity of reading interests in looking back at the bounty of informational books, biographies, poetry, and folklore published for children and young adults in 2025. Here are our best-of-the-year picks.

Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka con la Papa. Sara Andrea Fajardo. Illus. by Juliana Martinez-Neal. (2025). Roaring Brook.
Fajardo’s playful language, peppered with Spanish and Quechua words, and Martinez-Neal’s equally lively mixed-media artwork tell how Peruvian agronomist Alberto Salas (b.1943) has played “potato hide-and-seek” in the Andes as he collected wild species for his research on preserving the diversity of potatoes needed in the cultivation of this important food in our changing world. (glossary, information on Salas and potatoes, author’s and illustrator’s notes) (PreK Up) 

American Spirits: The Famous Fox Sisters and the Mysterious Fad that Haunted a Nation. Barb Rosenstock. (2025). Calkins Creek.
American Spirits is an intriguing, well-researched biography of the Fox sisters, “the Rochester Rappers,” whose holding of séances to communicate with deceased spirits made them key figures in the 19th-century Spiritualist Movement. (excerpt of “The Medium Statement” made by Maggie Fox, author’s note, source notes, bibliography, index, images) (Gr 6 Up) 

​Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers’ Rights. Ashley Hope Pérez (Ed.). Illus. by Debbie Fong. (2025). Holiday House.
Fifteen authors contribute short stories, poems, graphic narratives, and essays to this anthology dealing with the alarming increase in book challenges and book bans in the United States. Editor Pérez and illustrator Fong intersperse a wealth of related information including book lists that encourage teens to read banned books and join the “fight for readers’ rights.” (selected sources, resources) (Gr 9-12) 

Black Diamond Kings (Sports Royalty #6). Charles R. Smith Jr. Illus. by Adrian Brandon. (2025). Candlewick.
Smith’s latest collection of Sports Royalty[BS1] [CA2]  poems pays tribute to 12 outstanding legends of Negro league baseball including Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige, John Henry “Pop” Lloyd, James “Cool Papa” Bell, and Norman “Turkey” Stearnes. Brandon’s stylized hand-sketched and digitally-painted illustrations complement the spirited wordplay, imagery, rhythm, rhyme, repetition, riffs, and varied forms of Smith’s poetry. (“Player Notes” and “More About the Negro Leagues”) (Gr 3 Up)

Celtic Myths: Meet the Gods, Creatures, and Heroes of Celtic Legend (Ancient Myths). Martin MacIntyre. Illus. by Katie Ponder. (2025). DK.
MacIntyre introduces readers to traditional stories told by the Celts of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany. This accessible collection that includes retellings of 20 myths and profiles of ancient gods, heroes, supernatural beings, as well as additional information on storytelling and the Celtic Nations and their histories, is beautifully illustrated by Ponder’s colorful, stylistic artwork. (pronunciation guide, glossary, index, sources, further reading) (Gr 3 Up)   

Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown. Candace Fleming. (2025). Anne Schwartz.
Fleming traces the rise and fall of charismatic Jim Jones (1931-1978), who founded a cult-like church in Indiana in 1955. As his paranoia and delusions escalated amidst conflicts with the government and disaffection of church members after relocating Peoples Temple to California, Jones moved his followers to Guyana to build Jonestown—a supposed utopia that became the site of the 1978 mass murder-suicide of 909 people. (archival photos, key figures, author’s note, source notes, bibliography) (Gr 6 Up)

A Forest Song. Kirsten Hall. Illus. by Evan Turk. (2025). Random House Studio. “Into the forest, dark and deep, / With miles to go before I sleep . . .” Turk’s vibrantly colored and textured illustrations dramatically set the scene for Hall’s cento poem in which she uses words and phrases from the poems of other writers to tell the story of a young child’s adventurous exploration of the natural world. (author’s note, list of the poets and the lines they wrote, “About Cento Poems” and “Write Your Own Cento Poem”) (PreK Up)  

Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Sandra Dieckmann. (2025). Candlewick.
Author-illustrator Dieckmann retells 20 fairy tales including familiar ones such as “Sleeping Beauty,” “Rumpelstiltskin,” and “Hansel and Gretel” along with lesser-known ones such as “Mother Holle,” “Jorinda and Joringel,” and “The King of the Golden Mountain.” The inclusion of some unexpected twists and modern touches in Dieckmann’s writing style and her stunning artwork (colorful decorative borders, full-page illustrations, and spot art) make the classic stories of the Brothers Grimm appealing to today’s young readers. (afterword) (PreK Up)  

The History of We. Nikkolas Smith. (2025). Kokila.
“Let us travel back to the start, so far back that all of our roots begin to tell the same story.” Smith’s lyrical text and poignant acrylic paintings chronicle the origin and history of humankind. Keeping the focus on Africa as the cradle of civilization, he communicates in a child-friendly manner that we all have a common beginning and shared future. (timeline, detailed author-illustrator’s note) (PreK Up) 

How Sweet the Sound: A Soundtrack for America. Kwame Alexander. Illus. by Charly Palmer. (2025). Little, Brown.
Alexander’s melodic free verse poems and Palmer’s vibrant artwork invite readers to celebrate the role of Black culture in the history of American music from the talking drums, chants, and praise songs of “the motherland” (West Africa) to the soundtrack of present-day America. “… the sweet sound of people / surviving and thriving / all the while learning / to love themselves / by singing it LOUD and Proud.” (end notes) (PreK Up) 

Hurricane. Jason Chin. (2025). Neal Porter.                                                                “A storm is raging over the Atlantic Ocean.” While meteorologists monitor the path and intensity of the tropical cyclone, the residents of Hatteras Island, North Carolina, prepare for its expected landfall as a hurricane and make plans to evacuate the barrier island. Once the hurricane moves on and it is safe to return home, the community begins the long task of cleaning up. (end notes, diagrams, maps, further reading, selected sources, author-illustrator’s note) (PreK Up) 

Insectarium (Welcome to the Museum). Dave Goulson. Illus. by Emily Carter. (2025). Big Picture.
This latest Welcome to the Museum book invites readers to discover the diverse world of insects by touring an insectarium. Each of the seven galleries (chapters) include rooms (double spreads with an ink-and-digitally-colored plate of insects on the recto page and general information and a key to the plate identifying the insects by common and scientific names on the verso page). (index, biographical notes on “the curators”—Goulson and Carter), “To Learn More” websites) (Gr 3 Up) 

Just in Case: Saving Seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Megan Clendenan. Illus. by Brittany Cicchese. (2025). Charlesbridge.
Buried deep underground on an island in Norway only 800 miles from the North Pole is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which holds a “treasure priceless” of more than 580 million seeds--just in case. Clendenan’s accessible text, enhanced by Cicchese’s artwork, tells the story of the international conservation project of saving samples of seed varieties from seed banks around the world. (more about seed preservation, author’s note, resources for kids, bibliography) (PreK Up) 

My Presentation Today Is About the Anaconda. Bibi Dumon Tak. Trans. by Nancy Forest-Flier. Illus. by Annemarie Van Haeringen. (2025). Levine Querido.
“Hello. I’m an earthworm and my presentation today is on the anaconda.” An earthworm and 19 other anthropomorphic animals make oral presentations on their favorite species. Each presentation contains scientific information about both the subject and the speaker while also cleverly portraying the kind of classroom chaos that may occur on a day when students make oral reports—especially when the speaker ends by asking if there are any questions. (index) (Gr 3 Up) 

​Nightmare Jones: Poems. Shannon Bramer. Illus. by Cindy Derby. (2025). Groundwood.
Bramer’s weirdly imaginative collection of 28 expressionistic storytelling poems about monsters, hybrid creatures, and human fears and Derby’s dark mixed-media illustrations (described as “created with powdered graphite, watercolor, gouache, color burst powder, pastels, and lots of puddles”) will have teens who like poetry and artwork that is eerie and nightmarish returning to Nightmare Jones again and again and pondering the sense—or nonsense—of this beautifully-crafted book. (Gr 9-12)  

The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts (Young Readers Edition). Loren Grush (with Rebeca Stefoff). (2025). Simon & Schuster.
In 1978, [NB1] Sally Ride, Judy Resnick, Kathy Sullivan, Anna Fisher, Margaret “Rhea” Seddon, and Shannon Lucid were the first women chosen to be members of NASA’s Astronaut Corp. Grush’s collective biography tells the inspiring stories of these astronauts who were the first six American women to fly in space in spite of the overwhelming challenges they faced in the originally male-dominated field of astronautics. (photographs, author’s note, timeline, brief biographies, sources) (Gr 6 Up)

White House Secrets: Medical Lies and Cover-Ups. (Medical Fiascoes #4). Gail Jarrow. (2025). Calkins Creek.
Jarrow presents an intriguing account of the medical secrets of nine U.S. presidents—James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Joseph Biden—during their time in office. She also addresses questions about the public’s right to know about a president’s health that are raised by the history of these White House secrets. (photographs, timeline, glossary, author’s note, source notes, bibliography, index) (Gr 6 Up)

White Lies: How the South Lost the Civil War, Then Rewrote History. Ann Bausum. (2025). Roaring Brook.
Lie #1: “Slavery was a compassionate institution.” Lie #20: “We erase history when we remove symbols of the Confederacy.” Bausum confronts the 20 lies, misinformation that emerged in the South before, during, and after the Civil War, which perpetuate the “Lost Cause” narrative and continue to distort the accuracy of U.S. history. (archival photographs, author’s note, research notes and acknowledgments, timeline, source notes, bibliography, index) (Gr 9-12) 

​Words with Wings and Magic Things. Matthew Burgess. Illus. by Doug Salati. (2025). Tundra. 
Young readers are pulled into this illustrated poetry collection through seven portals (Welcome, Wonders, Wild, Wheee!, Whoops & Whallops, Windows, and Whispers & Well Wishes). Each of Burgess’ worlds includes seven imaginative poems accompanied by Salati’s lively mixed-media illustrations that splash across double spreads, pop up in vignettes, or appear on a page following a poem. (title index) (PreK Up) 

A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, a Creature Awakens, and the
Sun Goes Out. Nicholas Day. Illus. by Yas Imamura. (2025). Random House Studio.
Day’s compelling narrative brings the deadliest volcanic cataclysmic event [NB1] in human history—the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa—to life. Tambora’s devastation created a global climate crisis including extreme weather, famine, disease, and death. And amidst the dark days and stormy skies that followed, Mary Shelley wrote her horror novel Frankenstein (1818). (bibliography, source notes, index) (Gr 6 Up)

​Alpacas Here, Alpacas There. Carrie Tillotson. Illus. by Elisa Chavarri. (2025). Beach Lane.
“Alpacas here, / alpacas there, // relax and rest / in Mama’s care.” Elisa Chavarri’s colorful acrylic-and-gouache Peruvian folk art that is paired with Carrie Tillotson’s simple rhyming verse in this inviting informational picture book makes clear the “here” and “there” of this endearing, pronking, prancing mammal in its native South America as well as in North America and other parts of the world. The cria (baby alpaca) quickly bonds with family and herd; depends on protection from “hunters” such as foxes, condors, and bears; and is a source of valuable fleece. The prose sidebars in smaller print provide additional information (for example, how the animals provide fibers for warmth and income, meat for food, and dung for fuel and fertilizing crops) that will appeal to older readers. Back matter includes author’s and artist’s notes; “More About Alpacas,” “A Range of Alpaca-Raising Practices,” and “South American Camelids” sections; a glossary; and selected sources. (PreS Up)
—NB

Elephant Bowling and Other Animal Play (Animals Do What? #2). Richard Haynes. Illus. by Stephanie Laberis. (2025). Candlewick.
“Who Wants to Play?” Richard Haynes explores how young wild animals, just like human children, engage in more than 25 games. They build strength, agility, and strategy skills for survival through their activities: wolves playing Zoomie, Arabian babbler (birds) playing King of the Hill, and African lion cubs playing Smackdown. Sometimes, however, pure fun is the name of the game: Orangutans scampering through trees and dressing themselves in foliage, wallabies playing hide-and-seek from Mom’s pouch, and elephants bowling with their bodies. Stephanie Laberis’s cartoon-style illustrations also feature animals engaging in such joyful acts as juggling, wrestling, and sledding. Front matter includes a global map of the locations of the playful animals in the book, and back matter includes a glossary, a bibliography, and an index. This informational picture book by Haynes was published posthumously as a companion to Orangutan Hats and Other Tools Animals Use (2021). (PreK Up)
—NB 

Fantastic Flora: The World’s Biggest, Baddest, and Smelliest Plants. Ann McCallum Staats. Illus. by Zoë Ingram. (2025). MIT Press.
Fantastic Flora introduces middle grade readers to plant survival by focusing on the adaptations of some of the world’s big, bad, smelly, and exceptionally strange plants. The three chapters in “The Big” section, for example, feature the Bolivian water lily (Victoria Boliviana) with its supersize leaf, the traveler’s palm (Ravenala madagascariensis) with a gigantic spread of leaves shaped like the fan of a peacock’s tail, and the giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), the largest tree on Earth by volume. The format of the book is inviting. Zoë Ingram’s colorful, realistic illustrations complement Ann McCallum Staats’s chatty and witty narrative. Sidebars and insets with interest-catching titles will hold the attention of readers while providing a wealth of more general information on botanical science. Back matter includes a glossary, source notes, a selected bibliography, and an index. (Gr 3 Up)
—CA ​​

​The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape. Amy Alznauer. Illus. by Anna Bron. (2025). Candlewick.
Why don’t pentagons fit together like shapes with three, four, or six sides? Had mathematicians solved the “problem of five” with the identification of all possible convex pentagons? In this engaging biography, Amy Alznauer tells the story of Marjorie Rice (1923-2017), a homemaker and mother of five who, with an inquisitive mind but no formal training in mathematics, tackled the problem of pentagonal tiling. The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice, enhanced by Anna Bron’s colorful, digitally-created illustrations, provides an accessible explanation of tessellations and celebrates the connection of art and geometry, as well as the role of curiosity and perseverance in solving problems. Back matter includes an author’s note, additional information on shapes, activities for exploring shapes, and a bibliography. (Gr 3 up)
—CA​

Genius Eyes: A Curious Animal Compendium (Curious Animal Compendium #3). Lena Anlauf. Trans. by Marshall Yarbrough. Illus. by Vitali Konstantinov. (2025). NorthSouth.
Genius Eyes presents a gallery of curious animals from around the world organized in sections by type of eyes including Giant Eyes, Masked Eyes, Many Eyes, and Scary Eyes. Each of the ten sections is comprised of one or more double spreads filled with Lena Anlauf’s informative and accessible narrative and Vitali Konstantinov’s stunning artwork, created with drawing ink and colored pencil, that includes some full-page portraits of featured animals. Back matter includes a detailed glossary, sources, and an index by scientific name. Readers intrigued by Genius Eyes will also be interested in its companion volumes: Genius Noses (2023) and Genius Ears (2024). (Gr 3 Up)
—CA​

Insectarium (Welcome to the Museum). Dave Goulson. Illus. by Emily Carter. (2025). Big Picture.
This latest book in the oversized Welcome to the Museum series invites readers to tour the galleries of an insectarium and discover the amazingly diverse world of insects. The seven galleries (chapters) include rooms (double spreads with an ink-and-digitally colored plate of insects on the recto page and general information and a key to the plate identifying the insects by common and scientific names on the verso page) plus a spread featuring a terrarium depicting a characteristic habitat of the insects. The rooms in Gallery 2, “True Bugs and Relatives,” for example, include true bugs, the pharaoh cicada, thrips, lice, book lice, and bark lice, and a temperate forest habitat. The tour ends with a visit to the museum’s library with an index organized by common and scientific names; biographical notes on the curators, author Dave Goulson and illustrator Emily Carter; and a “To Learn More” list of websites. (Gr 3 Up)
—CA

​Meet the Mini-Mammals: A Night at the Natural History Museum. Melissa Stewart. Illus. by Brian Lies. (2025). Beach Lane.
Melissa Stewart’s prose takes young readers on a museum tour to discover which of ten amazing mini-mammals (including the Japanese dwarf flying squirrel, the American shrew mole, and the Philippine tarsier) has the smallest body. Each species is introduced in a double spread—in its actual size on the verso page in a wooden frame with informational text below and an illustration of mammal in the wild on the recto page along with a “Tiny Tidbit” sidebar and a simple repetitive question about the animal’s size (for example, “Is this pinky-sized peewee the mini-est mammal of all?”) before the page is turned. An occasional impatient intruder breaking into the mini-mammal introductions adds a humorous touch. Brian Lies’ engaging illustrations, rendered in acrylic paint and colored pencils, partner well with Stewart’s scientific content. Back matter includes a world map placing the mini-mammals geographically, a “Mini-Mammal Small Stats” section, and selected resources. (PreK Up)
—NB​

My Book of Frogs and Toads (Big Books for Little Naturalists #3). Geraldo Valério. (2025). Groundwood.
Young readers will be mesmerized by this information-packed, larger-format picture book about two popular amphibians, frogs and toads. Geraldo Valério quickly delineates differences between the two creatures, most noticeably that a frog’s skin is smooth, moist, and slimy compared to that of a toad, which is thick, dry, and bumpy. He then brings more than 60 species to life in vignettes with vibrant, detailed paint-and-paper collage illustrations of frogs and toads, each accompanied by it common name and scientific name and a factoid. Examples include the Yellow Cururu Toad (Rhinella icterica), which eats poisonous scorpions, and the Moor Frog (Ryana arvalis), which turns bright blue during mating season. Front matter features an introduction, “Metamorphosis: The Life Cycle,” and a world map; back matter includes a glossary and suggestions for further reading. Endpapers exhibit images and common names of tadpoles in the front and, in the back, the adult frogs and toads introduced in the book. (PreK Up)
--NB 

​Six Little Sticks. Tiffany Stone. Illus. by Ruth Hengeveld. (2025). Greystone Kids.
Tiffany Stone’s search-and-find STEM book invites young readers to observe, count, add, subtract, and learn about stick bugs. Mama stick bug counts her six little stick bugs—“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.” Ruth Hengeveld’s clever artwork renders them barely visible against the foliage as Mama must teach them how to vanish when they are in the open. After one stick bug baby hides, Mama sees and can count only five. On the next page, she spies and counts—“1, 2, 3 plus one is 4.” Four?! Counting again, there are “1, 2, 3” and then “1, 2” and then “1”— and then they’ve ALL disappeared. Mama is proud of her six little stick bugs’ hiding abilities and joins them in playing hide-and-seek with cousins and friends. Readers are invited to search for 20 hidden stick bugs (with the key on the last page). Back matter includes “Six Little Facts About Stick Bugs” and a challenge to find “Six More Tricky Critters.” (PreK-Gr 2)
—NB​

The Stuff That Stuff Is Made Of: The Things We Make with Plants. Jonathan Drori. Illus. by Jiatong Liu & Raxenne Maniquiz. (2025). Magic Cat.
Readers attracted to this book’s cover will discover the tremendous number of things that humans make from 30 different species of plants—some familiar, such as tea, cotton, dandelion, and sugarcane, and some less-known, such as mandrake, giant timber bamboo, the gutta-percha tree, and henna. Each recto page includes a colorful, realistic illustration of the featured plant identified by common and scientific names, as well as smaller images of parts of the plant, all with informative labels. The verso page begins with an interest-catching statement that is followed by illustrated paragraphs containing interesting historical and cultural details about the plant and its use by humans. Back matter includes a glossary and a brief biography of Jonathan Drori. After reading the books, children may also be ready to accept the author’s challenge in the introduction: ”What can you see right now that wasn’t made using plants?” (Grade 3 Up)
—CA
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Trapped in the Tar Pit: How Paleontologists Unearthed a City’s Prehistoric Past. Jessica Steremer. Illus. by Alexander Vidal. (2025). Beach Lane.
This informational picture book details the history of the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles flashing back to 40,000 years ago when an earthquake released sticky tar that eventually trapped at least 42 species of animals (including one woman from approximately 9,000 years ago). Beginning with the story of a “woolly and bully and thirsty” mammoth stepping into a pond and getting stuck, readers are taken through the history of the tar pits to finally meet the paleontologists, who, beginning in 1901, chipped, chiseled, and cleaned the fossilized bones in scientific excavations that continue through current times. Alexander Vidal’s digital cartoon-like illustrations in earth tones partner well with Jessica Steremer’s explanatory text geared toward young audiences. Back matter includes an extensive “La Brea Tar Pits Tidbits” section, a “Species List” key to the 42 animals pictured in the book, an illustrator’s note, and selected sources. (PreK Up)
—NB

When Science Stood Still: How S. Chandrasekhar Predicted the Existence of Black Holes. Shruthi Rao. Illus. by Srinidhi Srinivasan. (2025). Margaret K. McElderry.  
While on a voyage across the Indian Ocean to continue his study of astrophysics in England, 19-year-old Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910-1995) developed a theory about the life and death of stars that, when he presented it to famous scientists, was rejected. “Whoever heard of a star exploding and then disappearing!” They thought all dying stars cooled down into planet-sized balls. After years of trying to get his incredible idea accepted, Chandra went to America where he continued to discover other secrets of the universe and in 1983 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Back matter includes extensive notes on the life and work of Chandrasekhar, a partial time line of black holes (from  Albert Einstein’s 1915 additions to his theory of relativity that were the basis for Chandra’s calculations to the first capture of an image of a black hole by NASA telescopes in 2019,) and sources. (Gr 3 Up)
—CA ​

Dr. Lynette Smith is a Professor at Walden University at the Richard W. Riley College of Education and Human Services. Dr. Smith is a passionate advocate for reading and has served on prestigious book award committees, including Notable Books for a Global Society and Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts. 

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