Literature

2025 Honor Books

• Noodles on a Bicycle
• Up, Up, Ever Up!: Junko Tabei: A Life in the Mountains
• Home in a Lunchbox
• My Daddy is a Cowboy

2024 Honor Books

• In Every Life 
• Jovita Wore Pants: The Story of a Mexican Freedom Fighter
• There Was a Party for Langston
• The Truth About Dragons

2023 Honor Books

• Ain't Burned All the Bright
• Berry Song
• Choosing Brave: How Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Sparked the Civil Rights Movement
• Knight Owl

2022 Honor Books

• Have You Ever Seen a Flower?
• Mel Fell
• Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre
• Wonder Walkers

2021 Honor Books

• A Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart
• The Cat Man of Aleppo
• Me & Mama

2020 Honor Books

• Bear Came Along
• Double Bass Blues
• Going Down Home With Daddy

2019 Honor Books

• Alma and How She Got Her Name
• A Big Mooncake for Little Star
• The Rough Patch
• Thank You, Omu!

2018 Honor Books

• Big Cat, Little Cat
• A Different Pond
• Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut
• Grand Canyon

2017 Honor Books

• Leave Me Alone!
• Freedom in Congo Square
• Du Iz Tak?
• They All Saw a Cat

2016 Honor Books

• Trombone Shorty
• Waiting
• Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer
• Last Stop on Market Street

2015 Honor Books

• Nana in the City
• The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky's Abstract Art
• Sam & Dave Dig a Hole
• Viva Frida
• The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus
• This One Summer

2014 Honor Books

• Journey
• Flora and the Flamingo
• Mr. Wuffles!

2013 Honor Books

• Creepy Carrots!
• Extra Yarn
• Green
• One Cool Friend
• Sleep Like a Tiger

2012 Honor Books

• Blackout
• Grandpa Green
• Me...Jane

2011 Honor Books

• Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave
• Interrupting Chicken

2010 Honor Books

• All the World
• Red Sings From Treetops: A Year in Colors

2009 Honor Books

• A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever
• How I Learned Geography
• A River of Words

2008 Honor Books

• Henry's Freedom Box
• First the Egg
• The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain
• Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity

2007 Honor Books

• Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet
• Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom

2006 Honor Books

• Rosa
• Zen Shorts
• Hot Air: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride
• Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems

2005 Honor Books

• The Red Book
• Coming on Home Soon
• Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale

2004 Honor Books

• Ella Sarah Gets Dressed
• What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?
• Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus

2003 Honor Books

• The Spider and the Fly
• Hondo and Fabian
• Noah's Ark

2002 Honor Books

• The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins
• Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• The Stray Dog

2001 Honor Books

• Casey at the Bat
• Click, Clack, Moo: Cows the Type
• Olivia

2000 Honor Books

• A Child's Calendar
• Sector 7
• When Sophie Gets Angry-Really, Really Angry
• The Ugly Duckling

1999 Honor Books

• Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra
• No, David!
• Snow
• Tibet Through the Red Box

1998 Honor Books

• The Gardener
• Harlem
• There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

1997 Honor Books

• Hush! A Thai Lullaby
• The Graphic Alphabet
• The Paperboy
• Starry Messenger

1996 Honor Books

• Alphabet City
• Zin! Zin! Zin! a Violin
• The Faithful Friend
• Tops & Bottoms

1995 Honor Books

• John Henry
• Swamp Angel
• Time Flies

1994 Honor Books

• Peppe the Lamplighter
• In the Small, Small Pond
• Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest
• Owen
• Yo! Yes?

1993 Honor Books

• The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales
• Seven Blind Mice
• Working Cotton

1992 Honor Book

• Tar Beach

1991 Honor Books

• Puss in Boots
• "More More More", Said the Baby: Three Love Stories

1990 Honor Books

• Bill Peet: An Autobiography
• Color Zoo
• The Talking Eggs: A Folktale from the American South
• Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins

1989 Honor Books

• The Boy of the Three-Year Nap
• Free Fall
• Goldilocks and the Three Bears
• Mirandy and the Brother Wind

1988 Honor Book

• Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale

1987 Honor Books

• The Village Round and Square Houses
• Alphabatics
• Rumpelstiltskin

1986 Honor Books

• The Relatives Came
• King Bidgood's in the Bathtub

1985 Honor Books

• Hansel and Gretel
• Have You Seen My Duckling?
• The Story of Jumping Mouse: A Native American Legend

1984 Honor Books

• Little Red Riding Hood
• Ten, Nine, Eight

1983 Honor Books

• A Chair for My Mother
• When I Was Young in the Mountains

1982 Honor Books

• Where the Buffaloes Begin
• On Market Street
• Outside Over There
• A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers

1981 Honor Books

• The Bremen-Town Musicians
• The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher
• Mice Twice
• Truck

1980 Honor Books

• Ben's Trumpet
• The Garden of Abdul Gasazi
• The Treasure

1979 Honor Books

• Freight Train
• The Way to Start a Day

1978 Honor Books

• Castle
• It Could Always Be Worse

1977 Honor Books

• The Amazing Bone
• The Contest
• Fish for Supper
• The Golem: A Jewish Legend
• Hawk, I'm Your Brother

1976 Honor Books

• The Desert is Theirs
• Strega Nona

1975 Honor Book

• Jambo Means Hello: A Swahili Alphabet Book

1974 Honor Books

• Three Jovial Huntsmen
• Cathedral

1973 Honor Books

• Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti
• Hosie's Alphabet
• Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs
• When Clay Sings

1972 Honor Books

• Hildilid's Night
• If All the Seas Were One Sea
• Moja Means One: Swahili Counting Book

1971 Honor Books

• The Angry Moon
• Frog and Toad are Friends
• In the Night Kitchen

1970 Honor Books

• Goggles!
• Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse
• Pop Corn and Ma Goodness
• Thy Friend, Obadiah
• The Judge: An Untrue Tale

1969 Honor Book

• Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky

1968 Honor Books

• Frederick
• Seashore Story
• The Emperor and the Kite

1967 Honor Book

• One Wide River to Cross

1966 Honor Books

• Hide and Seek Fog
• Just Me
• Tom Tit Tot

1965 Honor Books

• Rain Makes Applesauce
• The Wave
• A Pocketful of Cricket

1964 Honor Books

• Swimmy
• All in the Morning Early
• Mother Goose and Nursery Rhymes

1963 Honor Books

• The Sun is a Golden Earring
• Mr Rabbit and the Lovely Present

1962 Honor Books:

• Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night
• Little Bear's Visit
• The Day We Saw the Sun Come Up

1961 Honor Book

• Inch by Inch

1960 Honor Books

• Houses from the Sea
• The Moon Jumpers

1959 Honor Books

• The House that Jack Built
• What Do You Say, Dear?
• Umbrella

1958 Honor Books

• Fly High, Fly Low
• Anatole and the Cat

1957 Honor Books

• Mr Penny's Race Horse
• 1 is One
• Anatole
• Gillespie and the Guards
• Lion

1956 Honor Books

• Play With Me
• Crow Boy 

1955 Honor Books

• Book of Nursery and Mother Goose Rhymes
• Wheel on the Chimney
• The Thanksgiving Story

1954 Honor Books

• Journey Cake, Ho!
• When Will the World Be Mine?
• The Steadfast Tin Soldier
• A Very Special House
• Green Eyes

1953 Honor Books

• Puss in Boots
• One Morning in Maine
• Ape in a Cape
• The Storm Book
• Five Little Monkeys

1952 Honor Books

• Mr T. W. Anthony Woo
• Skipper John's Cook
• All Falling Down
• Bear Party
• Feather Mountain

1951 Honor Books

• Dick Whittington and His Cat
• The Two Reds
• If I Ran the Zoo
• The Most Wonderful Doll in the World
• T-Bone, the Baby Sitter

1950 Honor Books

• America's Ethan Allen
• The Wild Birthday Cake
• The Happy Day
• Bartholomew and the Oobleck
• Henry Fisherman

1949 Honor Books

• Blueberries for Sal
• All Around the Town
• Juanita
• Fish in the Air

1948 Honor Books

• Stone Soup
• McElligot's Pool
• Bambino the Clown
• Roger and the Fox
• Song of Robin Hood

1947 Honor Books

• Rain Drop Splash
• Boats on the River
• Timothy Turtle
• Pedro, the Angel of Olvera Street
• Sing in Praise: A Collection of Best Loved Hymns

1946 Honor Books

• Little Lost Lamb
• Sing Mother Goose
• My Mother is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World
• You Can Write Chinese

1945 Honor Books

• Mother Goose
• In the Forest
• Yonie Wondernose
• The Christmas Anna Angel

1944 Honor Books

• Small Rain: Verses from the Bible
• Pierre Pidgeon
• The Mighty Hunter
• A Child's Good Night Book
• Good-Luck Horse

1943 Honor Books

• Dash and Dart
• Marshmallow

1942 Honor Books

• An American ABC
• In My Mother's House
• Paddle-To-The-Sea
• Nothing At All

1941 Honor Book

• April's Kittens

1940 Honor Books

• Cock-A-Doodle Doo
• Madeline
• The Ageless Story

1939 Honor Books

• Andy and the Lion
• Barkis
• The Forest Pool
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• Wee Gillis

1938 Honor Books

• Four and Twenty Blackbirds
• Seven Simeons: A Russian Tale