As the year winds down, critics, reviewers, websites, and awards committees have been unveiling their roundups of the year’s exceptional titles. We’ve gathered a list of the more prominent best-of-the-year lists for children’s and YA books published in 2018.
Publishers Weekly’s Best Children’s Books of 2018: Curated from reviews of some 1,700 children’s and young adult books published this year, these were our selections for the top 50 books of the year for readers of all ages and interests.
The 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature: This year’s medalist was Elizabeth Acevedo for her debut novel-in-verse The Poet X (HarperTeen).
The New York Times’s Notable Children’s Books of 2018: Selected by the children’s books editor of the New York Times.
The New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award for 2018: Every year, the Times gathers an independent panel of judges to select a list of the top 10 picture books based on artistic merit. This marked the second year the prize was issued jointly with the New York Public Library.
School Library Journal: The SLJ review editors’ top 2018 books, apps, audiobooks, and more.
Kirkus’s Best of 2018: The year’s best picture books, middle grade, and teen fiction and nonfiction, chosen by the Kirkus editors.
Booklist’s 2018 Top of the List: The editors share their picks in categories including youth picture book, youth fiction, and youth audio.
The Horn Book’s Fanfare: The editors of the Horn Book present their picks for the year’s best children’s and young adult books.
Time’s Top 10 YA and Children’s Books of 2018: The editors of Time share their top reads of the year.
NPR’s Book Concierge: NPR staff and critics offer a guide to 2018’s greatest reads.
Goodreads Choice Awards 2018: Goodreads users vote annually on their favorite books of the year, in 21 categories.
The Guardian’s best children’s books of 2018: Selected annually from books published in the U.K. by the Guardian’s children’s book editor.
Quill and Quire’s 2018 kids’ and YA books of the year: Selected by the Canadian magazine’s books for young people’s editors.
The Boston Globe’s best books of 2018.
The Wall Street Journal’s Best Children’s Books of 2018.
The Washington Post’s best children’s books of 2018: Author Jason Reynolds and the Post’s reviewers share their picks in fiction, nonfiction, and picture books.
Entertainment Weekly’s 10 Best YA Books of 2018.
The New York Public Library’s Best Books for Kids and Best Books for Teens.
Bank Street’s Best Children’s Books of the Year: Selected by the children’s book committee at Bank Street College of Education.
Barnes & Noble’s Best Young Adult Books of 2018: The B&N Teen Blog shares its picks for the year’s top 50 YA books.
Amazon’s Best Children’s Books of 2018: Amazon editors select their top picks in categories for all ages.
BuzzFeed’s 24 Best YA Books of 2018: All the YA books the BuzzFeed staff loved in 2018.
Brightly’s Must-Read Picture Books of 2018.
Brightly’s Most Buzzed-About Middle Grade Books of 2018.
Brightly’s Most Exciting YA Books of 2018.
BookPage’s Best Children’s and Teen Books 2018: The BookPage staff selects favorite titles in children’s and YA.
Paste’s 30 Best Young Adult Novels of 2018: The year’s 30 best reads, including the best new series, best debut, and best novel of 2018.
2018 Mighty Girl Books: The year’s best books starring girls and women for readers of all ages.
