Gallery: 2025 National Book Award Longlist

It’s the time of year when The National Book Awards start putting out their 2025 longlists, including the one that we’re all most interested in: Young People’s Literature.

Among the ten books this year, we have a 4/6 split between middle grade and YA fiction (including one YA graphic novel – Song of a Blackbird).

A full third are novels in verse (A Sea of Lemon Trees, The Leaving Room, Truth Is). Let’s have a look at the middle grade selections first:

And the YA:

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