2025 Children’s Lit: The Year in Miscellanea
It’s time to take a look back at the year that was in children’s lit miscellanea.
Read previous Year in Miscellanea Posts:
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2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008
AUTHOR BIO FLEX OF THE YEAR: Kyle Lukoff
An iconic microbiome flex by the Newbery Honor winner. Drop the pre/probiotics link, Kyle!
BEST CHILDREN’S LIT CELEBRITY DOPPELGANGER (CATEGORY: MUSIC): Scott Campbell and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy
He may look a bit like the LCD Soundsystem musician, but Hug Machine creator Campbell isn’t Losing His Edge with the outstanding Cabin Head and Tree Head.
BEST CHILDREN’S LIT CELEBRITY DOPPELGANGER (CATEGORY: ACTOR): Philip Stead and Stanley Tucci
For some reason, I’m having the urge to watch a TV show where Philip Stead travels around Italy and eats food.
BEST FLIPBOOK (RUNNER-UP): Bone Flipbook
BEST FLIPBOOK (WINNER): Author/illustrator Jack Noel’s impromptu bookplate flipbook
If you’re going to sign a bunch of bookplates, why not have a little fun? See it in action here.
MOST APPROPRIATE CARD TO PULL IN THE GAME OF LIFE: “Publish a Children’s Book” (Pulled by author/illustrator Supriya Kelkar who has published many)
THE ‘THIS HAS GONE TOO FAR’ AWARD: Goodnight, Pickleball
When the most-parodied picture book of all time joins forces with the trendiest sport of the 2020s, it’s just too far man. Too far.
WOMEN’S JEANS BRAND OF THE YEAR: Judy Blue
Unfortunately, you’ll soon be hearing from Judy Blume’s lawyer.
BEST ATHLETE READER: Philadelphia Eagles Receiver A.J. Brown Reads Book During Playoff Game
BEST-FEELING BOOK OF THE YEAR (AND NOT ‘IT MAKES YOU FEEL THE BEST’ BUT IT FEELS GOOD IN A TACTILE WAY) (TIE): Rock by Laurel Croza and Matt James and Shibu’s Tail by Tess Thomas and Kamwei Fong
They both have these rough elements that feel really cool.
BEST SIGN YOU’VE MADE IT AS AN AUTHOR: A friggin’ book signing conveyor belt for Jeff Kinney’s signing
Dude’s having a ball! See it in action here.
MOST IMPRESSIVE BOOK OF 2025 (RUNNER-UP): Mighty: The Story of an Oak Tree Ecosystem by Henry Cole
The amount of fine details in this book is mind-blowing.
MOST IMPRESSIVE BOOK OF 2025 (WINNER): Cat Nap by Brian Lies
Lies painstakingly recreated famous works, for a seamless cat and mouse chase through art history.
TREND OF THE YEAR: Sprayed Edges (aka Spredges)
“Deckled edges: OUT. Sprayed edges: IN. If a book didn’t have sprayed edges this in 2025, WAS IT EVEN PUBLISHED???”
BOOK SWAG OF THE YEAR: Pom pom hat for A Snow Day for Amos McGee
The perfect pairing of useful swag and book theme. The award is for 2025, but I’d venture to say this might be the best book swag ever.
THE GILMORE GIRLS MEMORIAL TOO MANY THINGS IN ONE BOOK AWARD: Stranger Things Hawkins ABCs (Funko Pop!) Little Golden Book
“What if we made a Little Golden Book about Stranger Things?”
“Not exactly an audience Venn diagram overlap, but sounds good.”
“But it’s also Funko Pop!”
“Weird, but okay.”
“Now, hear me out, what if it was an ABC book as well?”
“What is wrong with you?”
BEST BOOK SPINE DETAIL: Shawn Harris turns the Knopf logo into a Unicorn
Author/illustrator Shawn Harris lets no creative opportunity go to waste, transforming the Knopf borzoi logo into a unicorn on his book The Teeny-Weeny Unicorn’s Great Big Wish.
BEST LIBRARY SIGNAGE: Ypsilanti District Library
MOST LOWKEY OBSCENE TYPOGRAPHY: A Natural History of Bums
No comment.
BEST CELEBRITY PICTURE BOOK BESTSELLER DEFEAT: Mo Willems tops Jimmy Fallon
Mo was #1 on the bestseller list – can you guess who #2 was? Watch the whole clip here.
BEST CONCENTRATION: Reading Wimpy Kid on Splash Mountain
That’s impressive.
TWEET OF THE YEAR: Kent District Library condemns use of Kraft Singles as bookmarks
I stand with Kent District Library.
STRETCH OF THE YEAR (RUNNER UP): The What Do We Know About . . . series
First came Who Was, then What Do We Know About. What’s next, a One Time a Guy Told Me About series?
Also, I will definitely be reading this.
STRETCH OF THE YEAR (WINNER): Making a whole book out of Maurice Sendak’s artwork in Hansel and Gretel.
Seems like they had about 6 1/2 drawings to work with.
Also, I will definitely be adding this to our library collection.
REVIEW OF THE YEAR: Former Horn Book Editor Roger Sutton reviews the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte
The man’s still got it.
PAGE TURN OF THE YEAR: “Ama was standing right behind me!” in Broken by X. Fang
It’s a perfect use of the page-turn perspective shift.
GATEFOLD OF THE YEAR: The double “garage-door” gatefold in Fireworks by Matthew Burgess, illustrated by Cátia Chien
I had to invent a new term (garage-door gatefold) to describe the climactic reveal in one of the best picture books of 2025.
See it in action on thebookwormkatie’s Instagram.
SOCKS OF THE YEAR: Aaron Zenz’s Frog and Toad socks
The author/illustrator makes perfect use of some brown and green socks.
#BOOKFACEFRIDAY OF THE YEAR: Boone County Public Library
How does it match so perfectly?
FALSE HYPERBOLE AWARD: Everything You Know About the Human Body is Wrong
Everything?
BEST MURAL: R. Michelson Galleries
Featuring an array of famous children’s book characters. Click here to see it.
THE FAN DUEL CASINO AWARD FOR THE RISKIEST CHILDREN’S LITERATURE GAMBLE: Making Zohran Walks New York BEFORE the New York mayoral election
Calkins Creek took a leap of faith that worked out.
THE ARNOLD PALMER AWARD FOR THE CHILDREN’S LIT CREATOR WHO INDIRECTLY MADE THE MOST GOLFERS HAPPY: Sandra Boynton
It was a close race for this award in 2025, with many possible candidates (ha), but the story of how Sandra Boynton’s greeting cards resulted in one of the best golf courses in the world puts her over the top. Click here to watch.
COSTUME OF THE YEAR: Caps for Sale at the Literati Bookstore
The Literati book store in Ann Arbor Michigan holds an annual Bookish Costume Contest and this was the 2025 winner.
BEST PAPAL INVITE: Brian Selznick meets Pope Leo XIV
The Caldecott winner was part of a group that included American filmmakers hosted at the Vatican. Click here to read Selznick’s post.
BEST SPAGHETTI-OS COLLAB: SpaghettiOs x Waldo
By far the best SpaghettiOs collab of 2025. It’s the ultimate Where’s Waldo.
SCHOOL VISIT SLIP-UP OF THE YEAR: Jarrett Lerner mentions 6-7
He tried so hard to avoid this.
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Filed under: Articles
About Travis Jonker
Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.
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I think you overlooked Dragonborn’s sprayed dragon scale edges (which along with it’s full color end papers AND spot foiled front, back, and spine case cover. Make it the most “extra” designed middle grade novel of the year)
Yes! Impromptu award: The Most Extra Middle Grade Novel of the Year. Thanks, Eric!
And the award for the best best of the year roundup goes to . . . this one!
Thanks, Erica! I always have fun making this
I’m honored, Travis. And I’m also exhausted just imagining the work you put into this post!
Hey Roger! Thank you!
I look forward to this list every year, and it never disappoints.
I had the pleasure of seeing the R Michelson Galleries mural this summer. I didn’t know about the mural and would have totally missed it if my rideshare hadn’t dropped me off behind the building. A true hidden gem. (And it would make an excellent jigsaw puzzle)
So fun! I want the Amos pompom hats.
This was SO entertaining to read!
One note though: I was intrigued by that library cardigan too. Then I started looking at their other products and got suspicious that they might use AI imagery in a lot of their products. I looked it up and sure enough, there are complaints not only about AI imagery in that site’s products, but of intellectual property theft in some of their designs. Sad trombone!
Thanks for the heads up! I’ll remove it from the post.