Looking for something to read? Take a look at these brand new, award-winning novels.
John Newbery Medal
New Kid by Jerry Craft
This book is aimed towards younger audiences, but it’s still worth a shot. The novel tells the story of a young boy who is forced into an elite private educational institution where he is one of the only kids of color. The middle schooler tries to navigate between the world of his neighborhood friends and family and the world of his new school, when he doesn’t feel like he fits into either.
National Book Award for Fiction
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
The award-winning novel is set in a 1980s high school, following the romance of two teens at a highly competitive performing arts school. The plot then follows the actions of a charismatic acting teacher as he interrupts their love story. The book deals with issues many teens have to face, such as academic pressure, adult life, and family life. Susan Choi molds fiction with reality and leaves people of all ages with a greater understanding of the true capacities of adolescents and of the powers and responsibilities of adults.
National Book Award for Non-Fiction
The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
Sarah M. Broom writes an autobiography, illustrating one hundred years of her family history. The highly acclaimed book is set in New Orleans, where Broom writes of growing up, place, class, race, the seeping rot of inequality, and the internalized shame that follows.
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli
Luiselli writes a novel about a family driving across the place where America intersects with the southwestern border of Mexico as the immigration crisis is in full swing. As they travel south to Arizona, the family learns more and more about the crisis as they listen to hours of the radio every day. The family is slowly falling apart along the way, as the story asks questions on how we document our experiences and how we remember the things that matter most.
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The Overstory by Richard Powers
A novel about nine Americans whose connections to trees bring them together, Richard Power’s writing spans half a century. The book highlights the multiple dimensions of dependence on trees, organizing the text into four main parts: Roots, Trunk, Crown, and Seeds. Powers brings to light the vast parallel between the world of nature and trees and our own lives.
The Costa Award Book of the Year
The Volunteer: The True Story of the Resistance Hero who Infiltrated Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather
As the debut book by Jack Fairweather, a former Washington Post corresponder, the heavily-researched novel tells the untold story of a World War II hero. The Volunteer details Witold Pilecki’s infiltration of Auschwitz as the underground operative who formed an army in the concentration camp. His inside reports of Auschwitz were sent west and would eventually shape the allies’ response to the Holocaust.