2024 Kirkus Best Books of the Year (Awarded by Kirkus)

Awards List

Beginning Readers

Orris and Timble: The Beginning
(*)
Kate DiCamillo

Bibsy Cross and the Bad Apple
(*)
Liz Garton Scanlon

Little Shrew
(*)
Akiko Miyakoshi

John the Skeleton
(*)
Triinu Laan

Beti and the Little Round House
(*)
Atinuke

Lone Wolf Goes to School
(*)
Kiah Thomas

Stella & Marigold
(*)
Annie Barrows

Book Club Fiction

Beautyland
(*)
Marie-Helene Bertino

Held
(*)
Anne Michaels

Leaving
(*)
Roxana Robinson

Rainbow Black
(*)
Maggie Thrash

Say Hello to My Little Friend
(*)
Jennine Capo Crucet

Wandering Stars
(*)
Tommy Orange

Blue Ruin
(*)
Hari Kunzru

Long Island
(*)
Colm Toibin

The Road to the Country
(*)
Chigozie Obioma

The Cliffs
(*)
J. Courtney Sullivan

The Rich People Have Gone Away
(*)
Regina Porter

Entitlement
(*)
Rumaan Alam

Playground
(*)
Richard Powers

Sister Snake
(*)
Amanda Lee Koe

Debut Fiction

Martyr!
(*)
Kaveh Akbar

Ours
(*)
Phillip B. Williams

Great Expectations
(*)
Vinson Cunningham

What Kingdom
(*)
Fine Grabol

The Ministry of Time
(*)
Kaliane Bradley

God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer
(*)
Joseph Earl Thomas

Housemates
(*)
Emma Copley Eisenberg

The Safekeep
(*)
Yael van der Wouden

The History of Sound: Stories
(*)
Ben Shattuck

Hombrecito
(*)
Jose Sanchez

Let the Games Begin
(*)
Rufaro Faith Mazarura

Jellyfish Have No Ears
(*)
Adele Rosenfeld

Yr Dead
(*)
Sam Sax

Empowering Picture Books

When I Wrap My Hair
(*)
Shauntay Grant

Harriet's Reflections
(*)
Marion Kadi

A Flicker of Hope
(*)
Cynthia Harmony

Touch the Sky
(*)
Stephanie V. W. Lucianovic

Cesaria Feels the Beat
(*)
Denise Rosario Adusei

That Always Happens Sometimes
(*)
Kiley Frank

How to Pee Your Pants (The Right Way)
(*)
Rachel Michelle Wilson

Fiction in Translation

Your Utopia: Stories
(*)
Bora Chung

Huddud's House
(*)
Fadi Azzam

Under the Storm
(*)
Christoffer Carlsson

What Kingdom
(*)
Fine Grabol

Jellyfish Have No Ears
(*)
Adele Rosenfeld

Mina's Matchbox
(*)
Yoko Ogawa

The Burning Plain
(*)
Juan Rulfo

The Empusium
(*)
Olga Tokarczuk

Herscht 07769
(*)
Laszlo Krasznahorkai

The City and Its Uncertain Walls
(*)
Haruki Murakami

Fictional Families

Greta & Valdin
(*)
Rebecca K. Reilly

Real Americans
(*)
Rachel Khong

This Strange Eventful History
(*)
Claire Messud

Sandwich
(*)
Catherine Newman

Long Island Compromise
(*)
Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Colored Television
(*)
Danzy Senna

Intermezzo
(*)
Sally Rooney

The Mighty Red
(*)
Louise Erdrich

Fictional Voices

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters
(*)
Emil Ferris

Anita de Monte Laughs Last
(*)
Xochitl Gonzalez

All Fours
(*)
Miranda July

Godwin
(*)
Joseph O'Neill

Margo's Got Money Troubles
(*)
Rufi Thorpe

State of Paradise
(*)
Laura Van Den Berg

Small Rain
(*)
Garth Greenwell

Our Evenings
(*)
Alan Hollinghurst

Funniest Picture Books

The Teeny-Weeny Unicorn
(*)
Shawn Harris

Animal Albums from A to Z
(*)
Cece Bell

The Spaceman
(*)
Randy Cecil

Trucky Roads
(*)
Lulu Miller

The First Week of School
(*)
Drew Beckmeyer

The Dictionary Story
(*)
Sam Winston

We Are Definitely Human
(*)
X. Fang

Historical Fiction

The Voyage Home
(*)
Pat Barker

The Adversary
(*)
Michael Crummey

The American Daughters
(*)
Maurice Carlos Ruffin

James
(*)
Percival Everett

Clear
(*)
Carys Davies

The Garden
(*)
Clare Beams

Familiaris
(*)
David Wroblewski

Gretel and the Great War
(*)
Adam Ehrlich Sachs

Middle-Grade Adventures

The Lumbering Giants of Windy Pines
(*)
Mo Netz

Monkey King and the World of Myths
(*)
Maple Lam

The Wrong Way Home
(*)
Kate O'Shaughnessy

The Perilous Performance at Milkweed Meadow
(*)
Elaine Dimopoulos

Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody
(*)
Patrick Ness

The Long Way Around
(*)
Anne Nesbet

On a Wing and a Tear
(*)
Cynthia Leitich Smith

Monster Locker
(*)
Jorge Aguirre

The Rise of Issa Igwe
(*)
Shanna Miles

Middle-Grade Family Stories

Shark Teeth
(*)
Sherri Winston

Across So Many Seas
(*)
Ruth Behar

Ferris
(*)
Kate DiCamillo

Kyra, Just for Today
(*)
Sara Zarr

The Partition Project
(*)
Saadia Faruqi

The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman
(*)
Gennifer Choldenko

Puppet
(*)
David Almond

Quagmire Tiarello Couldn't Be Better
(*)
Mylisa Larsen

My So-Called Family
(*)
Gia Gordon

Middle-Grade Fantasy and SF

Impossible Creatures
(*)
Katherine Rundell

Eowulf: Of Monsters & Middle School
(*)
Mike Cavallaro

DnDoggos
(*)
Scout Underhill

A Game of Noctis
(*)
Deva Fagan

Out of the Valley of Horses
(*)
Wendy Orr

Lunar Boy
(*)
Wibowo, Cin; Wibowo, Jes

Amir and the Jinn Princess
(*)
M.T. Khan

Majestica
(*)
Sarah Tolcser

Island of Whispers
(*)
Frances Hardinge

Kwame Crashes the Underworld
(*)
Craig Kofi Farmer

Middle-Grade Fiction

Jamie
(*)
L.D. Lapinski

Drawing Deena
(*)
Hena Khan

The Underdogs of Upson Downs
(*)
Craig Silvey

Kicked Out
(*)
A.M. Dassu

Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All
(*)
Chanel Miller

A Gallery of Rogues
(*)
Beth Lincoln

Read at Your Own Risk
(*)
Remy Lai

Lola
(*)
Karla Arenas Valenti

Deer Run Home
(*)
Ann Clare LeZotte

The Fairy Tale Fan Club
(*)
Richard Ayoade

The Girls of Skylark Lane
(*)
Robin Benway

Still Sal
(*)
Kevin Henkes

Take It from the Top
(*)
Claire Swinarski

Middle-Grade Graphic Fiction

The Girl Who Sang
(*)
Estelle Nadel

Next Stop
(*)
Debbie Fong

Ant Story
(*)
Jay Hosler

Asgardians: Odin
(*)
George O'Connor

Fake Chinese Sounds
(*)
Jing Jing Tsong

How It All Ends
(*)
Emma Hunsinger

Pearl
(*)
Sherri L. Smith

Uprooted
(*)
Ruth Chan

Weirdo
(*)
Tony Weaver Jr.

Asgardians: Thor
(*)
George O'Connor

The Other Side of Tomorrow
(*)
Tina Cho

Middle-Grade Historical Fiction

Amil and the After
(*)
Veera Hiranandani

One Big Open Sky
(*)
Lesa Cline-Ransome

The Misunderstandings of Charity Brown
(*)
Elizabeth Laird

Safiyyah's War
(*)
Hiba Noor Khan

The Wildcat Behind Glass
(*)
Alki Zei

Black Star
(*)
Kwame Alexander

Wolves at the Door
(*)
Steve Watkins

Middle-Grade Nature Books

The Hunt for the Nightingale
(*)
Sarah Ann Juckes

Leila and the Blue Fox
(*)
Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Oliver's Great Big Universe
(*)
Jorge Cham

Wildful
(*)
Kengo Kurimoto

Save Our Forest!
(*)
Nora Dasnes

Mysteries and Thrillers

Cahokia Jazz
(*)
Francis Spufford

Hero
(*)
Thomas Perry

Who to Believe
(*)
Edwin Hill

Under the Storm
(*)
Christoffer Carlsson

Close to Death
(*)
Anthony Horowitz

All the Colors of the Dark
(*)
Chris Whitaker

The Unwedding
(*)
Ally Condie

The God of the Woods
(*)
Liz Moore

It's Elementary
(*)
Elise Bryant

Joe Hustle
(*)
Richard Lange

Guide Me Home
(*)
Attica Locke

Two Times Murder
(*)
Adam Oyebanji

Picture Books About Nature

What's New, Daniel?
(*)
Micha Archer

The Noisy Puddle
(*)
Linda Booth Sweeney

Something About the Sky
(*)
Rachel Carson

The Pelican Can!
(*)
Toni Yuly

Windsongs
(*)
Douglas Florian

Crick, Crack, Crow!
(*)
Janet Lord

Animal Countdown
(*)
Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Picture Books Celebrating Community

My Block Looks Like
(*)
Janelle Harper

The House Before Falling into the Sea
(*)
Ann Suk Wang

Marley's Pride
(*)
Joelle Retener

Being Home
(*)
Traci Sorell

Summer Is Here
(*)
Renee Watson

Barrio Rising
(*)
Maria Dolores Aguila

Let's Go
(*)
Julie Flett

Picture Books Celebrating Family

Bunny Should Be Sleeping
(*)
Amy Hest

Ahoy!
(*)
Sophie Blackall

Next Level
(*)
Samara Cole Doyon

Big Bear and Little Bear Go Fishing
(*)
Amy Hest

Joyful Song
(*)
Leslea Newman

Rising
(*)
Sidura Ludwig

Terrible Horses
(*)
Raymond Antrobus

Desert Song
(*)
Laekan Zea Kemp

My Daddy Is a Cowboy
(*)
Stephanie Seales

The Gale
(*)
Mo Yan

A Star Shines Through
(*)
Anna Desnitskaya

The Table
(*)
Winsome Bingham

Chooch Helped
(*)
Andrea L. Rogers

How We Share Cake
(*)
Kim Hyo-eun

There's a Ghost in the Garden
(*)
Kyo Maclear

When Love Is More Than Words
(*)
Jocelyn Chung

Picture Books Celebrating Friendship

This Baby. That Baby.
(*)
Cari Best

Two Together
(*)
Brendan Wenzel

Bye Land, Bye Sea
(*)
Rene Spencer

Monster Hands
(*)
Karen Kane

Sister Friend
(*)
Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow

Home in a Lunchbox
(*)
Cherry Mo

I'm Sorry You Got Mad
(*)
Kyle Lukoff

Picture Books for Starting Conversations

Pepper and Me
(*)
Beatrice Alemagna

The Last Stand
(*)
Antwan Eady

Giant On The Shore
(*)
Alfonso Ochoa

The Last Zookeeper
(*)
Aaron Becker

Look! Look!
(*)
Uma Krishnaswami

Heatwave
(*)
Lauren Redniss

Simone
(*)
Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Yellow Bus
(*)
Loren Long

They Call Me Teach
(*)
Lesa Cline-Ransome

The Cat Way
(*)
Sara Lundberg

Griso, The Unique
(*)
Roger Mello

A Map for Falasteen
(*)
Maysa Odeh

I Know How to Draw an Owl
(*)
Hilary Horder Hippely

Picture-Book Read-Alouds

Godfather Death
(*)
Sally Nicholls

Spider in the Well
(*)
Jess Hannigan

Finding Things
(*)
Kevin Henkes

I Am La Chiva!
(*)
Karol Hernandez

Noodles on a Bicycle
(*)
Kyo Maclear

Drawn Onward
(*)
Daniel Nayeri

Romance

Last Call at the Local
(*)
Sarah Grunder Ruiz

Pride and Preston Lin
(*)
Christina Hwang Dudley

Late Bloomer
(*)
Mazey Eddings

The Other Side of Disappearing
(*)
Kate Clayborn

You Should Be So Lucky
(*)
Cat Sebastian

Isabel and the Rogue
(*)
Liana De la Rosa

The Mistress Experience
(*)
Scarlett Peckham

Let the Games Begin
(*)
Rufaro Faith Mazarura

Take Me Home
(*)
Melanie Sweeney

I'll Have What He's Having
(*)
Adib Khorram

The Beast Takes a Bride
(*)
Julie Anne Long

Science Fiction and Fantasy

The Familiar
(*)
Leigh Bardugo

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying
(*)
Django Wexler

The Ministry of Time
(*)
Kaliane Bradley

Alien Clay
(*)
Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Stardust Grail
(*)
Yume Kitasei

The Bright Sword
(*)
Lev Grossman

The Sky on Fire
(*)
Jenn Lyons

The West Passage
(*)
Jared Pechacek

The Mercy of Gods
(*)
James S.A. Corey

Long Live Evil
(*)
Sarah Rees Brennan

Short Fiction

Ghost Pains
(*)
Jessi Jezewska Stevens

Neighbors and Other Stories
(*)
Diane Oliver

Your Utopia: Stories
(*)
Bora Chung

Weird Black Girls: Stories
(*)
Elwin Cotman

The Body Farm
(*)
Abby Geni

You Like It Darker: Stories
(*)
Stephen King

Concerning the Future of Souls
(*)
Joy Williams

The History of Sound: Stories
(*)
Ben Shattuck

Highway Thirteen: Stories
(*)
Fiona McFarlane

Rejection
(*)
Tony Tulathimutte

Dis//Integration
(*)
William Melvin Kelley

YA Coming-of-Age Novels

Three Summers
(*)
Amra Sabic-El-Rayess

Telephone of the Tree
(*)
Alison McGhee

Red Bird Danced
(*)
Dawn Quigley

The Beautiful Game
(*)
Yamile Saied Mendez

Buffalo Dreamer
(*)
Violet Duncan

Boy vs. Shark
(*)
Paul Gilligan

Turning Twelve
(*)
Kathryn Ormsbee

YA Fantasy and SF

Memories of Ash
(*)
Intisar Khanani
  • / Fantasy
  • Buy Buy

Sky's End
(*)
Marc J. Gregson

A Tempest of Tea
(*)
Hafsah Faizal

The Hedgewitch of Foxhall
(*)
Anna Bright

Kindling
(*)
Traci Chee

The Last Bloodcarver
(*)
Vanessa Le

Where the Dark Stands Still
(*)
A.B. Poranek

Dragonfruit
(*)
Makiia Lucier

The Maid and the Crocodile
(*)
Jordan Ifueko

Immortal Dark
(*)
Tigest Girma

Divine Mortals
(*)
Amanda Helander

The Door in Lake Mallion
(*)
S.M. Beiko

Fledgling
(*)
S.K. Ali

YA Fiction

Lark
(*)
Anthony McGowan

The Atlas of Us
(*)
Kristin Dwyer

Just Another Epic Love Poem
(*)
Parisa Akhbari

Chronically Dolores
(*)
Maya Van Wagenen

We Go to the Park
(*)
Sara Stridsberg

What's Eating Jackie Oh?
(*)
Patricia Park

The Worst Perfect Moment
(*)
Shivaun Plozza

Our Beautiful Darkness
(*)
Ondjaki

Rules for Camouflage
(*)
Kirstin Cronn-Mills

Rabbit and Juliet
(*)
Rebecca Stafford

The Judgment of Yoyo Gold
(*)
Isaac Blum

When the World Tips Over
(*)
Jandy Nelson

The Donut Prince of New York
(*)
Allen Zadoff

Thanks for Listening
(*)
Molly Horan

YA Graphic Novels

Call Me Iggy
(*)
Jorge Aguirre

49 Days
(*)
Agnes Lee

Safe Passage
(*)
G. Neri

Dreamer: Bad Dream
(*)
Nicole Maines

Young Hag and the Witches' Quest
(*)
Isabel Greenberg

Brownstone
(*)
Samuel Teer

The Deep Dark
(*)
Molly Knox Ostertag

Maelstrom: A Prince of Evil
(*)
Lorian Merriman

The Ghostkeeper
(*)
Johanna Taylor

Woe: A Housecat's Story of Despair: (A Graphic Novel)
(*)
Lucy Knisley

Ash's Cabin
(*)
Jen Wang

Please Be My Star: A Graphic Novel
(*)
Victoria Grace Elliott

Leap
(*)
Simina Popescu

YA Historical Fiction

A Suffragist's Guide to the Antarctic
(*)
Yi Shun Lai

Yours from the Tower
(*)
Sally Nicholls

Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams
(*)
Shari Green

The Color of a Lie
(*)
Kim Johnson

Adventures of Mary Jane
(*)
Hope Jahren

My Salty Mary
(*)
Cynthia Hand

Everything We Never Had
(*)
Randy Ribay

Take a Sad Song
(*)
Ona Gritz

YA Horror

In Utero
(*)
Chris Gooch

A Place for Vanishing
(*)
Ann Fraistat

Now, Conjurers
(*)
Freddie Kolsch

The Unfinished
(*)
Cheryl Isaacs

Killer House Party
(*)
Lily Anderson

The Terrifying Tales of Vivian Vance
(*)
Joshua Ulrich

I Am the Dark That Answers When You Call
(*)
Jamison Shea

YA Mystery and Thriller

Pangu's Shadow
(*)
Karen Bao

Icarus
(*)
K. Ancrum

Sheine Lende
(*)
Darcie Little Badger

A Darker Mischief
(*)
Derek Milman

Compound Fracture
(*)
Andrew Joseph White

Ruin Road
(*)
Lamar Giles

Tangleroot
(*)
Kalela Williams

Darkly
(*)
Marisha Pessl

YA Novels About Social Issues

Eddy, Eddy
(*)
Kate De Goldi

The Book of Denial
(*)
Ricardo Chavez Castaneda

Snowglobe
(*)
Soyoung Park

Thirsty
(*)
Jas Hammonds

Louder Than Words
(*)
Ashley Woodfolk

Libertad
(*)
Bessie Flores Zaldivar

Songlight
(*)
Moira Buffini

The Dividing Sky
(*)
Jill Tew

Girlmode
(*)
Magdalene Visaggio

Under the Heron's Light
(*)
Randi Pink

Thunder City
(*)
Philip Reeve

YA Romance

Lunar New Year Love Story
(*)
Gene Luen Yang

The Breakup Lists
(*)
Adib Khorram

The Ballad of Darcy and Russell
(*)
Morgan Matson

Past Present Future
(*)
Rachel Lynn Solomon

On the Bright Side
(*)
Anna Sortino

Atty in Love
(*)
Tim Lockette

Twenty-Four Seconds from Now
(*)
Jason Reynolds

A Cruel Thirst
(*)
Angela Montoya

Award Categories

Affirming Picture Books

Bedtime Books

Beginning Readers

Board Books

Book Club Fiction

Books for Beginning Readers

Debut Fiction

Empowering Picture Books

Environmental Fiction

Fiction

Fiction in Translation

Fictional Families

Fictional Voices

Funniest Picture Books

Historical Fiction

Informational Picture Books

Joyous Picture Books

Middle-Grade About Speaking Up

Middle-Grade Activist

Middle-Grade Adventures

Middle-Grade Family Stories

Middle-Grade Fantasy and SF

Middle-Grade Fiction

Middle-Grade Friendship Stories

Middle-Grade Graphic Fiction

Award Years

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019