The year’s standout kids’ catalog spans picture books, middle-grade, and young adult-style narratives, weaving whimsy with mystery and social themes, all brought to life by strong writing and distinctive artwork.

Katya Balen’s Letters from the Upside follows Con as healing unfolds through caring for homing pigeons, highlighting connection and growth beyond anger.

Emma Carroll’s Dracula & Daughters offers feminist gothic fiction for readers aged 9 and up, as cousins uncover a link to Dracula and a path to healing the undead, with hints of a broader series.

Firefly uses poetic verse and textured art to shepherd readers from winter darkness into a hopeful field of light.

Omnibird by Giselle Clarkson playfully examines 18 bird species through humorous descriptions, inviting young readers to see birds as complex miracles.

Neill Cameron’s Donut Squad: Take Over the World! brings anarchic humor and adventure in a graphic-novel format suited for a broad age range, featuring quirky characters and absurd jokes.

Oh Dear, Look What I Got! by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury is a lively rhyming picture-book shopping-trip tale with expressive, chaotic energy for read-alouds.

Zohra Nabi’s Deep Dark: A Cassia Thorne Mystery is a 19th-century London-set historical fantasy probing social injustice through disappearances and atmospheric detail.

The year’s standout children’s books across picture books, comics, and novels emphasize themes of connection, justice, freedom, and resilience.

The Poisoned King features Anya and Christopher in a high-fantasy quest to uncover the origins of a mysterious poison and defend the vulnerable, underscoring justice as a driving force.

Annie Booker’s The Great Bear delivers a lyrical, urgent tale about polar bears and ocean conservation, contrasting pristine imagery with human-made threats like nets and smoke.

Rashmi Sirdeshpande’s This Is Who I Am celebrates identity and immigrant experiences, blending soft beauty with courage, resistance to racism, and historical resilience.