WinnerI Know How to Draw an OwlHilary Horder HippelyBelle draws an owl but keeps the story behind it to herself. She and her mother no longer have a house and spend nights in their old blue car near a tree-filled park. There, Belle hears an owl before eventually seeing it on a branch, finding comfort in its presence. Later, when a new boy arrives at school in an old blue car, Belle draws on that experience as she helps him find his way around.Picture BookLexile Text Measure 381LATOS Book Level 2.7View book detailsBoston Globe–Horn Book Awards 2025
The 2025 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards honor nine books across picture books, fiction, and nonfiction. I Know How to Draw an Owl by Hilary Horder Hippely, illustrated by Matt James, receives the picture book award. Randy Ribay's Everything We Never Had wins for fiction, and Candace Fleming's Death in the Jungle takes nonfiction. Two Honor Books join each winner, including Nose to Nose, My Daddy Is a Cowboy, Oasis, and Uprooted.
2025 Boston Globe–Horn Book AwardsSee the original list
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Published byThe Horn Book
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Picture Book
3 selections
WinnerI Know How to Draw an OwlHilary Horder HippelyBelle draws an owl but keeps the story behind it to herself. She and her mother no longer have a house and spend nights in their old blue car near a tree-filled park. There, Belle hears an owl before eventually seeing it on a branch, finding comfort in its presence. Later, when a new boy arrives at school in an old blue car, Belle draws on that experience as she helps him find his way around.Picture BookLexile Text Measure 381LATOS Book Level 2.7View book details
HonorNose to NoseThyra Heder, illustrated by Thyra HederToby arrives in a new neighborhood eager to meet the other dogs, but his attempts at making friends go unnoticed. A ball he finds in the park seems like a welcome discovery until he learns that it belongs to Pancake, another dog who wants it back. Toby tries to explain, only for misunderstood messages to turn into unkind rumors. This humorous picture book follows his efforts to clear up the confusion and connect with his neighbors, exploring friendship, communication, and the courage to face a problem directly.Picture BookLexile Text Measure 520LATOS Book Level 3.4View book details
HonorMy Daddy Is a CowboyStephanie SealesA young African American girl rides horseback with her father through the city at dawn. Sharing his love of horses, she discovers her own sense of being a cowboy during their time together. Their urban ride places horses and cowboy identity in the middle of a parent-child outing, celebrating the pleasure they find in the journey and in one another’s company.Picture BookLexile Text Measure 580LATOS Book Level 3.8View book detailsFiction
3 selections
WinnerEverything We Never HadRandy RibayFour generations of Filipino American sons tell their family’s story from the early twentieth century to the present. Francisco, Emil, Chris, and Enzo each confront questions of identity while their accounts trace legacy and strained family connections across decades. The novel follows the changing lives of one family through the perspectives of sons from different generations.FictionLexile Text Measure 820LATOS Book Level 5.3View book details
HonorOasisGuojingJieJie and DiDi live alone in a sand-covered wasteland while their mother works in glass-domed Oasis City, saving to bring them there. While gathering water, they pursue a fox into a restricted dump and discover a discarded robot. Once repaired, the robot responds to DiDi’s wish for a mother by entering mother mode. It provides the siblings with necessities, stories, dance lessons, and projected movies as they form an attachment to it.FictionATOS Book Level 2.0AR Interest Level MG 4–8View book details
HonorCompound FractureAndrew Joseph WhiteMiles Abernathy, a sixteen-year-old trans autistic West Virginian, becomes involved in a long-running conflict in Twist Creek. On the night he tells his parents he is trans, he leaves for a party carrying photographs that could expose Sheriff Davies. The images suggest the sheriff caused an incident that injured Miles’s father, killed other people, and undermined efforts to remove him from office. The novel places Miles’s struggle within a broader fight between impoverished rural residents and those exploiting them.FictionLexile Text Measure 781LATOS Book Level 5View book detailsNonfiction
3 selections
WinnerDeath in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of JonestownCandace FlemingThis account examines Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and the events surrounding the 1978 mass deaths at Jonestown. It follows Jones from his early interest in persuasive speakers and preaching through the growth of an integrated church that promised equality and justice. As the organization became increasingly controlling, Jones relocated followers to Guyana, where fear and violent coercion shaped life in the commune.NonfictionView book details
HonorUprooted: A Memoir About What Happens When Your Family Moves BackRuth Chan, illustrated by Ruth ChanIn 1993, Chinese Canadian Ruth Chan leaves Toronto when her parents move back to Hong Kong. Her mother wants to be near family, and her father has accepted a job in mainland China, while Ruth’s older brother remains in Canada for boarding school. Ruth is devastated to leave her friends and uncertain about a place she has visited only a few times. Her adjustment unfolds alongside the history of her father’s family fleeing southern China during the Sino-Japanese War in 1944. In Hong Kong, Ruth makes some friends, spends time at the mall, and comes to appreciate the climate.NonfictionView book details
HonorUp, Up, Ever Up!: Junko Tabei: A Life in the MountainsAnita YasudaThis picture-book biography tells of Junko Tabei, the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. It also follows her later decision to protect the mountain area by cleaning it and planting trees. Her life in the mountains connects climbing with ongoing care for the environment, tracing her achievement and the conservation work that followed.NonfictionView book details