Combing through our many, many starred reviews—608, to be precise—to come up with the six finalists for the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature was a challenge. But this year’s jurors were up for the task. High school librarian Ayn Reyes Frazee and author Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, a Kirkus Prize finalist in 2020 for her middle-grade novel Fighting Words, worked with us to select the list. We’re delighted to introduce this strong lineup of books. The winner of this year’s prize—the 10^th annual—will be announced at a ceremony in New York on Oct. 11.

PICTURE BOOKS

In the picture book Together We Swim (Chronicle Books, Aug. 15) by Valerie Bolling, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita, a Black family spends a day at the pool. The mother teaches the youngest to swim—an experience that’s by turns fun, overwhelming, and exhilarating. Bolling’s simple but deft text positively sings, while Juanita’s retro-style images depict a tightknit, loving family that strikes a balance between supporting the little one and allowing him to take chances. Juanita’s attention to background details makes for a vivid and utterly immersive work that will have children returning for rereads.

João by a Thread (Elsewhere Editions, 2022) by Roger Mello, translated from Portuguese by Daniel Hahn, opens with a premise with which many youngsters will be intimately familiar: A boy lying in bed one night finds his thoughts wandering. The very blanket that covers him inspires wild imaginings, and it transforms into a mountain range, a lake, and a huge fish caught in a net. The blanket eventually unravels until young João must stitch it back together using his own imagination. Contemplative text matches the feelings evoked by Mello’s dynamic, abstract illustrations: wonder, uncertainty, fear, and hope. A work of art unto itself, this is a profound yet age-appropriate testament to a child’s innate sense of creativity.

MIDDLE GRADE

Both this year’s middle-grade finalists are heavily illustrated works that follow protagonists on big journeys. Julia and the Shark (Union Square Kids, March 28) by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, illustrated by Tom de Freston, centers on a 10-year-old girl who, along with her parents, temporarily relocates from Cornwall to a lighthouse in the Shetland Islands so that her scientist mother can track down the Greenland shark. When Julia’s mother, who has bipolar disorder, exhibits alarming behavior, Julia believes finding the shark is key to solving their problems. Hargrave’s portrayal of a girl grappling with big emotions is pitch-perfect, while de Freston’s illustrations are mesmerizing; it’s rare to see a novel that so seamlessly integrates text and art.

Why has young Otilla run away to a mysterious house in the woods? Who is the talking skull she meets? And what terrors lurk at night? With The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale (Candlewick, July 11), Jon Klassen offers few answers, instead trusting readers to form their own conclusions. Economical prose and muted, hauntingly lovely art blend for a story about pain, courage, and the power of friendship. A retelling of a folktale that Klassen read and then misremembered (in the best possible way), this gorgeous book will spur aspiring authors to follow suit and pen their own versions of well-known stories.

YOUNG ADULT

You’re never too old to appreciate visual arts, as demonstrated by America Redux: Visual Stories From Our Dynamic History, written and illustrated by Ariel Aberg-Riger (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, May 2). Aberg-Riger uses archival images to create enticing collages that invite readers to pore over details and consider how context changes the way we interpret information. Short chapters using accessible, engaging language focus on carefully selected subjects, some that are widely discussed (like America’s history with guns) and others that are less so (like the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi). As the author writes in the afterword, “We can’t change the past. But we can live in relationship with it in a way that informs and energizes our present.”

In The Eternal Return of Clara Hart (Little Island, June 13), Louise Finch ingeniously uses the popular time-loop device to pull off literary magic in a story as profound as it is entertaining. This novel critiques rape culture through the perspective of Spence, a boy many teens will recognize—the well-intentioned, decent kid, neither ringleader nor underdog. Some readers will grow in comprehension alongside Spence, while others will immediately perceive his limitations—and, incredibly, the book succeeds either way. Clara and the other girls are fully developed, neither accessories nor props for Spence’s growth. Finch persuasively shows how toxic masculinity does tremendous damage, regardless of one’s gender.

Mahnaz Dar and Laura Simeon are young readers’ editors.