Bank Street’s Children’s Book Committee selects 26 Stimola titles for their 2025 Best Children’s Books of the Year list
Stimola titles selected by the Children’s Book Committee are listed below by category:
FOR KIDS UNDER FIVE
The Ship in the Window by Travis Jonker, illustrated by Matthew Cordell
Summer Is Here by Renée Watson, illustrated by Bea Jackson
Social-Emotional Learning
Towed by Toad written and illustrated by Jashar Awan
AGES FIVE TO NINE
Animals
Is This a House for Hermit Crab by Megan McDonald, illustrated by Katherine Tillotson
Beginning Readers
Henry and the Something New (Henry series) by Jenn Bailey, illustrated by Mika Song
How to Love a Kitten (I Can Read It All By Myself Beginner Books series) by Michelle Meadows, illustrated by Sawyer Cloud
Family/School/Community
How to Eat a Mango by Paola Santos, illustrated by Juliana Perdomo
Historical Fiction
They Call me Teach: Lessons in Freedom by Lesa Cline-Ransome, illustrated by James E. Ransome
Science Fiction
Viewfinder written and illustrated by Christine D.U. Chung and Salwa Majoka
We Are Definitely Human written and illustrated by X. Fang
Poetry
*Winner of the 2025 Claudia Lewis Award
The Smell of Wet Dog: And Other Dog Poems and Drawings written and illustrated by Barney Saltzberg
The Mistakes That Made Us: Confessions from Twenty Poets edited by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Mercè López
Ecology
The Great Lakes: Our Freshwater Treasure by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Jamey Christoph
STEM
Dive!: The Story of Breathing Underwater written and illustrated by Chris Gall
AGES NINE TO TWELVE
Adventure and Mystery
The Sherlock Society (Sherlock Society series) by James Ponti
Perilous Performance of Milkweed Meadow by Elaine Dimopoulos, illustrated by Doug Salati
Anthologies and Collections
Black Girl Power: 15 Stories Celebrating Black Girlhood edited by Leah Johnson
Biography and Memoir
Fighting with Love: The Legacy of John Lewis by Lesa Cline-Ransome, illustrated by James E. Ransome
Jimmy’s Rhythm & Blues: The Extraordinary Life of James Baldwin by Michelle Meadows, illustrated by Jamiel Law
My Lost Freedom: A Japanese American World War II Story by George Takei, illustrated by Michelle Lee
Remembering Rosalind Franklin: Rosalind Franklin & the Discovery of the Double Helix Structure of DNA by Tanya Lee Stone, illustrated by Gretchen Ellen Powers
AGES TWELVE TO FOURTEEN
Ecology
Monarchs of Winghaven by Naila Moreira
Fantasy
Madsi the True by S.J. Taylor
Historical Fiction
One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome
Poetry
*Winner of the 2025 Claudia Lewis Award
Black Girl You Are Atlas by Renée Watson, illustrated by Ekua Holmes
AGES FOURTEEN AND OLDER
Historical Fiction
Tangleroot by Kalela Williams