Librarians and publishers converged on the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia’s Center City for this year’s American Library Association annual meeting, held June 26–30. Dozens of authors and illustrators were in attendance, meeting librarians, speaking on panels, giving speeches, and signing copies of their books. The Newbery-Caldecott-Legacy Awards Banquet bestowed the industry’s top honors to this year’s winners, Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly, Caldecott Medalist Rebecca Lee Kunz, and Children’s Literature Legacy Award winner Carole Boston Weatherford, as well as the Honorees. Here we present some of the photographic highlights from the conference.
Virginia Duncan (l.), Greenwillow publisher and editor of Erin Entrada Kelly (r.), who was signing copies of her Newbery-winning The First State of Being.
“Children’s books have an artistic and moral obligation to show children as they are, and not what adults want them to be”: National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Mac Barnett (l.), giving a talk in the Library of Congress booth.
Paula Yoo greeting librarians during her signing for her YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award-winning book Rising from the Ashes (Norton Young Readers).
Scholastic authors at the company’s annual Picture Book Salon: (from l.) Nell Cross Beckerman, Kalen Chock, Charles R. Smith Jr., Evening Monteiro, and VP/director of school and library marketing Lizette Serrano.
Hippo Park creators Joyce Wan and Constance Lombardo pose with each other’s books in the Astra Books for Young Readers booth.
Nikkolas Smith signing A Change Is Gonna Come for Little Bee Books.
Virginia library media specialists Linda Hume (l.) and April Stayner at the Kids Can Press booth.
Five creators gathered to explore the power of Black storytelling, the creative process, and the lasting impact of their work on young readers, in a panel called “Amplifying Black Voices,” moderated by Dr. Sonja Cherry-Paul (standing). Panelists (from l.): London Ladd, Frederick Joseph, Lesa Cline-Ransome, Carole Boston Weatherford, and Ekua Holmes.
(From l.): Nora Raleigh Baskin, Alvina Ling, and Wendy Mass in the Little, Brown Books for Young Readers booth. Baskin and Mass were signing The Planet, the Portal, and the Pizza, their co-authored middle grade mystery-adventure due out in October, which Ling edited.
Nathan Hale greeting librarians during his signing for Hog-Rocket Ruckus, third in his The Mighty Bite graphic novel series for Amulet Books.
Legendary children’s book creator Donald Crews joined other authors in signing books for guests at the annual HarperCollins Children’s Books breakfast.
Macmillan authors and illustrators at the Independence Carousel House at the Please Touch Museum, where the publisher hosted a happy hour.
Author Kaylin Melia George (l.) and illustrator Mae Waite at the Red Comet Press booth, signing Aloha Everything, this year’s picture book winner of the Asian Pacific American Awards for Literature.
Hachette’s Becca Matheson and Laura Lutz at the Book Buzz stage talking about new children’s titles from Running Press Kids, Workman Kids, and Storey.
Authors Rebecca Stead (l.) (Anything) and Christina Shawn (And Then Came You) signing copies of their new picture books during a booth signing at Chronicle Books.
Ally Russell (r.), author of Mystery James Digs Her Own Grave and former Nosy Crow marketing manager, in Nosy Crow’s castle booth with Kellen Manning, director of digital and social media content in the office of strategic communications at Penn State University.
Coretta Scott King Book Award recipients during a lunch in their honor (from l.): Kwame Alexander, Craig Kofi Farmer, Jamiel Law, Lesa Cline-Ransome, C.G. Esperanza, Renée Watson, Jason Reynolds, Ekua Holmes, E.B. Lewis, and April Harrison.
Author Lynn Brunelle (c.) and illustrator Jason Chin (r.) sign copies of their 2025 Sibert Medal winner, Life After Whale: The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall, with their editor, Neal Porter (l.).
Enchanted Lion gave a party at the Yamatorium, an art installation by Steven Erdman (pictured), located in an underground bunker in West Philadelphia.
Author Tiffany D. Jackson (r.) autographing ARCs of her latest YA thriller, The Scammer, due out in October from Quill Tree Books.
Middle Grade mystery authors at the PopTop Stage panel “Solving Mysteries: On and Off Page.” (From l.): Victor Piñeiro, Taryn Souders, Lindsay Currie, and Christine Scheper.
Union Square & Co. held a meet-and-greet for The Pigeon, center, with Union Square staffers (from l.) Allyson Gavaletz, Elke Villa, Nathan Siegel, and Ardyce Alspach. Librarians who posed with The Pigeon got a copy of Mo Willems’s latest, Will the Pigeon Graduate?
Matthew Burgess (l.) and 2023 Caldecott Medalist Doug Salati signing their poetry collection Words with Wings and Magic Things at the Tundra booth.
George Ford (c.), the first illustrator to win a Coretta Scott King Award in 1974 for his illustrations in Ray Charles by Sharon Bell Mathis, celebrates the 2025 CSK winners with (from l.) his daughter Oliva Ford, Taina Evans (Brooklyn Public Library), Alexandra Roman (Teachers College, Columbia University), Guadalupe García McCall (Lee & Low author), Rachée Fagg (Upper Darby Township & Sellers Memorial Free Public Library), and Gia Ruiz (Santa Monica Public Library).
Laurie Halse Anderson (l.) and her editor, Caitlyn Dlouhy, strike a pose at the Simon & Schuster dessert party, which celebrated Halse Anderson’s new novel, Rebellion 1776.
Author Baptiste Paul signs his book To Carnival! at the Barefoot Books booth.
2025 Caldecott Medalist Rebecca Lee Kunz (l.) meeting 2022 Newbery Medalist Donna Barba Higuera at the awards banquet.
The 2025 Printz Award winners and honorees: (from l.) Safia Elhillo (Bright Red Fruit), Rex Ogle (Road Home), Samuel Teer (Brownstone), Mar Julia (Brownstone), Andrew Joseph White (Compound Fracture), and Molly Knox Ostertag (The Deep Dark).
Candace Fleming, signing the very last copy of Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown (Random House/Anne Schwartz Books).
(From l.): Enchanted Lion publisher Claudia Bedrick, illustrator Sarah Jacoby, and illustrator Matthew Forsythe discuss illustration and visual storytelling at their Look of Books stage session.
Sampling the local fare: Nosy Crow Inc. president John Mendelson checking out a cheesesteak from the Reading Terminal Market.
Lane Smith signing copies of his new picture book, Recess, at the Abrams booth.
Ashley Hope Pérez, editor of the anthology Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers, joined contributors Nikki Grimes, Kelly Jensen, and Maia Kobabe for a panel called “Banned Together: Defending Diverse Stories in a Time of Censorship,” moderated by Holiday House executive editor Sally Morgridge. (From l.): Grimes, Jensen, Kobabe, Hope Pérez, and Morgridge.
Actor Geena Davis was the closing keynote speaker at ALA, talking about her first picture book, The Girl Who Was Too Big for the Page (Philomel).
