The American Booksellers Association (ABA) has announced the winners of the Indies Choice Book Awards, the independent booksellers literary prize program that has returned after a seven-year hiatus.

Reflecting the spirit of independent bookstores and the IndieBound movement, the Indie Choice Book Awards are nominated and selected by booksellers from over 3,000 independent bookstores nationwide. They celebrate the best and brightest titles by authors and illustrators in the indie channel, showcasing the remarkable range of talent that indie booksellers champion and share with readers every day.
 

2026 Winners

Adult Fiction

• THE CORRESPONDENT by Virginia Evans (Crown)

Adult Nonfiction

• ONE DAY, EVERYONE WILL HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AGAINST THIS by Omar El Akkad (Knopf)

Children's Picture Books

• DON'T TRUST FISH written by Neil Sharpson, illustrated by Dan Santat (Dial Books)

Middle Grade

• THE TROUBLE WITH HEROES by Kate Messner (Bloomsbury Children's Books)

Young Adult

• THEY BLOOM AT NIGHT by Trang Thanh Tran (Bloomsbury YA)

Debut Adult

• BLACK-OWNED: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore, by Char Adams (Tiny Reparations Books)

Debut Children's

• WHALE EYES: A Memoir About Seeing and Being Seen, by James Robinson, illustrated by Brian Rea (Penguin Workshop)
   

2026 Shortlist

Adult Fiction

• ATMOSPHERE by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Ballantine Books)
• BURY OUR BONES IN THE MIDNIGHT SOIL by V. E. Schwab (Tor Books)
• THE CORRESPONDENT by Virginia Evans (Crown)
• HEART THE LOVER by Lily King (Grove Press)
• WILD DARK SHORE by Charlotte McConaghy (Flatiron Books)

Adult Nonfiction

• A DUMB BIRDS FIELD GUIDE TO THE WORST BIRDS EVER by Matt Kracht (Chronicle Books)
• EVERY DAY I READ: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books, written by Hwang Bo-reum, translated by Shanna Tan (Bloomsbury Publishing)
• FOREST EUPHORIA: The Abounding Queerness of Nature, by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian (Spiegel & Grau)
• IS A RIVER ALIVE? by Robert Macfarlane (W. W. Norton & Company)
• ONE DAY, EVERYONE WILL HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AGAINST THIS by Omar El Akkad (Knopf)

Children's Picture Books

• THE BAKERY DRAGON AND THE FAIRY CAKE written by Devin Elle Kurtz (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
• BUFFALO FLUFFALO AND PUFFALO written by Bess Kalb, illustrated by Erin Kraan (Random House Studio)
• DON'T TRUST FISH written by Neil Sharpson, illustrated by Dan Santat (Dial Books)
• IF WE WERE DOGS by Sophie Blackall (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
• MILLIE FLEUR SAVES THE NIGHT by Christy Mandin (Orchard Books)
• A SNOW DAY FOR AMOS McGEE written by Philip C. Stead, illustrated by Erin E. Stead (Roaring Brook Press)

Middle Grade

• ALL THE BLUES IN THE SKY by Renée Watson (Bloomsbury Children's Books)
• BLOOD IN THE WATER by Tiffany D. Jackson (Scholastic Press)
• DRAGONBORN by Struan Murray (Dutton Books for Young Readers)
• SCARLET MORNING by ND Stevenson (Quill Tree Books)
• THE TROUBLE WITH HEROES by Kate Messner (Bloomsbury Children's Books)

Young Adult

• ANGELICA AND THE BEAR PRINCE (A Graphic Novel), by Trung Le Nguyen (Random House Graphic)
• THE LAST BOOKSTORE ON EARTH by Lily Braun-Arnold (Delacorte Press)
• LEGENDARY FRYBREAD DRIVE-IN: Intertribal Stories, edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Heartdrum)
• SISTERS IN THE WIND by Angeline Boulley [Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)]
• THEY BLOOM AT NIGHT by Trang Thanh Tran (Bloomsbury YA)

Debut Adult

• BLACK-OWNED: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore, by Char Adams (Tiny Reparations Books)
• THE HOUNDING by Xenobe Purvis (Henry Holt and Co.)
• A MARRIAGE AT SEA by Sophie Elmhirst (Riverhead Books)
• TILT by Emma Pattee (Scribner)
• WE SURVIVED THE NIGHT by Julian Brave NoiseCat (Knopf)

Debut Children's

• MONTGOMERY BONBON: MURDER AT THE MUSEUM by Alasdair Beckett-King (Candlewick)
• ONE OF THE BOYS by Victoria Zeller (Levine Querido)
• THE QUEEN BEES OF TYBEE COUNTY by Kyle Casey Chu (Quill Tree Books)
• TRANS HISTORY: From Ancient Times to the Present (A Graphic Novel), by Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett (Candlewick)
• WHALE EYES: A Memoir About Seeing and Being Seen, by James Robinson, illustrated by Brian Rea (Penguin Workshop)