2025-2026 SC Children's Book Award

The South Carolina Children’s Book Award nominees are appropriate for a 3-6 grade level. Visit SCASL's SC Children's Book Award page to learn more about past nominees and other materials.

A Rover’s Story

By Jasmine Warga

THE TALE OF A SMALL MACHINE WITH A BIG HEART…

Meet Resilience, a Mars rover determined to live up to his name.

Res was built to explore Mars. He was not built to have human emotions. But as he learns new things from the NASA scientists who assemble him, he begins to develop human-like feelings. Maybe there’s a problem with his programming….

Human emotions or not, launch day comes, and Res blasts off to Mars, accompanied by a friendly drone helicopter named Fly. But Res quickly discovers that Mars is a dangerous place filled with dust storms and giant cliffs. As he navigates Mars’s difficult landscape, Res is tested in ways that go beyond space exploration.

A Royal Conundrum

By Lisa Yee

Olive Cobin Zang has . . . issues. And they mostly aren’t her fault. (No, really!) Though she often slips under the radar, problems have a knack for finding her. So, imagine her doubts when she’s suddenly dropped off at the strangest boarding school a former castle turned prison that's now a “reforming arts school”!

Dogtown

By Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko

Dogtown is a shelter for stray dogs, misbehaving dogs, and discarded robot dogs, whose owners have outgrown them.

Chance, a real dog, has been in Dogtown since his owners unwittingly left him with irresponsible dog-sitters who skipped town.

Metal Head is a robot dog who dreams of being back in a real home.

And Mouse is a mouse who has the run of Dogtown, pilfering kibble, and performing clever feats to protect the dogs he loves.

When Chance and Metal Head embark on an adventure to find their forever homes, there is danger, cheese sandwiches, a charging station, and some unexpected kindnesses along the way.

Farther Than the Moon

By Lindsay Lackey

A heartfelt story about a boy who wants to become an astronaut, but wonders if his dreams can include his brother with special needs.

Final Word

By Janet Sumner Johnson

Thirteen-year-old twins Hope and Gordon enter a spelling bee in a last-ditch effort to save their family from financial ruin, only to find themselves in a cut-throat competition to uncover a fortune and dark secrets about the wealthy relations they’ve never known.

Four Eyes

By Rex Ogle

Sixth grade isn't as great as Rex thought it would be. He's the only kid who hasn't had a growth spurt, and the bullies won't let him forget it. His closest friend is unreliable, at best. And there's a cute girl in his class, who may or may not like hiim back. With so much going on, everything is a blur -- including Rex's vision! So when he discovers that he needs glasses, and his family can only afford the ugliest pair in the store, any hope Rex had of fitting in goes completely out of focus.

In this true coming-of-age story, Rex has his sights set on surviving sixth grade, but now he's got to find a way to do it with glasses, no friends, and a family that just doesn't get it!

Good Different

By Meg Kuyatt

She always, always sticks to them. This means keeping her feelings locked tightly inside, despite the way they build up inside her as each school day goes on, so that she has to run to the bathroom and hide in the stall until she can calm down. So that she has to tear off her normal-person mask the second she gets home from school, and listen to her favorite pop song on repeat, trying to recharge. Selah feels like a dragon stuck in a world of humans, but she knows how to hide it.

Until the day she explodes and hits a fellow student.

Selah's friends pull away from her, her school threatens expulsion, and her comfortable, familiar world starts to crumble.

But as Selah starts to figure out more about who she is, she comes to understand that different doesn’t mean damaged. Can she get her school to understand that, too, before it’s too late?

This is a moving and unputdownable story about learning to celebrate the things that make us different.

Hidden Hope: How a Toy and a Hero Saved Lives During the Holocaust

By Elisa Boxer

During World War II, a social worker named Jacqueline bicycled through the streets of Paris, passing Nazi soldiers and carrying a toy duck to share with the children she visited. What the Nazis didn’t know, however, was that Jacqueline wasn’t a social worker at all, but a Jewish member of the French Resistance.

Jawbreaker

By Christina Wyman

Max has a lot to deal with: an orthodontist who tortures her with braces, headgear, and threats of jaw surgery; family issues that include drinking, money issues, and some pretty toxic rivalry with her younger sister; and bullying at school about her teeth. Her passion is writing, and when her op-ed piece on a lack of resource equity at school goes viral, she decides to enter a journalism contest and write about her experiences with orthodontia and bullying. Writing helps Max find her voice, and she begins to speak up about what is bothering her at home and at school, leading to a rethinking of how the school handles bullying, as well as the beginning of some healing for her family.

Nothing Else But Miracles

By Kate Albus

12-year-old Dory Byrne lives with her brothers on New York City’s Lower East Side, waiting impatiently through the darkest hours of World War II for her pop to come home from fighting Hitler. Based on a very real place in old New York and steeped in the history of the last year of World War II, Nothing Else but Miracles shows how, when things get tough, the neighborhood really will give you what you need… and may even offer up a miracle or two in the process.

Oliver’s Great Big Universe

By Jorge Cham

Oliver has a lot going on as he starts his first year of middle school—new friends, new classes, new everything. But at least there’s one thing that still makes sense: science!

Determined to be an astrophysicist one day, Oliver explains everything he learns—like how the sun burps, how ghost particles fly through you, the uncanny similarities between Mercury and cafeteria meatballs, and most important, how the Big Bang is basically just like a fart in the school hallway.

Also, there are time-bending black holes, exploding supernova stars, and aliens! Well, there could be aliens.

Oliver finally feels like he’s starting to figure things out . . . but can he stay out of the principal’s office or catch a break from his annoying sister?

Race for the Ruby Turtle

By Stephen Bramucci

Race for the Ruby Turtle is an adventure story. It stars two friends who risk everything to protect a potentially apocryphal reptile. It features two towering Swedes with a hidden agenda and an animal-poaching Texan wielding a very sharp bowie knife. It's both funny at certain times and thrilling in others. But its core is a story about self-acceptance, one of the most important journeys a kid can ever go on.

The Cursed Moon

By Angela Cervantes

Eleven-year-old Rafael Fuentes loves writing ghost stories and frightening his friends with terrifying tales he creates on the spot. Rafa has come up against enough real-life scary situations that fictional hauntings seem like no big deal, that is until he learns that his incarcerated mom is being released from jail soon, and will be coming to live with him, his sister, and their grandparents. To take his mind off his mom’s return, Rafa spends an evening crafting a scary ghost story about a vengeful ghost called The Caretaker. Immediately after, Rafa notices strange things starting to happen around him. Has his story come true?

The Firefly Summer

By Morgan Matson

A young girl gets to know her mom’s side of the family and hunts for hidden treasure over the course of one chaotic summer.

The Guardian Test

By Christina Soontornvat

Young Plum is shocked to discover that she’s been accepted to the Guardian Academy on Lotus Island, an elite school where kids learn how to transform into Guardians, magical creatures who are sworn to protect the natural world. The Guardian masters teach Plum and her friends how to communicate with animals and how to use meditation to strengthen their minds and bodies. All the kids also learn to fight, so they can protect the defenseless if needed.

To her dismay, Plum struggles at school. While her classmates begin to transform into amazing creatures, Plum can’t even seem to magic up a single feather! If she can’t embrace her inner animal form soon, she’ll have to leave school ― and lose the first group of real friends she’s ever known.

The Labors of Hercules Beal

By Gary D. Schmidt

After Hercules Beal’s life comes crashing down, he finds himself living under the watchful eye of his brother and adjusting to a new school. To make matters worse, his teacher gives him a yearlong project: reenact the 12 labors of Hercules from Greek mythology. As the year goes on, Hercules makes new friends, accomplishes impossible feats and discovers that his life might not be over after all.

The Manifestor Prophecy

By Angie Thomas

It’s not easy being a Remarkable in the Unremarkable world. Some things are cool—like getting a pet hellhound for your twelfth birthday. Others, not so much—like not being trusted to learn magic because you might use it to take revenge on an annoying neighbor.

All Nic Blake wants is to be a powerful Manifestor like her dad. But before she has a chance to convince him to teach her the gift, a series of shocking revelations and terrifying events launch Nic and two friends on a hunt for a powerful magic tool she’s never heard of...to save her father from imprisonment for a crime she refuses to believe he committed.

The Superteacher Project

By Gordon Korman

Oliver Zahn, spitball champion and self-declared rule-wrecker of Brightling Middle School, is not a fan of his new homeroom teacher, Mr. Aidact. The guy is totally stiff, never cracks a smile, and refers to his students as “pupils.” Worst of all, he seems to have eyes in the back of his head. He catches Oliver before he can pull any of his signature pranks! It’s time to show the new teacher who’s boss.

But as the weeks go by, he starts to realize that Mr. Aidact is not what he expected. The guy has an uncanny ability to remember song lyrics or trivia. When the girls’ field hockey team needs a new coach, he suddenly turns out to be an expert. He never complains when other teachers unload work on him—even when it’s lunchroom duty and overseeing detention. Against all odds, Mr. Aidact starts to become the most popular teacher at Brightling.

Still, Oliver knows that something is fishy. He’s determined to get to the bottom of the mystery: What’s the deal with Mr. Aidact?

The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry

By Chad Morris

Eleven-year-old Juniper Berry lives with her family deep in the wild woods. Living off the grid is pretty exciting, but her happy life in the wild ends abruptly when her younger brother gets sick, and they move to the city to be closer to the hospital. Juniper and her older sister end up living with cousins they hardly know and attending public school for the first time, which is harder to navigate than the wild woods ever were. Juniper feels like a wolf cub separated from her pack.

The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry is a story about perseverance when faced with difficult and unfamiliar challenge, belonging and finding your identity, compassion for others, and learning that our differences can sometimes be our strengths.

When Sea Becomes Sky

By Gillian McDunn

Bex and Davey’s summer in the saltmarsh is different this year, thanks to the record-breaking drought. Even the fish seem listless—and each day the water level lowers farther. When they discover a mysterious underwater statue, they’re thrilled at the chance to solve the puzzle of its origin. But when they learn of a development plan that will destroy their beloved marsh, they need to act quickly.

Unfortunately, sometimes progress happens whether you’re ready or not.

What will it mean if Bex and Davey lose their corner of the marsh where otters frolic and dragonflies buzz—their favorite place to be siblings together?

Witchlings

By Claribel A. Ortega

Every year, in the magical town of Ravenskill, Witchlings who participate in the Black Moon Ceremony are placed into covens and come into their powers as full-fledged witches.

And twelve-year-old Seven Salazar can't wait to be placed in the most powerful coven with her best friend! But on the night of the ceremony, in front of the entire town, Seven isn't placed in one of the five covens. She's a Spare!

Spare covens have fewer witches, are less powerful, and are looked down on by everyone. Even worse, when Seven and the other two Spares perform the magic circle to seal their coven and cement themselves as sisters, it doesn't work! They're stuck as Witchlings―and will lose their magic.

Seven invokes her only option: the impossible task. The three Spares will be assigned an impossible task: If they work together and succeed at it, their coven will be sealed and they'll gain their full powers. If they fail... Well, the last coven to make the attempt ended up being turned into toads. Forever.

Search