Most Recent Winners

2024-2025

And the winner is…

The votes have been counted and 20,000 students from across the state have selected their favorite books as part of the Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Book Award program. The student selections are:

Picture Book – Yoshi and the Ocean: A Sea Turtle's Incredible Journey Home by Lindsay Moore

Grades 3-5 -- Dogtown by Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko, illustrated by Wallace West

Graphic Novels Grades 3-5 –Saving Sunshine by Saadia Faruqi, illustrated by Shazleen Khan

Grades 6-8 – Two Degrees by Alan Gratz

Graphic Novels Grades 6-8 –Eerie Tales from the School of Screams by Graham Annable

High School – Lore by Alexandra Bracken AND Promise Boys by Nick Brooks

Graphic Novels High School --The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich by Deya Muniz

Congratulations to our winning authors, illustrators, and publishers and to the students, teachers, and librarians who every year make the program such a resounding success.

The Results

Wondering how your favorite book did in student voting? The following charts list the books in descending order beginning with the top vote-getter. In deference to our authors, publishers, and especially the student voters whose books did not capture top honors, we do not publish numbers of votes.

Picture Books
Yoshi and the Ocean: A Sea Turtle’s Incredible Journey Home
A New Day
I Want 100 Dogs
I am a Tornado
Acorn was a Little Wild
I Can’t Draw
The Sweetest Scoop: Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Revolution
What Happened to You?
Beneath
The Witness Trees
Love in the Library
Her Name was Mary Katharine: The Only Woman Whose Name is on The Declaration of Independence
Once Upon a Book
When the Stars Came Home
Counting in Dog Years and Other Sassy Math Poems

Grades 3-5
Dogtown
Finally Seen
The Lost Library
The Superteacher Project
The Curious Vanishing of Beatrice Willoughby
Minerva Keen’s Detective Club
Home Away From Home
You are Here: Connecting Flights
The Way I Say It
Montgomery and the Case of the Golden Key

Graphic Novels Grades 3-5
Saving Sunshine
Paws: Gabby Gets It Together, Book 1
Batcat
Things in the Basement
Killer Underwear Invasion: How to Spot Fake News, Disinformation & Lies
Meesh the Bad Demon, Book 1
The Dog Knight
Prunella and the Cursed Skull Ring
Squire & Knight, Book 1
Enlighten Me

Grades 6-8
Two Degrees
What Happened to Rachel Riley?
Hunters of the Lost City AND The Midnight Children
Concealed
The Probability of Everything
Simon Sort of Says
Harboring Hope: The True Story of How Henry Sinding Helped Denmark’s Jews Escape the Nazis
The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne
Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Vampire Hunting

Graphic Novels Grades 6-8
Eerie Tales from the School of Screams
Play Like a Girl: a graphic memoir
Buzzing AND Sunshine: How One Camp Taught Me about Life, Death, and Hope
The Faint of Heart
Pearl of the Sea
Stars in Their Eyes
Twig, Book 1
Lost in Taiwan AND Santiago! Santiago Ramon y Cajal – Artist, Scientist, and Troublemaker

High School
Lore AND Promise Boys
Goth Girl, Queen of the Universe
We Deserve Monuments
Four for the Road
Hollow Fires
Love in English
Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives it Changed
The Honeys
Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses

Graphic Novels High School
The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Kaiju No 8, Book 1
Over My Dead Body
Northranger
Project Nought
The Cursed Princess Club, Book 1 AND Twelfth Grade Night – Arden High, Book 1
Danger and Other Unknown Risks
Hollow
Knee Deep, Book 1

Full List of All Nominees (All Years)