Students in grades 3-12 who read at least 3 titles from their respective list will be eligible to take part in the Missouri voting in March! Those who read all of their list will be treated to pizza at the Readers' Award Celebration at the end of the year!

Show Me Award Books (Grades 1-3)

2024-2025 Winners:

1st Place - Hamsters Make Terrible Roommates, 14,785 votes
2nd Place - Creepy Crayon, 11,098 votes
3rd Place - Yetis are the worst!, 7,063 votes

2025-2026 Nominees:

Title	Author	Illustrator
Basketball Dreams	Chris Paul	Courtney Lovett
Building a Dream: How the Boys of Koh Panyee Became Champions	Darshana Khiani	Dow Phumiruk
Cooler than Lemonade	Harshita Jerath	Chloe Burgett
How This Book Got Red	Margaret Chiu Greanias	Melissa Iwai
The Kitten Story: A Mostly True Tale	Emily Jenkins	Brittany Cicchese
The Mighty McKraken	Izzy B	Ben Askew
Seals Are Jerks!	Jared Chapman	Jared Chapman
The Three Little Guinea Pigs	Erica S. Perl	Amy Young
The World's Best Class Plant	Audrey Vernick & Liz Garton Scanlon	Lynnor Bontigao
We Don't Lose Our Class Goldfish	Ryan T. Higgins	Ryan T. Higgins

Mark Twain Award Books (Grades 4-6)

2024-2025 Winners:

1st Place – The Girl in the Lake, 955 votes

2nd Place – A Rover's Story, 761 votes

3rd Place – Freestyle, 606 votes

2025-2026 Nominees:

Title	Author
The Cursed Moon	Angela Cervantes
Extra Normal	Kate Alice Marshall
Farther than the Moon	Lindsay Lackey
Four Eyes	Rex Ogle and Dave Valeza
Hidden Truths	Elly Swartz
How to Stay Invisible	Maggie C. Rudd
Jawbreaker	Christina Wyman
Lasagna Means I Love You	Kate O'Shaughnessy
The Mystery of the Radcliffe Riddle	Taryn Souders
Nothing Else But Miracles	Kate Albus
When Sea Becomes Sky	Gillian McDunn
A Work In Progress	Jarrett Lerner

Truman Award Books (Grades 6-8)

2024-2025 Winners:

1st Place – The Fort, 244 votes

2nd Place – Two Degrees, 203 votes

3rd Place – Dinged, 169 votes

2025-2026 Nominees:

Title	Author
The Carrefour Curse	Dianne K. Salerni
The Fire, the Water, and Maudie McGinn	Sally J. Pla
Free Throws, Friendship, and Other Things We Fouled Up	Jenn Bishop
Good Different	Meg Eden Kuyatt
Iceberg	Jennifer A. Nielsen
It Found Us	Lindsay Currie
The Labors of Hercules Beal	Gary D. Schmidt
The Lost Year	Katherine Marsh
Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy	Angie Thomas
Once There Was	Kiyash Monsef
What Happened to Rachel Riley?	Claire Swinarski
The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry	Chad Morris & Shelly Brown

Gateway Award Books (Grades 9-12)

2024-2025 Winners:

1st Place – The Weight of Blood, 231 votes

2nd Place – I Must Betray You, 220 votes

3rd Place – The Words We Keep, 197 votes

2025-2026 Nominees:

Title	Author
Betting on You	Lynn Painter
The Black Queen	Jumata Emill
Check and Mate	Ali Hazelwood
Divine Rivals	Rebecca Ross
Don't Ask If I'm Okay	Jessica Kara
Forget Me Not	Alyson Derrick
Garden of the Cursed	Katy Rose Pool
A Long Stretch of Bad Days	Mindy McGinnis
Promise Boys	Nick Brooks
Rez Ball	Byron Graves
That's Not My Name	Megan Lally
Thieves' Gambit	Kayvion Lewis

Missouri Readers' Awards

Feature & Share

Students in grades 3-12 who read at least 3 titles from their respective list will be eligible to take part in the Missouri voting in March! Those who read all of their list will be treated to pizza at the Readers' Award Celebration at the end of the year!