The Best Children’s Books of the Century (So Far) are here! The real judges of children’s literature are the kids, as we write in the introduction to our mega list of the best kid lit published in the last quarter century.

These are books beloved by generations of young readers, major award winners, pop culture sensations, and groundbreakers nominated by the parents, teachers, librarians, and professional readers of all kinds of books that make up our staff and writers.

This century’s kid lit hits include:

Bookmark this list. Whether you have young readers in your life or never stopped loving children’s books, you’ll find a book for any chapter of life.

It’s been two years since we first learned that Anne Hathaway won the rights to Yesteryear, Caro Claire Burke’s runaway 2026 bestseller about a tradwife influencer who wakes up one day in the 19th century.

I was admittedly let down by the big reveal of Yesteryear, but I am forever interested in the project of adaptation. My interest is piqued by this film for the challenges this one poses, and I have some questions about the movie and how it’s gonna get made. 

🎬 What’s the casting situation? No casting announcements have been confirmed beyond Hathaway as Natalie, but Burke has done some light fancasting in interviews.

🧠 How will the film pull off this much interiority? Burke has said from the outset that the project will not be a beat-for-beat reimagining of her book, since two+ hours of a tradwife influencer’s inner monologue doth not an interesting film make. I’d also argue that’s also just not the point of an adaptation, but I digress.

🔚 What about that ending? Listen, I’ve seen The Odyssey. I know what cinematic magic is possible with some lighting, creative angles, and a dream (looking at you, Circe). But I truly do wonder how the reveal in this movie, and keeping up the overall conceit, is going to go.

🎧 Listen to our Patreon book club episode of Yesteryear on The Book Riot Podcast. —VD

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Do you finish every book you start? I couldn’t imagine, but the bookish world is seriously debating whether it’s okay to DNF (“Did Not Finish”) a book. 

The NYT discusses how this debate picked up even more steam once Goodreads added an option to DNF a book earlier this year because of demand, a feature already available through competitor Storygraph. (Shoutout Storygraph!) Both sides have their points.

Those who are pro-DNF need the following to be on point for them to finish a book:

Meanwhile, the anti-DNF crowd says:

Funny note on that last point: even bestselling authors strongly believe in not finishing books. Hayley Gelfuso, Harlan Coben, and Claire Lombardo are all quoted as chucking the deuces to books within the first few pages. 

Personally, the way my attention span is set up, I was never not going to DNF books here and there, but it doesn’t mean I’m saying bye to them forever. Sometimes they work better for me as audiobooks, or maybe even at another time in my life. 

What about you? Do you DNF? —EE

The biggest conversation happening right now in books and reading is about AI and LLMs (Large Language Models, like ChatGPT).

AI slop is flooding ebook markets. Literary prizes, especially ones for short stories, are scrambling to defend against AI accusations. Book deals have been pulled after writers admitted to using LLMs.

But among all of this uproar, we seem to have missed an important step: defining what we mean by “AI-written.” AI has been incorporated into every step of the writing process, from research to drafting to editing to word choice.

If someone runs their finished story through ChatGPT and incorporates its feedback, is that now an AI-written story? What if a writer prompts an LLM for story ideas, but writes it themselves?

I want to know where we draw the line, so I’ve made a survey: What Counts as “AI-Written?” It’s only nine questions, so it shouldn’t take long to get through. What do you define as AI-written, and which AI-assisted works would you be open to reading?

I’ll report back in a couple of weeks with the findings! —DE

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Animal book covers are nothing new. This is especially true for children’s books and for comics.

Here are just a few of the books we’ve seen fantastic fronting felines:

Not a cat fan? The good news is there’s plenty of good boys and girls in the form of dogs on adult fiction covers this year, too:

🐾 You’re in for some doggone pawsome reads here – KJ 

Bookstagram has been abuzz over Instagram’s new test feature allowing users to share their current read. If the current read banner is available to you, you can go to Edit Profile > Banners > + Fill in the blank > Tap to select “Reading” > Type in your title > Save.

The options available aren’t limited to “Reading,” but also include:

@thebookolics boarded the hype train in their announcement of the feature. “How fun is that?” the online community for readers and writers wrote in their caption.

But not every reader is down to clown with bookish banners. See “Instagram’s new book feature totally misses the point of reading,” a brief opinion for The Independent that kicks off and concludes by invoking the chiding spirit of a second century satirist.

A feature showcasing current reads is so benign, especially in the grand scheme of Meta’s questionable rollouts, and the argument that the banner misses the point of reading doesn’t land. Readers share profile Bio space with their CRs (Current Read), talk about them in their grids, and post them wherever they find community because reading in community is the point. – SZW

Lit Mag News is your guide to all things lit mag. News, inside information, publishing advice, and more. Come join the huge and growing community of writers and editors! Authored by Becky Tuch, a fiction and nonfiction writer, instructor, editor and mom, based in Philadelphia, PA.

Did you know? William Goldman’s brother, James, ALSO has an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film version of his play, The Lion in Winter (which rules, by the way).

💸 Publishing sales increased by 2.5% in 2025.

🧠 Train your brain to read more with a 30-day protocol modeled on progressive overload strength training.

🇨🇦 Here are the winners of the 2026 Aurora Awards for sci-fi and fantasy by Canadian writers.

🤖 One more problem with AI-generated writing: it erases women.

Written by Rebecca Schinsky Sharifah Williams, Vanessa Diaz, Erica Ezeifedi, Danika Ellis, Kelly Jensen, and Jeff O’Neal. Thanks to Vanessa Diaz for copy editing.

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