2025-2026 Book List
Battle of the Books participants read off the book list (which has a variety of genres). They do NOT have to read all of the books to participate, but the more books read, the greater chance they can help their team answer competition questions correctly!
Click Here for printable 2026 Book List
Fiction
Al Capone Does my Shirts by Choldenko, Gennifer (from B.O.B. 2019)
Ghost by Reynolds, Jason (from B.O.B. 2021)
Northwind by Paulsen, Gary
Olivetti by Millington, Allie
Paperboy by Vawter, Vince (from B.O.B. 2019)
Pax by Pennypacker, Sara (from B.O.B. 2020)
Pay Attention, Carter Jones by Schmidt, Gary D. (from B.O.B. 2021)
Popcorn by Harrell, Rob
Restart by Korman, Gordon (from B.O.B. 2024)
Snow and Rose by Martin, Emily Winfield (from B.O.B. 2019)
Survivor Girl by Teagan, Erin (from B.O.B. 2023)
The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale by Klassen, Jon (from B.O.B. 2025)
Wayside School is Falling Down by Sachar, Louis (from B.O.B. 2018)
Wonder by Palacio, R. J. (from B.O.B. 2017 & 2021)
Poetry
Black Star by Alexander, Kwame
Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Sidman, Joyce (from B.O.B. 2018)
Mid-Air by Williams, Alicia D.
One Big Open Sky by Cline-Ransome, Lesa
When Clouds Touch Us by Lai, Thanhha
Nonfiction
All Thirteen: The incredible cave rescue of the Thai Boy’s Soccer Team by Soontornvat, Christina (from B.O.B. 2023)
Hippos are Huge! By London, Jonathan (from B.O.B. 2017)
Mexikid by Martin, Pedro
Snowflake Bentley by Martin, Jacqueline Briggs (from B.O.B. 2019)
The Fabled Life of Aesop: The Extraordinary Journey and Collected Tales of the World’s Greatest Storyteller by Lendler, Ian
You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Bacteria by Canavan, Roger (from B.O.B. 2019)
Picture Books
Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade by Sweet, Melissa illust by Sweet, Melissa (from B.O.B. 2017)
Feel the Beat: dance poems that zing from salsa to swing by Singer, Marilyn illust by Valiant, Kristi (from B.O.B. 2019)
Here comes the Garbage Barge! by Winter, Jonah illust by Red Nose Studio (from B.O.B. 2018)
The Tea Party in the Woods by Miyakoshi, Akiko illust by Miyakoshi, Akiko
We are Definitely Human by Fang, X. illust by Fang, X.
A note:
Sometimes books can be classified under different genres.
Also, We chose to include the illustrators’ names for only the books listed in the picture book & graphic novels sections but hope that you will pay attention to the illustrators’ names for every book you read. Questions about the illustrations are allowed for every book on the list, as this is an integral part of the story.