Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book

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Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book

- What it is: An annual award for the best science fiction or fantasy book for young adults.
- Who runs it: World Science Fiction Society (WSFS).
- When it started: First awarded in 2018. The most recent winner is Darcie Little Badger (Sheine Lende).
- Why the name: A lodestar is a guiding star that helps travelers in unknown waters.
- How winners are chosen: Worldcon members nominate and vote using instant-runoff voting. The final ballot has six finalists. Nominations run January–March; voting on the six finalists happens roughly April–July. Worldcon, where the Hugo Awards are held, is usually in August or September in a different city each year.
- Relation to the Hugo Awards: The Lodestar is presented at the Hugo Award ceremony but is not itself a Hugo Award.
- History in brief: There were attempts to add a Best Young Adult Book category to the Hugos. A WSFS committee in 2014 recommended making it a named non-Hugo award. Members approved this approach. The award was created through amendments to the WSFS constitution in 2017 and 2018; it did not have a formal name in its first year.
- Winners and finalists: In eight years, 28 authors have been finalists. Nnedi Okorafor has won twice (2018, 2023). Other winners by year: 2019 Tomi Adeyemi; 2020 Naomi Kritzer; 2021 Ursula Vernon as T. Kingfisher; 2022 Naomi Novik; 2024 Moniquill Blackgoose; 2025 Darcie Little Badger. Several authors have appeared on the finalist list multiple times, including Charlie Jane Anders, Frances Hardinge, Kritzer, Novik, Little Badger, and Vernon (as Kingfisher).