Photo: Cynthia K. Ritter.

The 2025 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards took place last Thursday, November 6, at the Cambridge (MA) Public Library — and what a time we had! It was only our second time back in person post-COVID-19 (last year was at the beautiful and historic Boston Public Library) and our first time at this site, which is also my home library and the city system of one of this year’s judges, Hill Saxton, along with Director of Libraries for the City of Cambridge Dr. Maria McCauley, who is current ALA president. Chair Susannah Richards was also enthusiastically present, and we were sad to miss the third judge, Julie Hakim Azzam, but we were thrilled by the turnout, both of attendees and of those being honored.

Because everyone came! Every author and illustrator, award winner and honoree, along with a good number of publishing folks, Editor in Chief Emeritus Roger Sutton, Horn Bookers past and present, IBBY Regional attendees, Mass Freedom to Read coalition members, and a whole lot of “children’s literature enthusiasts,” Horn Book terminology for: our people. 

Thanks again to the library, including Muna and Zack from Programs and Events for their spirit of collaboration; to Porter Square Books for their bookselling; to our colleague in Events, Jodi Weinheimer; to all the Horn Bookers (especially Cindy!); and as always to our longtime sponsoring partner, the Boston Globe and the Globe Foundation, for their commitment to the Boston area, to our communities, to literacy, and to the love of reading for reading’s own sake.

All of the speeches will appear in the January/February 2026 issue of The Horn Book Magazine, with original cover art by BGHB picture book illustrator winner Matt James, and we’ll be putting up all of the speeches and information on how to order copies at Hbook.com. Of course we’d also love it if you’d subscribe or to sign up for our free monthly e-newsletters. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky.