| Year | Author(s) | Book Title | Publisher |
| 1997[5] | Nancy Farmer | A Girl Named Disaster | Orchard Books |
| Will Hobbs | Far North | HarperCollins |
| Binjamin Wilkomirski | Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood | Schocken |
| Philip Pullman | The Golden Compass / Northern Lights | Scholastic Point |
| John Gilstrap | Nathan's Run | Pinnacle Books |
| Walter Dean Myers | One More River to Cross: An African American Photograph Album | Harcourt Brace |
| Rob Thomas | Rats Saw God | Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers |
| Joshua Blum, Bob Holman and Mark Pellington | The United States of Poetry | Harry N. Abrams |
| Mel Glenn | Who Killed Mr. Chippendale? A Mystery in Poems | Lodestar Books |
| Rich Wallace | Wrestling Sturbridge | Random House Children's Books |
| 1998[6] | Annette Curtis Klause | Blood and Chocolate | Random House |
| Edward Bloor | Tangerine | Harcourt |
| Jon Krakauer | Into Thin Air | Villard Books |
| Joyce McDonald | Swallowing Stones | Ember |
| Karen Hesse | Out of the Dust | Scholastic Incorporated |
| Marjorie Reynolds | Starlite Drive-In | Penguin Group |
| Robert Cormier | Tenderness | Random House Children's Books |
| Sara Tuvel Bernstein | Seamstress | Berkley Books |
| Susan Campbell Bartoletti | Growing Up in Coal Country | Houghton Mifflin Company |
| Walter Dean Myers | Harlem | Scholastic Press |
| 1999[7] | Margaret Peterson Haddix | Among the Hidden | Simon and Schuster |
| Penny Colman | Corpses, Coffins, and Crypts | Holt |
| J. K. Rowling | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, Book One) | Scholastic Press |
| Louis Sachar | Holes | Farrar, Straus, and Giroux |
| Jacqueline Woodson | If You Come Softly | Putnam |
| Jean Ferris | Love Among the Walnuts | Harcourt Brace |
| Kimberly Willis Holt | My Louisiana Sky | Holt Publishing |
| Anita Lobel | No Pretty Pictures: a Child of War | Greenwillow |
| Ben Mikaelsen | Petey | Hyperion |
| Joan Bauer | Rules of the Road | Putnam |
| 2000[8] | Laurie Halse Anderson | Speak | Farrar, Straus, and Giroux |
| Orson Scott Card | Ender's Shadow | Tor |
| Kimberly Willis Holt | When Zachary Beaver came to Town | Henry Holt & Co |
| Sherryl Jordan | The Raging Quiet | Simon and Schuster |
| Laura and Tom McNeal | Crooked | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Carolyn Meyer | Mary, Bloody Mary | Harcourt Brace |
| Walter Dean Myers | Monster | HarperCollins |
| Lensey Namioka | Ties that Bind, Ties that Break | Delacorte Press |
| Connie Porter | Imani All Mine | Houghton Mifflin |
| Irene Gut Opdyke | In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer | Alfred A. Knopf |
| 2001[9] | Adam Bagdasarian | Forgotten Fire | DK |
| Joan Bauer | Hope was Here | G. P. Putnam's Sons |
| Tracy Chevalier | Girl with a Pearl Earring | E. P. Dutton |
| Jon Katz | Geeks: How Two Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho | Villard |
| E. L. Konigsburg | Silent to the Bone | Jean Karl Book/Atheneum Books |
| Gary Paulsen | The Beet Fields | Delacorte Press |
| Pam Munoz Ryan | Esperanza Rising | Scholastic Press |
| Jerry Spinelli | Stargirl | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Gloria Whelan | Homeless Bird | HarperCollins |
| Ruth White | Memories of Summer | Farrar, Straus, and Giroux |
| 2002[10] | Ann Brashares | The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants | Delacorte |
| Robert Cormier | The Rag and Bone Shop | Delacorte |
| Chris Crutcher | Whale Talk | HarperCollins |
| Alex Flinn | Breathing Underwater | HarperCollins |
| A. M. Jenkins | Damage | HarperCollins |
| Richard Mosher | Zazoo | Houghton Mifflin |
| Garth Nix | Lirael | HarperCollins |
| Mildred D. Taylor | The Land | Penguin Putnam |
| Rita Williams-Garcia | Every Time a Rainbow Dies | William Morrow |
| Virginia Euwer Wolff | True Believer | Atheneum |
| 2003[11] | Iain Lawrence | The Lightkeeper's Daughter | Random House/Delacorte Press |
| E. R. Frank | America | Simon & Schuster/Atheneum/A Richard Jackson Book |
| Laurie Halse Anderson | Catalyst | Penguin Putnam/Viking Press |
| Nancy Farmer | The House of the Scorpion | Simon & Schuster/Atheneum/A Richard Jackson Book |
| Naomi Shihab Nye | 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East | HarperCollins/Greenwillow |
| Elizabeth Partridge | This Land Was Made For You and Me: The Life & Songs of Woody Guthrie | Penguin Putnam/Viking |
| Gordon Korman | Son of the Mob | Hyperion Books for Children |
| Peter Nelson | Left for Dead: A Young Man's Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis | Random House/Delacorte Press |
| M. T. Anderson | Feed | Candlewick Press |
| Christopher Moore | Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal | HarperCollins/William Morrow & Co. |
| 2004[12] | Martha Brooks | True Confessions of a Heartless Girl | Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Melanie Kroupa Books |
| Jennifer Donnelly | A Northern Light | Harcourt |
| Mark Haddon | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A Novel | Random House/Doubleday |
| Angela Johnson | The First Part Last | Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers |
| David Levithan | Boy Meets Boy | Random House/Alfred A. Knopf |
| Joyce Maynard | The Usual Rules | St. Martin's Press |
| Edith Pattou | East | Harcourt Children's Books |
| Adam Rapp | 33 Snowfish | Candlewick Press |
| Jonathan Stroud | The Amulet of Samarkand (Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book One) | Hyperion Books for Children/Miramax |
| Craig Thompson | Blankets: An Illustrated Novel | Top Shelf Productions |
| 2005[13] | Joshua Braff | The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green | Workman Publishing Co. / Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill |
| Christopher Paul Curtis | Bucking the Sarge | Random House/Wendy Lamb |
| Phillip Hoose | The Race to Save the Lord God Bird | Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Melanie Kroupa Books |
| David Levithan | The Realm of Possibility | Random House Children's Books/Alfred A. Knopf |
| Melina Marchetta | Saving Francesca | Random House Children's Books/Alfred A. Knopf |
| Michael Morpurgo | Private Peaceful | Scholastic |
| Kenneth Oppel | Airborn | HarperCollins Children's Book Group/Eos Press |
| Adam Rapp | Under the Wolf, Under the Dog | Candlewick Press |
| Benjamin Alire Saenz | Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood | Cinco Puntos Press |
| Sarah Weeks | So B. It: a novel | HarperCollins Children's Books/ Laura Geringer Books |
| 2006[14] | Said Hyder Akbar and Susan Burton | Come Back to Afghanistan: A California Teenager's Story | Bloomsbury Publishing |
| Susan Campbell Bartoletti | Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow | Scholastic |
| Kalisha Buckhanon | Upstate | St. Martin's Press |
| John Green | Looking for Alaska | E. P. Dutton |
| Chris Lynch | Inexcusable | Simon & Schuster/Atheneum Books |
| Stephenie Meyer | Twilight: A Novel (Twilight, Book One) | Little, Brown & Co./Megan Tingley |
| Brian K. Vaughan with Adrian Alphona (Illus.) | Runaways: Volume 1 HC | Marvel Press |
| Scott Westerfeld | Peeps | Penguin Books/Razorbill |
| Chris Wooding | Poison | Scholastic/Orchard |
| Markus Zusak | I am the Messenger | Alfred A. Knopf |
| 2007[15] | M. T. Anderson | The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party | Candlewick Press |
| Alan Gratz | Samurai Shortstop | Penguin Group/Dial Press |
| Sonya Hartnett | Surrender | Candlewick Press |
| Patricia McCormick | Sold | Hyperion |
| Meghan Nuttall Sayres | Anahita's Woven Riddle | Abrams Books/Amulet Books |
| John Smelcer | The Trap | Henry Holt & Co |
| Megan Whalen Turner | The King of Attolia | HarperCollins/Greenwillow |
| Nancy Werlin | The Rules of Survival | Penguin Group/Dial Press |
| Gene Luen Yang and Lark Pien | American Born Chinese | Roaring Brook Press/First Second Books |
| Markus Zusak | The Book Thief | Random House/Alfred A. Knopf |
| 2008[16] | Sherman Alexie with Ellen Forney (Illus.) | The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian | Little, Brown & Co. |
| Ishmael Beah | A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier | Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Sarah Crichton |
| Jenny Downham | Before I Die | Random House/David Fickling |
| Stephanie Hemphill | Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath | Random House/Alfred A. Knopf |
| Lloyd Jones | Mister Pip | Dell Publishing/Dial Press |
| Derek Landy | Skulduggery Pleasant: The Sceptor of the Ancients (Skulduggery Pleasant, Book One) | HarperCollins |
| Mal Peet | Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal | Candlewick Press |
| Matthew Polly | American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China | Penguin Group USA/Gotham Books |
| Brian Selznick | The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel | Scholastic |
| Shaun Tan | The Arrival | Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine |
| 2009[17] | Robin Bowman | It's Complicated: The American Teenager | Umbrage Editions |
| Suzanne Collins | The Hunger Games | Scholastic |
| Leslie Conner | Waiting for Normal | HarperCollins/HarperTeen |
| Matt de la Pena | Mexican WhiteBoy | Delacorte Press |
| Siobhan Dowd | Bog Child | Random House/David Fickling Books |
| Christine Fletcher | Ten Cents a Dance | Bloomsbury |
| Joseph Monninger | Baby | Boyd Mills Press/Front Street |
| Terry Pratchett | Nation | HarperCollins |
| Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki | Skim | House of Anansi Press / Groundwood Books |
| Coert Voorhees | The Brothers Torres | Disney/Hyperion |
| 2010[18] | Sarah Rees Brennan | Demon's Lexicon (The Demon's Lexicon, Book One) | Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing/Margaret K. McElderry |
| Paul Griffin | The Orange Houses | Penguin/Dial Books |
| M. H. Herlong | The Great Wide Sea | Penguin/Viking |
| Catherine Jinks | The Reformed Vampire Support Group | Harcourt/ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
| Donna Jo Napoli | Alligator Bayou | Random House / Alfred A. Knopf |
| David Small | Stitches: A Memoir | W. W. Norton & Co |
| Rebecca Stead | When You Reach Me | Random House/Wendy Lamb |
| Francisco X. Stork | Marcelo in the Real World | Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books |
| Laini Taylor | Lips Touch: Three Times | Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books |
| Sally M. Walker | Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland | Lerner/Carolrhoda Books |
| 2011[19] | Paolo Bacigalupi | Ship Breaker | Little, Brown & Co |
| Jennifer Donnelly | Revolution | Random House/Delacorte Press |
| Melina Marchetta | Finnikin of the Rock | Candlewick Press |
| Morgan Matson | Amy & Roger's Epic Detour | Simon & Schuster |
| Lish McBride | Hold Me Closer, Necromancer | Macmillan Children's Book Group/Henry Holt & Co. |
| Andy Mulligan | Trash | Random House/David Fickling Books |
| Mitali Perkins | Bamboo People | Charlesbridge |
| Dana Reinhardt | The Things a Brother Knows | Random House/Wendy Lamb |
| Benjamin Alire Sáenz | Last Night I Sang to the Monster | Cinco Puntos Press |
| Marcus Sedgwick | Revolver | MacMillian Publishers/Roaring Brook Press |
| 2012[20] | Rae Carson | The Girl of Fire and Thorns | HarperTeen |
| Joshua C. Cohen | Leverage | Penguin Group/E. P. Dutton |
| A. S. King | Everybody Sees the Ants | Little, Brown Books for Young Readers |
| Guadalupe Garcia McCall | Under the Mesquite | Lee & Low Books |
| Lauren Myracle | Shine | Abrams Books/Amulet Books |
| Patrick Ness with Jim Kay (Illus) | A Monster Calls | Candlewick Press |
| Ruta Sepetys | Between Shades of Gray | Penguin Group/Philomel Books |
| Maggie Stiefvater | The Scorpio Races | Scholastic |
| Laini Taylor | Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Book One) | Little, Brown Books for Young Readers |
| Sara Zarr | How to Save a Life | Little, Brown Books for Young Readers |
| 2013[21] | Jesse Andrews | Me and Earl and the Dying Girl | Abrams Books/Amulet Books |
| Libba Bray | The Diviners | Little, Brown Books for Young Readers |
| Rachel Hartman | Seraphina | Random House Books for Young Readers |
| Alethea Kontis | Enchanted | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Harcourt Children's Books |
| David Levithan | Every Day | Random House/Knopf Books for Young Readers |
| Patricia McCormick | Never Fall Down | HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray |
| Matthew Quick | Boy 21 | Little, Brown Books for Young Readers |
| Benjamin Alire Sáenz | Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe | Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers |
| Maggie Stiefvater | The Raven Boys | Scholastic |
| Elizabeth Wein | Code Name Verity | Disney/Hyperion |
| 2014[22] | Julie Berry | All the Truth That's in Me | Penguin Putnam/Viking |
| Kristin Elizabeth Clark | Freakboy | Macmillan Publishers/Farrar, Straus, and Giroux |
| Tim Federle | Better Nate Than Ever | Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers |
| Tom McNeal | Far Far Away | Random House/Knopf Books for Young Readers |
| Rainbow Rowell | Eleanor & Park | Macmillan Publishers/St. Martin's Press |
| Marcus Sedgwick | Midwinterblood | Macmillan Publishers/Roaring Brook Press |
| Ruta Sepetys | Out of the Easy | Penguin Books/Philomel Books |
| Andrew A. Smith with Sam Bosma (Illus.) | Winger | Simon & Schuster |
| Tara Sullivan | Golden Boy | Penguin Books/ G. P. Putnam's sons Juvenile |
| Elizabeth Wein | Rose Under Fire | Disney/Hyperion |
| 2015[23] | Jandy Nelson | I'll Give You the Sun | Dial Press |
| William Ritter | Jackaby | Algonquin |
| John Corey Whaley | Noggin | Atheneum Books |
| Jessie Ann Foley | The Carnival at Bray | Elephant Rock Books |
| Kwame Alexander | The Crossover | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
| Brendan Kiely | The Gospel of Winter | Simon & Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry |
| E. K. Johnston | The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim | Carolrhoda/Lab |
| Marie Lu | The Young Elites | G. P. Putnam's sons |
| Timothee de Fombelle | Vango | Candlewick Press |
| E. Lockhart | We Were Liars | Delacorte Publishing |
| 2016[24] | Becky Albertalli | Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda | HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray |
| Leigh Bardugo | Six of Crows | Holt |
| Kevin Brooks | The Bunker Diary | Lerner Publishing Group/Carolrhoda Lab |
| Melanie Crowder | Audacity | Philomel Books |
| Daniel José Older | Shadowshaper | Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books |
| Jason Reynolds | The Boy in the Black Suit | Atheneum Books |
| Laura Ruby | Bone Gap | HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray |
| Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon | X: A Novel | Candlewick Press |
| Neal Shusterman | Challenger Deep | HarperTeen |
| Adam Silvera | More Happy than Not | Soho Teen |
| 2017[25] | Julie Berry | The Passion of Dolssa | Viking Books for Young Readers |
| Traci Chee | The Reader | G. P. Putnam's Sons / Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers |
| Frances Hardinge | The Lie Tree | Abrams Books |
| Mindy McGinnis | The Female of the Species | HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books |
| Meg Medina | Burn Baby Burn | Candlewick Press |
| Jason Reynolds | Ghost | Atheneum Books/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books |
| Ruta Sepetys | Salt to the Sea | Philomel Books |
| Neal Shusterman | Scythe | Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers |
| Nicola Yoon | The Sun is Also a Star | Delacorte Press |
| Jeff Zentner | The Serpent King | Crown Books for Young Readers |
| 2018[26] | Elana Arnold | What Girls Are Made Of | Lerner Publishing Group/Carolrhoda Lab |
| Leigh Bardugo with Sara Kipin (Illus.) | The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic | Macmillan Publishers |
| Mackenzi Lee | The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue | HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen |
| Sarah Moon | Sparrow | Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine |
| Jason Reynolds | Long Way Down | Simon & Schuster/Atheneum Books |
| Laini Taylor | Strange the Dreamer | Little, Brown & Co |
| Angie Thomas | The Hate U Give | HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray |
| Renee Watson | Piecing Me Together | Bloomsbury USA |
| Francesca Zappia | Eliza and Her Monsters | HarperCollins/Greenwillow |
| Jeff Zentner | Goodbye Days | Crown Books for Young Readers |
| 2019[27] | Elizabeth Acevedo | The Poet X | HarperTeen |
| Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera | What if It's Us | HarperTeen |
| Holly Black | The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, Book One) | Little, Brown & Co. |
| Deb Caletti | A Heart in a Body in the World | Simon Pulse |
| Justina Ireland | Dread Nation | HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray |
| Tiffany D. Jackson | Monday's Not Coming | HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books |
| Adib Khorram | Darius the Great is Not Okay | Dial Press |
| Emma Mills | Foolish Hearts | Henry Holt & Co |
| Preston Norton | Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe | Disney Hyperion |
| Shivaun Plozza | Frankie | Flatiron Books |
| 2020[28] | Ben Philippe | The Field Guide to the North American Teenager | HarperCollins/Balzer+Bray |
| Sharon Biggs Waller | Girls on the Verge | Holt |
| Mindy McGinnis | Heroine | HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books |
| Abdi Nazemian | Like a Love Story | HarperCollins/Balzer+Bray |
| Julie Berry | Lovely War | Viking Press |
| Angie Thomas | On the Come Up | HarperCollins/Balzer+Bray |
| Randy Ribay | Patron Saints of Nothing | Penguin/Kokila |
| Akwaeke Emezi | Pet | Random House/Make Me a World |
| Junauda Petrus | The Stars and the Blackness between Them | E. P. Dutton |
| Elizabeth Acevedo | With the Fire on High | HarperTeen |
| 2021[29] | Mindy McGinnis | Be Not Far from Me | HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books |
| Aiden Thomas | Cemetery Boys | Macmillan/Swoon Reads |
| Elizabeth Acevedo | Clap When You Land | HarperCollins/HarperTeen |
| Frances Hardinge | Deeplight | Abrams Books/Amulet Books |
| Tiffany D. Jackson | Grown | HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books |
| Syed M. Masood | More Than Just a Pretty Face | Hachette/Little, Brown Books for Young Readers |
| Jordan Ifueko | Raybearer | Abrams Books/Amulet Books |
| Kim Johnson | This Is My America | Random House Books for Young Readers |
| Jenny Torres Sanchez | We Are Not from Here | Penguin Random House/Philomel Books |
| Jennifer Longo | What I Carry | Random House Books for Young Readers |
| 2022[30] | Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon | Blackout | HarperCollins/Quill Tree Books |
| Aden Polydoros | The City Beautiful | Harlequin/Inkyard Press |
| Angie Thomas | Concrete Rose | HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray |
| David Arnold | The Electric Kingdom | Penguin Random House/Viking Books for Young Readers |
| Angeline Boulley | Firekeeper's Daughter | Macmillan/Henry Holt & Co. Books for Young Readers |
| Raquel Vasquez Gilliland | How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe | Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers |
| Jeff Zentner | In the Wild Light | Penguin Random House/Crown Books for Young Readers |
| Malinda Lo | Last Night at the Telegraph Club | Penguin Random House/Dutton Books |
| Margaret Owen | Little Thieves | Macmillan/Henry Holt & Co. Books for Young Readers |
| Amber McBride | Me (Moth) | Macmillan/Feiwel & Friends |
| Joan He | The Ones We're Meant to Find | Macmillan/Roaring Brook Press |