View the current All Iowa Reads winners and shortlists as well as winners and shortlists from the past five years.
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All Iowa Reads:
DISTANT SONS by Tim Johnston
Adult Runners Up
- Bet the Farm: The Dollars and Sense of Growing Food in America by Beth Hoffman
- Everything I learned, I learned in a Chinese Restaurant: A Memoir by Curtis Chin
- A Fever in the heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan
- I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
- Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Teen All Iowa Reads:
REZ BALL by Byron Graves
Teen Runners Up
- Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by Daska Slater
- Forever Is Now by Mariama J. Lockington
- Huda F. Are You? by Huda Fahmy
- The Silence That Binds Us written by Joanna Ho
- Where You See Yourself by Claire Forrest
Kids All Iowa Reads:
JAWBREAKER by Christina Wyman
Kids Runners Up
- Barely Floating by Liliam Rivera
- Dust by Dusti Bowling
- Good Different by Meg Eden Kuyatt
- The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary D. Schmidt
- We Still Belong by Christine Day
- What Happened To Rachel Riley? by Claire Swinarski
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Previous Years Winners and Shortlists
Click on a year below to expand the section and see that year's All Iowa Reads selected title(s) as well as the runners up.
List items for Previous All Iowa Reads Titles
All Iowa Reads:
The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson
Adult Runners Up
- Don't Cry for Me by Daniel Black
- How to Think Like a Woman by Rebecca Penaluna
- The Kindest Lie by Nancy Johnson
- When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
- You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar
Teen All Iowa Reads:
Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed
Teen Runners Up
- One of the Good Ones by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite
- In The Wild Light by Jeff Zentner
- This Place Is Still Beautiful by XiXi Tian
- Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre by Brandy Colbert
Kids All Iowa Reads:
Tumble by Celia C. Pérez
Kids Runners Up
- Cress Watercress by Gregory Maguire
- Anybody Here Seen Frenchie? by Leslie Connor
- The Best Liars in Riverview by Lin Thompson
- Attack of the Black Rectangles by Amy Sarig King
All Iowa Reads: How High We Go in the Dark: A Novel by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Adult Runners Up
- Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson
- Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh
- The Orphans of Davenport: Eugenics, the Great Depression, and the War over Children’s Intelligence by Marilyn Brookwood
- Raft of Stars by Andrew J. Graff
- We Heard It When We Were Young by Chuy Renteria
Teen All Iowa Reads: Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Teen Runners Up
- Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
- From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial That Galvanized the Asian American Movement by Paula Yoo
- Himawari House by Harmony Becker
- The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzsimons
- Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous by Suzanne Park
Kids All Iowa Reads: The Golden Hour by Niki Smith
Kids Runners Up
- Brother's Keeper by Julie Lee
- Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk
- How to Find What You're Not Looking For by Veera Hiranandani
- Starfish by Lisa Fipps
All Iowa Reads: The Butterfly Effect by Rachel Mans McKenny
Adult Runners Up
- Barn 8: A Novel by Deb Olin Unferth
- How Much of These Hills is Gold by Pam Zhang
- The Lager Queen of Minnesota: A Novel by J. Ryan Stradal
- Love, Zach: Small-Town Football and the Life and Death of an American Boy by Reid Forgrave
- The Monsters We Make: A Novel by Kali White
- Valentine: A Novel by Elizabeth Wetmore
Teen All Iowa Reads: What I Carry by Jennifer Longo
Teen Runners Up
- Slay by Brittney Morris
- Displacement by Kiku Hughes
- Camp by L.C. Rosen
- Blanca & Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore
- The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf
Kids All Iowa Reads: The Lonely Heart of Maybelle Lane by Kate O'Shaughnessy
Kids Runners Up
- Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte
- Stand Up, Yumi Chung! by Jessica Kim
- Sal & Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez
- From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
- Itch by Polly Farquhar
All Iowa Reads: Little Faith by Nickolas Butler
Adult Runners Up
- After the Flood by Kassandra Montag
- Arrowood: A Novel by Laura McHugh
- The Heap: A Novel by Sean Adams
- How to Forget: A Daughter's Memoir by Kate Mulgrew
- Prairie Fever by Michael Parker
Teen All Iowa Reads: Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay
Teen Runners Up
- We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson and Tonya Bolden
- Sorry for Your Loss by Jessie Ann Foley
- Like A Love Story by Abdi Nazemian
- Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith
- This Time Will Be Different by Misa Sugiura
Kids All Iowa Reads: Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai
Kids Runners Up
- Each Tiny Spark by Pablo Cartaya
- I Can Make This Promise by Christine Day
- The Last Last-Day-of-Summer by Lamar Giles
- The Best At It by Maulik Pancholy
- Cog by Greg van Eekhout
All Iowa Reads: The Mothers by Brit Bennett
Runners Up:
- The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez
- Eleven Hours by Pamela Erens
- Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran
- Where the Dead Sit Talking by Brandon Hobson
- When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka
Teen All Iowa Reads: Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Runners Up:
- We'll Fly Away by Bryan Bliss
- Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
- You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins
- The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera
- Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
Kids All Iowa Reads: The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
Runners Up:
- New Kid by Jerry Craft
- Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer by Kelly Jones
- The Season of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon
- The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez
- Front Desk by Kelly Yang
For winners beyond the previous five years, contact Helen.Dagley@iowa.gov (adult program) or Janee.Jackson-Doering@iowa.gov (teen and kids programs).
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