Golden Dome Awards
2026-2027
by Dan Gemeinhart
Oscar is the youngest resident of Sunny Days retirement home by more than a half-century-and he wouldn't have it any other way. When his grandpa gets an eviction notice, Oscar will do anything to save their home - but he's not expecting "anything" to include theft, trespassing, gambling, a broken nose, grand theft auto, a federal prison, and a police chase!
Adventure
By Lauren Wolk
Lucy Sanderson and her mother move away from their home in Vermont to an island in Maine in part to escape the difficulties of living in a house and community where everyone and everything remind them of Lucy’s father who died in a car accident. However, they had another reason for moving, one that involved escaping the journalists who hounded Lucy’s mother, a famous and reclusive artist, for interviews. Lucy anticipates a summer of freedom to ride her horse, explore the island, and do some of her own painting that is derailed by the feuding between the summerfolk and the islanders and both groups' suspicions of the Sandersons. Lucy discovers a growing desire to make friends, but will that be possible among people who have lost as much, or more than, Lucy?
By Vicky Grant
Manya's parents own a joke shop, but she wants nothing to do with pranks - she's strictly into science. But when different products start harming the customers including a fatal whoopee cushion incident! - it's up to Manya to unravel the science behind what's gone wrong, and save her parents from a murder charge!
Mystery
By Rebecca Stead
All his life, Nathan has been keeping a secret: he and his parents are aliens on Earth, taking part in an experiment that now seems to be going very wrong. Other children who are members of the experiment keep going missing, and soon Nathan and his family find themselves being called back to the mother ship. However, Nathan is starting to suspect that there is more going on about the experiment than is being said, and is beginning to question what is and is not true.
Twelve-year-old Gloria St. Romain, Glory to everyone who knows her, has always loved mysteries. She spends her time solving puzzles and reading detective novels, comforted by the knowledge that truth can always be found for those who look closely enough for it.
In the small town of Great Mountain, Mississippi, all eyes are on Henson Blayze, a thirteen-year-old football phenom whose talents seem almost superhuman. The predominately white townsfolk have been waiting for Henson to play high school ball, and now they're overjoyed to finally possess an elite Black athlete of their own.
Becca Slugg just wants her mom to be okay with her participation in the upcoming school play. Barbara Slugg is timid and boring and Becca just wants her mom to be okay with Becca doing something interesting in their boring town. After a huge fight where Becca makes a good many wishes about how she wants her mother to be, all of a sudden interesting things begin happening, in the form of Becca’s aunt visiting, an aunt Becca never knew she had. However, Becca’s aunt is a witch, of all things, and not a kind one. After she curses Becca’s mom, Becca must find a way to turn her mom back to normal, aided by a couple of magical creatures who have been hiding in plain sight. It seems that Becca is a witch, too, with some power of her own, but will it be enough to defeat her aunt Malatrice and force Malatrice to return her mom to her regular self?
No one knows hard work and dedication like Valentina Camacho. And Vale’s thing is fencing. She’s the top athlete at her fencing gym. Or she was . . . until the accident.
After months away, Vale is finally cleared to fence again, but it’s much harder than before. Her body doesn’t move the way it used to, and worst of all is the new number one: Myrka. When she sweeps Vale aside with her perfect form and easy smile, Vale just can’t accept that. But the harder Vale fights to catch up, the more she realizes her injury isn’t the only thing holding her back. If she can’t leave her accident in the past, then what does she have to look forward to?
On Halloween night, Josie and her two best friends, Jackson and Alison, sneak into the infamously haunted Bachelor’s Grove cemetery. They are hoping to prove the existence of a famous ghost to secure coveted editorial spots on the school newspaper. Instead, they are chased out by a security guard before they gather any evidence…or so they think.
Aerimanders are extinct. Or so the government would have you think. Centuries ago, the Kingdom of Glaucus decreed the destruction of these dangerous, dragon-like creatures whose deadly flame could level entire cities and upend world orders.
Lu dreams of being a great adventurer, just like her ah-ma, who is a world-renowned geozoologist. Ah-ma has traveled far and wide, researching unique animals like dreamy cloud-jellies, enormous sunfish, and playful mossgoats. There’s nothing Lu loves more than reading Ah-ma’s letters about her quests, even if she and her mom struggle to understand the Cylian language Ah-ma writes in.
Maggie Fishbone is not expecting much when she’s sent to the Midwatch Institute for Orphans, Runaways, and Wayward Girls—the last resort after causing a ruckus at the orphanage where she was living. Except . . . the Institute isn’t some dreadful, dreary place like she thought.
Familiar rhythms rule the contained-but-contented lives of Han Yu and Luli. But when plague strikes Chang’An and financial crisis threatens Luli’s family, Han Yu and Luli must each venture out into the larger world—and into danger-filled adventure—to save what they love most. Filled with wondrous caves and conniving thieves, desert storms and magical lakes, Karina Yan Glaser’s epic and rewarding novel is a testament to the bravery required to face the unknown and the power of art to connect us through the ages.
Thimble-born from tip to toe, Pocket Bear remembers every moment of his becoming: the glimmering needle, the silken thread, the tender hands as each careful stitch brought him closer to himself. Born during the throes of WWI, he was designed to fit into the pocket of a soldier’s jacket, eyes sewn a bit higher than normal so that he always gazed upward. That way, glancing at his pocket, a soldier would see an endearing token of love from someone back home, and, hopefully, a good luck charm.
After making the buzzer-beating shot at the Georgia basketball state championships, Derrick Chan becomes the star of Bayard Middle School, and Derrick’s single dad could not be prouder. But there are parts of Derrick that no one knows about, like the toenail polish he wears under his basketball sneakers, his secret lip-sync performances in the bathroom mirror, and the feelings he’s developing for his best friend and teammate, JJ.
By Laurie Halse Anderson
In the spring of 1776, thirteen-year-old Elsbeth Culpepper wakes to the sound of cannons. It’s the Siege of Boston, the Patriots’ massive drive to push the Loyalists out that turns the city into a chaotic war zone. Elsbeth’s father—her only living relative—has gone missing, leaving her alone and adrift in a broken town while desperately seeking employment to avoid the orphanage.
Bess Stein is more than ready to be 6th grade class president. She's got tons of ideas—including a book vending machine—and her new friend June is beside her as vice-president. Together, they're unstoppable.
Max can’t seem to escape the big, looming shadow of his politician dad. But for the next few months, Max and his mom are going away to a quiet Texas beach town where Max can be someone else. Someone who doesn’t make dumb mistakes that embarrass his father—someone who knows how to be strong.
Finn Connelly is nothing like his dad, a star athlete and firefighter hero who always ran toward danger until he died two years ago. Finn is about to fail seventh grade and has never made headlines . . . until now.
Clare is the undead fox of Deadwood Forest. Here, leaves grow in a perpetual state of fall: not quite dead, but not quite alive—just like Clare. Long ago, he was struck by a car, and, hovering between life and death, he was given the choice to either cross into the Afterlife or become an Usher of wandering souls. Clare chose the latter: a solitary life of guiding souls to their final resting place.
Verity “Very” Nelson can do it all.
She’s student body president, debate club whiz, and first chair clarinetist. You could say she’s pretty much the best at everything…Well, almost everything. Everything except math.
All Pineda Matlage wants is to get through the school year and maybe pull an epic prank or two with his friends Junior, Ernesto, and Patsy. But class is disrupted when a slew of American soldiers descends upon their rural Texan town of Soledad. They’ll be carrying out a training exercise and taking over everything, from Pineda’s school to the local government.
A couple of hundred years ago, on a quiet Indonesian island, a volcano called Tambora erupted with a force and violence that changed history.
