2025 Cardinal Cup Award Winner and Honors Announced
The Cardinal Cup Committee, previously the Jefferson Cup Committee, is pleased to announce their 2025 winner, honor titles, series of note, and overfloweth selections. The 8-person committee selected these books from 168 historical fiction, historical nonfiction, and biography titles that ranged from picture books to young adult titles. The complete book list can be downloaded below.
The 2025 Cardinal Cup Award presentations at the Virginia Library Association 2025 Annual Conference in Richmond, Virginia are sponsored by Virginia Commonwealth University. The sessions are proudly sponsored by VCU Libraries.
Winner
The 2025 Cardinal Cup winner is One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome, published by Holiday House.
Slavery has ended, but life in Mississippi is still hard. Lettie’s father dreams of a better life for his family on their own land in Nebraska. So, Lettie finds herself in a covered wagon, embarking on a perilous journey West. The story is narrated in turns by Lettie, her mother Sylvia, and
Philomena, a young teacher who joins the group midway through the journey. This novel in verse does not gloss over the dangers, whether disease, crossing treacherous rivers, facing bandits on the road, or concerns about running out of money and supplies. But families and fellow travelers band together to support each other.
Lettie and her family are part of a larger migration when thousands of black families left the Reconstruction-era South as pioneers seeking a new life in the West when promised freedoms never came. In the end, this is a hopeful story where black families find a freer space to start their lives anew, and the very dangers of pioneer life provide more autonomy for women homesteaders as well. This compelling middle-grade novel in verse shines a light on a little-known chapter of the American pioneer experience.
About the Author
 Lesa Cline-Ransome is the author of more than twenty books for young readers including the Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor Author Honor Book One Big Open Sky and the award-winning Finding Langston trilogy. Her work has received a plethora of honors, including dozens of starred reviews, NAACP Image Award nominations, the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction and a Christopher Award. Her work has been named to ALA Notable Books and Bank Street Best Children’s Book lists and she lives in the Hudson Valley region of New York.
Honors
The 2025 Cardinal Cup Committee has selected four honor titles. The titles are:
- Call Me Roberto: Roberto Clemente Goes to Bat for Latinos by Nathalie Alonso, illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez (Calkins Creek)
- Heroes by Alan Gratz (Scholastic Press)
- The Soldier’s Friend: Walt Whitman’s Extraordinary Service in the American Civil War by Gary Golio, illustrated by E. B. Lewis (Calkins Creek)
- The Sole Man: Jan Matzeliger’s Lasting Invention by Shana Keller, illustrated by Stephen Costanza (Sleeping Bear Press)
Series of Note
The Cardinal Cup Committee recognizes a series of note. The Committee must read at least two titles from a book series for it to be eligible for this honor. The Series of Note is First Second's History Comics. This middle grade nonfiction graphic novel series aims to make history come alive. The committee received two titles from the series: Hip-Hop: The Beat of America by Jarrett Williams and The Prohibition Era: America’s War on Alcohol by Jason Viola and Roger Langridge. The graphic format of these well-researched books makes history more engaging for young readers without sacrificing accuracy or a balanced representation of America’s past.
About Cardinal Cup Award
Established in 1982 and presented since 1983, the Cardinal Cup Committee’s goal is to promote reading about America’s past; to encourage the quality writing of United States history, biography, and historical fiction for young people, and to recognize authors in these disciplines. From 2012-2021 two books were selected: one for geared toward young adult readers and one for young readers. Beginning in 2022, the Committee returned to the original model, honoring the most distinguished biography, historical fiction, or American history book for young people. In 2023, the Committee and award were renamed. The Cardinal Cup Committee’s mission remains the same, with a commitment to celebrating titles that honor the diverse history of the United States.
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