Lodestar Award Winners for Best Young Adult Book

In 2018, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the World Science Fiction Society introduced the World Science Fiction Society Award for Best Young Adult Book. Stubbornly insisting that this award is not a Hugo, and not wanting to name the award after a person (either living or dead), the WSFS adopted the name "Lodestar" for the award, although they didn't officially use the name in its inaugural appearance.

To usher in the award, the WSFS arranged for Felicia Day to make a surprise appearance at Worldcon 76 and present the award. Day was pretty much the perfect person to choose for this role: She was witty and funny on the podium, and expressed a beautifully fannish combination of awe of and love for all of the authors she had met at the convention. Day reminds everyone that the intersection of creator and fandom can and should be a wonderful place. The initial award went to Nnedi Okorafor who, although she was not able to be present, sent along a speech in which she said if she were, she would that she would smirk as "a book full of JuJu and Nigerian witchcraft won the award with no name yet".

2018: Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor

2019: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
2020: Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer

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