For over eight decades, thousands of Junior Library Guild members have learned to trust our selections. Our member librarians have seen, season after season, year after year, that we provide them with great books: Ones that go on to win awards, collect starred or favorable reviews, and earn industry honors. In short, JLG selects the same books you would choose on your own.

But the JLG editorial team has an unfair advantage – we get to read the best books of the year before they’re published. Publishers, large and small, have long valued the prestige that comes with having their books be named as JLG Selections. That’s why each year they provide us with the opportunity to read and review more than 3,000 of their best upcoming books in manuscript or galley stage. After thinning that group down to the very best 360 selections, we place our orders well in advance of publication dates (all JLG books are first editions) to provide you with new release titles soon after they are first released. 

That’s how JLG membership allows you to get tomorrow’s award winners today. The Graveyard Book, awarded the 2009 Newbery medal in January of that year, was selected by JLG in June 2008. JLG members received their copies of The House in the Night seven months before it won the 2009 Caldecott medal.