WA Do I Read Next? #WLA2026 in Yakima
At the recent Washington Library Association conference in Yakima, we coordinated our annual “WA Do I Read Next?” panel featuring library folks and authors talking about recent books by Washington authors that they have read and loved. This year’s panel included Newbery and Pura Belpré winning author Donna Barba Higuera, Washington State Book Award winning author Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe, Julie Graham (Yakima Valley Libraries Collection Development Librarian), and Sara Peté (Washington Center for the Book/Washington State Library).
Here is a list of their picks:
Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work by Jodi-Ann Burey
Beware the Dragon and the Nozzlewock by Vikram Madan
Bittersweet Lane: Creating Home(s) in the American Affordable Housing Crisis by Jamie Madden
Blue by Suzanne Kaufman
Cascadia Field Guide edited by Elizabeth Bradfield, CMarie Fuhrman, and Derek Sheffield
Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls
Fighting for the Puyallup Tribe: A Memoir by Ramona Bennett Bill
A Gift of Dust: How Saharan Plumes Feed the Planet by Martha Brockenbrough, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal
Good Morning, Morning! By Maya Myers, illustrated by Jennifer K. Mann
A High Price for Freedom: Raising Hidden Voices from the African American Past by Clyde W. Ford
The House of Gardenias by Isabel Cañas
I Sing the Salmon Home: Poems from Washington State edited by Rena Priest
Most Likely to Murder by Lish McBride
Positively Uncivilized by Rena Priest
The Sea Gives Up the Dead by Molly Olguín
Sinkhole, and Other Inexplicable Voids by Leyna Krow
Terry Dactyl by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
To Catch a Ghost by Rachel Michelle Wilson
Twelve Daring Grays: A Whale Migration Adventure by Nora Nickum, illustrated by Elly MacKay
We Survived the Night: An Indigenous Reckoning by Julian Brave NoiseCat