The Educational Book and Media Association (EBMA) is pleased to announce that the annual 2025 Jeremiah Ludington Memorial Award will be presented to Donna Barba Higuera, in the New Voices category.  The award, named after the EBMA’s founder, has historically celebrated the lifetime achievement of creators in the educational book world. The New Voices Award was established in 2022 to recognize a rising contemporary voice in the publishing industry vital to young readers’ success.

The New Voices Ludington Award will be presented to Donna Higuera on Monday, January 26^th, 2026 during the EBMA annual meeting at the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay Hotel in San Diego.

Donna Barba Higuera is a New York Times bestselling and Newbery Award-winning author who masterfully blends folklore with her lived experiences to create captivating stories for young readers. Growing up in the dust-filled oil fields of Central California, she spent her life weaving tales that sparked her imagination. Donna is the acclaimed author of picture books such as El Cucuy Is Scared, Too! and The Yellow Handkerchief. Her middle-grade novels have garnered significant recognition: Lupe Wong Won't Dance received the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor and a Pura Belpré Honor, while her second novel, The Last Cuentista, a timeless and classic book of storytelling, family, courage, and adventure, was awarded both the John Newbery Medal and the Pura Belpré Award. The Last Cuentista was also named a Best Book of the Year by The Boston Globe, Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, and TIME. Her newest book Xolo reimagines the Aztec myth of the origin of man—and man's best friend. The highly anticipated third and final book in The Cuentista series, Firesnake, is slated for release in May 2026.

"The EBMA board and membership are proud to present this year’s Ludington Award to Donna Barba Higuera,” said Marin Foster, President of the EBMA. “Donna’s stories are fearless, inventive, and deeply empathetic, blending fantasy, folklore, and realism to explore identity, heritage, loss, and belonging. Her books invite young readers to imagine bold futures while honoring their roots. The EBMA is thrilled to celebrate her contributions to children's literature and can’t wait to see where her storytelling takes us next.”

As part of the award, the EBMA will present a $2,000 check to the book-related charity of Ms. Higuera’s choice, the Kern Literacy Council  https://www.kernliteracy.org/about.html which has an ESL program called CBE that serves the Latino youth population of California’s Kern County.

The EBMA is an association of more than 100 wholesalers and publishers who are reputable and authoritative suppliers of educational paperbacks, hardcovers, pre-bound books, e-books, and other digital and print materials to the school and library market. The mission of the EBMA is to foster a unique community that brings together a wide range of wholesalers and publishers to address the ever-changing book and media buying needs of the educational and library marketplace.

For more information about the EBMA visit www.edupaperback.org, and for more on the Ludington Award, visit https://edupaperback.org/ludington_award.