A middle-grade novel about a secret community of formerly enslaved people has won the John Newbery Medal for the year’s best children’s book.

Donna Barba Higuera’s “The Last Cuentista,” a post-apocalyptic tale of a young girl who must preserve the memory of Earth’s history, has won the John Newbery Medal for the year’s best children’s book.

The 10 nominees on the longlist for the National Book Award for young people's literature were announced Wednesday.

The latest novels from Colson Whitehead and Joy Williams, and Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’ debut work “The Love Songs of W.