Summer is winding down: the weather has turned cooler (sob!) and students are starting the new school year. Get into the back-to-school mood with our senior superlatives for characters in the class of 2017–2018. What superlative would you award your favorite character?

Best hair: narrator, Crown; MacKenzie, My Hair Is a Garden

Best dressed: Julián, Julián Is a Mermaid; Sebastian/Lady Crystallia, The Prince and the Dressmaker; Edan, Don’t Cosplay with My Heart; the penguins, Penguins Don’t Wear Sweaters!

Best hat: Harber, Old Hat

Best friends: Raphael and Jerome, Jerome by Heart

Best frints: Yelfred and Omek, Best Frints at School

Best frenemies: Fox and Chick, The Party and Other Stories [Fox + Chick]

Most personality: Makepeace, A Skinful of Shadows

Most artistic: Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Hey, Kiddo; Marc Chagall, Through the Window

Most musical: Malú, The First Rule of Punk; Carson and Maggi, Give Me Some Truth; Bina, All Summer Long; Paul and Artie, When Paul Met Artie

Most poetic: Xiomara, The Poet X; Mr. Ward's class, Between the Lines

Best photographer: Graciela Iturbide, Photographic

Best baker: Leonora, Love Sugar Magic

Best listener: the rabbit, The Rabbit Listened

Best substitute: Miss Pelly, Dear Substitute

Best sleuths: Candice and Brandon, The Parker Inheritance; Stevie Bell, Truly Devious; Baby Monkey, Private Eye

Best can-do attitude: Chengdu, Chengdu Can Do; Humpty Dumpty, After the Fall; Sophie, When Sophie Thinks She Can’t…

Biggest bookworms: Lyric, Lyric McKerrigan, Secret Librarian; Chicken, Interrupting Chicken and the Elephant of Surprise; Arturo Schomburg, Schomburg

Biggest badass: Jane McKeene, Dread Nation

Biggest party…animals?: the veggies, Par-Tay!

Most confident: Viva, Rock What Ya Got

Most generous: Pie Is for Sharing kids

Most resourceful: Niña and Abuela, A Gift from Abuela; Willow the witch, Hansel & Gretel; Grace, Grace for Gus

Most eco-conscious: Rachel Carson, Spring After Spring; Ken Nedimyer, The Brilliant Deep

Most improved manners: Penelope, We Don't Eat Our Classmates; People Don't Bite People kids

Sneakiest: Mac, Mac Undercover; Elsie and Frances, Fairy Spell

Ace reporter: Sara, Disappeared

A-maze-ing: Bea, The Way to Bea

Faire-est of them all: Imogene, All’s Faire in Middle School

(Un)happy campers: Vera, Be Prepared; Lulu, Lulu Is Getting a Sister (Who WANTS Her? Who NEEDS her?)

Best farewell party: Penderwick family, The Penderwicks at Last

 

Varsity MVPs:

Baseball team: Maria Singh, Step Up to the Plate, Maria Singh; outfielder, I Got It!; Moose, Al Capone Throws Me a Curve

Basketball team: Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Becoming Kareem; Charlie Bell, Rebound; Bunny and Nasir, After the Shot Drops

Swim team: narrator, Saturday Is Swimming Day

Tennis team: Venus and Serena Williams, Game Changers

Track team: Sunny; Bobbi Gibb, Girl Running

Hockey team: Conor, Checked

Ice skating team: Tillie Walden, Spinning; skater, Lines

 

Most likely to change direction: Jane, Jane, Unlimited; Abigail Adams, Pirate of the Caribbean and Abraham Lincoln, Pro Wrestler [Time Twisters]

Most likely to change appearance: Jule, Genuine Fraud; Cindy Sherman, Meet Cindy Sherman

Most well-traveled: Leo, Libra, and Orion, Satellite; Rocky, A Chip off the Old Block; Charlie, The Journey of Little Charlie

Most in need of a schedule adjustment: Lizzie, Bizzy Mizz Lizzie

 

This post is part of Back-to-School Week 2018. For more Horn Book silliness about books we love, see the 2018 Mind the Gap Awards and previous years’ yearbook superlatives.