Best Children's Books of the Year
This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on November 9, 2006 Sign up now!
-- Publishers Weekly, 11/9/2006
Here we reprint PW's list of the best children's books of the year.
John, Paul, George & Ben To Dance: A Ballerina’s Graphic Novel
Picture Books
The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon
Mini Grey (Knopf)
The nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle” serves as prequel to this delightful swashbuckler, starring the title couple.
Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship
Isabella Hatkoff, Craig Hatkoff and Dr. Paula Kahumbu, photos by Peter Greste (Scholastic)
Glorious photos chart the growing bond between a hippo orphaned by the 2004 tsunami and a 130-year-old tortoise in this warm and memorable story.
Lilly’s Big Day
Kevin Henkes (HarperCollins/Greenwillow)
Lilly, disappointed when her teacher makes her the “flower girl assistant” to his niece, winds up saving the day in her inimitable way.
Walter Dean Myers, illus. by Christopher Myers (Holiday)
In this father-son team’s aural and visual paean to jazz, the text’s savvy syncopation sweeps readers up in its rhythms, while the artist conjures the lurid reflections of after-dark jazz clubs.
Lane Smith (Hyperion)
Smith profiles the founding fathers as the nonconformist kids they might have been (with a nod to the Beatles, for grown-up readers).
David Wiesner (Clarion)
New details swim into focus with every rereading of this immensely satisfying, wordless excursion to the beach and beyond.
Fiction
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing
M.T. Anderson (Candlewick)
In this stunningly well-researched novel set in a philosophers’ society in Boston during the Revolution, narrator 16-year-old Octavian, son of an African princess, comes of age.
Kate DiCamillo, illus. by Bagram Ibatoulline (Candlewick)
Subtle shifts in the narrative and breathtaking illustrations chronicle the gradual changes within Edward, an arrogant china rabbit—an unlikely and ultimately sympathetic hero.
Saint Iggy
K.L. Going (Harcourt)
Iggy, born to an addicted mother in a New York City housing project, remains determined to do one heroic deed, and his disarming first-person narrative will turn readers’ perceptions of the world upside-down.
Fly by Night
Frances Hardinge (HarperCollins)
Hardinge’s stylish way with prose gives her sprawling debut fantasy, set in a kingdom where reading is forbidden, a literate yet often humorous tone.
Incantation
Alice Hoffman (Little, Brown)
Set during the Spanish Inquisition, this searing novel, narrated by a 16-year-old who learns the dangers of her true identity, echoes profoundly in present-day events.
Firestorm
David Klass (FSG/Foster)
From the very beginning of this gripping environmental fantasy, Klass taps into universal themes of adolescence, as a high school senior discovers that everything he thought was true is false.
Keturah and Lord Death
Martine Leavitt (Front Street)
With elements of a medieval tale, this magical novel narrated by Keturah, the village storyteller, describes how she follows a mythical hart into the forest and meets Lord Death.
Fairest
Gail Carson Levine (HarperCollins)
Some readers may argue that this novel surpasses Levine’s Ella Enchanted, as the author gives a visionary rendering of the Snow White tale that challenges conventional ideas of beauty.
Sold
Patricia McCormick (Hyperion)
Spare free-verse poems expose the plight of a 13-year-old Nepali girl sold into sexual slavery, and her gradual awakening to the harshness of the world around her.
Clementine
Sara Pennypacker, illus. by Marla Frazee (Hyperion)
Readers meet an eight-year-old whose spirit rivals Ramona and Judy Moody, with an unfailing nose for trouble and a comical way with words.
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak (Knopf)
In this WWII novel narrated by Death, a nine-year-old girl develops a love of books and words, even as life in her small German town starts to unravel.
Nonfiction
Pick Me Up
(DK)
With its eye-catching graphics, and a scope that covers everything from pop culture to politics and geography, this hefty volume has a tone that winks at the audience while respecting kids’ intelligence.
Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini
Sid Fleischman (HarperCollins/Greenwillow)
Fleischman’s childhood fascination with the legendary magician emanates from this accessible, attractively designed biography.
Siena Cherson Siegel, illus. by Mark Siegel (Atheneum/Jackson)
In an innovative use of the graphic novel format, the Siegels fluidly balance autobiographical events in Siena’s life with onstage action.
