The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) annually recognizes a list of the best books for children. The list is a lengthy one, so I’ll break it up by ages, as the committee does. The links head to GoodReads.
Here is the list for Older Readers:
Amelia lost : the life and disappearance of Amelia Earhart. By Candace Fleming.
Anya’s ghost. By Vera Brosgol.
Between shades of gray. By Ruta Sepetys.
Billions of years, amazing changes: The story of evolution. By Laurence Pringle, Illus. by Steve Jenkins.
Black & White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor by Larry Dane Brimner.
Blizzard of glass: the Halifax explosion of 1917. By Sally M. Walker.
Bluefish. By Pat Schmatz.
Bootleg: murder, moonshine, and the lawless years of prohibition. By Karen Blumenthal.
Dead End in Norvelt. By Jack Gantos.
Drawing from memory. By Allen Say.
The elephant scientist. By Caitlin O’Connell;Donna M. Jackson, Illus. by Caitlin O’Connell and Timothy Rodwell.
The fingertips of Duncan Dorfman. By Meg Wolitzer.
Flyaway. By Lucy Christopher.
Hidden. By Helen Frost.
The house Baba built : an artist’s childhood in China. By Ed Young.
How they croaked : the awful ends of the awfully famous. By Georgia Bragg, Illus. by Kevin O’Malley.
Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck. By Margarita Engle.
Into the unknown : how great explorers found their way by land, sea, and air. By Stewart Ross, Illus. by Stephen Biesty.
Jefferson’s sons : a founding father’s secret children. By Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.
Lost & found. By Shaun Tan.
A monster calls. By Patrick Ness.
Music was it : young Leonard Bernstein. By Susan Goldman Rubin.
Okay for now. By Gary D. Schmidt.
Queen of hearts. By Martha Brooks.
Raggin’, jazzin’, rockin’ : American musical instrument makers. By Susan VanHecke.
The Scorpio Races. By Maggie Stiefvater.
Sita’s Ramayana. By Samhita Arni, Illus. by Moyna Chitrakar.
Space, stars, and the beginning of time : what the Hubble telescope saw. By Elaine Scott.
Stones for my father. By Trilby Kent.
Tall story. By Candy Gourlay.
Terezin : voices from the Holocaust. By Ruth Thomson.
Under the mesquite. By Guadalupe Garcia McCall.
Witches! the absolutely true tale of disaster in Salem. By Rosalyn Schanzer.
