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.

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 All Ages:

  

Can we save the tiger? By Martin Jenkins, Illus. by Vicky White.

Heart and soul: the story of America and African Americans. By Kadir Nelson.

If rocks could sing: A Discovered Alphabet. By Leslie McGuirk.

  

Never forgotten. By Pat McKissack, Illus. by Leo and Diane Dillon.

Press here. By Hervé Tullet.

Swirl by swirl: spirals in nature. By Joyce Sidman, Illus. by Beth Krommes.