The Costa Book Awards have announced their shortlists. The award is the only major UK book prize limited to only authors residing in the UK and Ireland. Here are the titles shortlisted for the Children’s Book Award:
Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay
The Colour of the Sun by David Almond
Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen
The Skylark’s War by Hilary McKay (published as Love to Everyone in the US)
Here are some of the top items I shared on Twitter and Pinterest the last two weeks:
CHILDREN’S LIT
The 10 Best YA and Kids’ Books of 2018 https://buff.ly/2DKoycR #kidlit #yalit
25 Wondrous And Festive Christmas Books for Kids https://buff.ly/2Dv3plO #kidlit
50 Must-Read Historical Fiction Books for Kids https://buff.ly/2TKZ6IM #kidlit
Alison Lester wins the $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Literature https://buff.ly/2zXliq0 #kidlit
Bookstore’s Tweet On The Sale Of A Children’s Book After 27 Years Goes Viral https://buff.ly/2A1Xm4R #Reading
Children’s and teens roundup: the best new picture books and novels https://buff.ly/2AhVYey #kidlit #YALit
Netflix to adapt Roald Dahl classics to small screen https://buff.ly/2AyGVND #kidlit
The Picture Books That Defined 2018 & What They Say About Us https://buff.ly/2QO4Srk #kidlit
PW’s African-American Interest Young Readers’ Titles, 2018–2019 https://buff.ly/2TCt9SO #kidlit #YALit
Rest Easy Knowing ‘Spider-Man: Into the SpiderVerse’ Does Miles Morales Solid Justice – Black Nerd Problems https://buff.ly/2KE9eif #kidlit
Romper: The Gender Gap In Children’s Books Is Way Worse Than You Think https://pwne.ws/2TflIRt
SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK Is Coming Back! https://buff.ly/2KmpAfD #kidlit
Tablet – The Best Jewish Children’s Books of 2018 https://buff.ly/2FLL9r0 #kidlit
Wanda Gág awarded Original Art Lifetime Achievement Award | News, Sports, Jobs – The Journal https://buff.ly/2zYsq5D #kidlit
Washington Post’s best children’s books of 2018 https://buff.ly/2PyoIdq #kidlit
LIBRARIES
Chester’s award-winning library is at the heart of a cultural transformation https://buff.ly/2Sdz4MA #libraries
The Competitive Book Sorters Who Spread Knowledge Around New York https://buff.ly/2PvlJ5o #libraries
TEEN LIT
Author of The Poet X, Elizabeth Acevedo accepts the 2018 National Book Award https://buff.ly/2TkchQM #yalit
The B&N Teen bloggers’ 50 favorite YA books of 2018. https://t.co/iMgWuAT5Yu
Booklist: Read-a-Likes for Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy – The Hub https://buff.ly/2BzFzEb #YALit
BookRiot – 2019 YA Books Starring Queer Girls https://buff.ly/2TVuULg #lgbtq #yalit
Epic Reads – Best YA Books 2018: The 50 Top New Books to Read in 2018 https://buff.ly/2FA2ByV #yalit
Now in its 13th year, the winners of the An Post Irish Book Awards have been announced. Over 100,000 votes were cast to select the winners! Here are the teen and youth award winners:
TEEN / YOUNG ADULT BOOK OF THE YEAR
The Weight of a Thousand Feathers by Brian Conaghan
CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR (SENIOR)
Blazing a Trail: Irish Women Who Changed the World by Sarah Webb and Lauren O’Neill
CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR (JUNIOR)
The President’s Cat by Peter Donnelly
Another 2018 best books list has been released, this time from SLJ! Here are the titles:
PICTURE BOOKS
Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal
A Big Mooncake for Little Star by Grace Lin
Black Bird, Yellow Sun by Steve Light
Blue by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson, illus. by Rafael López
Drawn Together by Minh Lê, illus. by Dan Santat
The Field by Baptiste Paul, illus. by Jacqueline Alcántara
Fox + Chick: The Party and Other Stories by Sergio Ruzzier
Julian Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love
Me and My Fear by Francesca Sanna
Mommy’s Khimar by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, illus. by Ebony Glenn
A Parade of Elephants by Kevin Henkes
The Patchwork Bike by Maxine Beneba Clarke, illus. by Van Thanh Rudd
Saffron Ice Cream by Rashin Kheiriyeh
Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora
They Say Blue by Jillian Tamaki
Zola’s Elephant by Randall de Sève, illus. by Pamela Zagarenski
CHAPTER BOOKS
Meet Yasmin! by Saadia Faruqi, illus. by Hatem Aly
Tiger vs. Nightmare by Emily Tetri
MIDDLE GRADE
Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed
Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi
Blended by Sharon M. Draper
The Cardboard Kingdom by Chad Sell
Dactyl Hill Squad by Daniel José Older
A Dash of Trouble by Anna Meriano
Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome
Front Desk by Kelly Yang
Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
Hurricane Child by Kheryn Callender
Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake
The Journey of Little Charlie by Christopher Paul Curtis
Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish by Pablo Cartaya
Merci Suarez Changes Gears by Meg Medina
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
The Season of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon
The Serpent’s Secret by Sayantani Dasgupta
Swallow’s Dance by Wendy Orr
They Call Me Guero by David Bowles
You Go First by Erin Entrada Kelly
NONFICTION
Americanized by Sara Saedi
Dreamers by Yuyi Morales
Eat This!: How Fast Food Marketing Gets You to Buy Junk (and How You Can Fight Back) by Andrea Curtis, illus. by Peggy Collins
Facing Frederick: The Life of Frederick Douglass, a Monumental American Man by Tonya Bolden
The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler by John Hendrix
I Have the Right To: A High School Survivor’s Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope by Chessy Prout with Jenn Abelson
Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968 by Alice Faye Duncan, illus. by R. Gregory Christie
Not My Idea: A Book about Whiteness by Anastasia Higginbotham
Otis and Will Discover the Deep: The Record-Setting Dive of the Bathysphere by Barb Rosenstock, illus. by Katherine Roy
Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide by Isabel Quintero, illus. by Zeke Peña
Prickly Hedgehogs by Jane McGuinness
Spooked!: How a Radio Broadcast and the War of the Worlds Sparked the 1938 Invasion of America by Gail Jarrow
The Triumphant Tale of the House Sparrow by Jan Thornhill
We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorrell, illus. by Frané Lessac
YA
After the Shot Drops by Randy Ribay
All That I Can Fix by Crystal Chan
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
Blanca & Roja by Anna-Marie McLeMore
Blood Water Paint by Joy McCollough
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
Give Me Some Truth by Eric Gansworth
Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Love, Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
Mirage by Somaiya Daud
Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
Picture Us in the Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Pride by Ibi Zoboi
The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang
The Promised Neverland, Vol. 1: Grace Field House by Kaiu Shirai
A Room Away from the Wolves by Nova Ren Suma
Sadie by Courtney Summers
Speak: The Graphic Novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, illus. by Emily Carroll
When Light Left Us by Leah Thomas
POETRY
Jabberwalking by Juan Felipe Herrera
Martin Rising: Requiem for a King by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illus. by Brian Pinkney
Seeing into Tomorrow by Richard Wright & Nina Crews
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Boy by Tony Medina
Kitten and the Night Watchman by John Sullivan, illustrated by Taeeun Yoo (9781481461917)
The night watchman heads out to his night of work. He works on a construction site, making sure that the doors are locked and the rooms are empty. He shines his flashlight near the broken trucks and startles a killdeer. He drinks his coffee under the shining stars and moon, thinking of his children at home asleep. Then a small kitten appears and joins the watchman for the rest of his rounds. They spot a jet in the sky, share dinner, and look at bugs. But then the kitten disappears and the watchman is left with only the sounds of the night around him. When the kitten returns, the watchman makes a decision to bring it home with him.
Beautifully told in a gentle and simple way, this picture book takes a poetic look at a job and a setting that is not usually given that treatment. The counterpoint of a construction site and the beauty that night lends it is very effective. As the quiet of the night progresses, it reveals so much that is hidden during the day. Birds, insects, and the kitten itself emerge from the darkness to be noticed and are made remarkable.
The artwork is filled with darkness and blues. Yet it is also lit by stars and the moon, and it is filled with beams from flashlights and lamps. These yellow streams of light lend brightness and illuminate the budding relationship of the watchman and the kitten with warmth.
Uniquely mixing construction, night and beauty, this picture book is something special. Appropriate for ages 2-4.
Reviewed from library copy.
Kirkus has released their list of the Best Middle-Grade Books of 2018. On their website, they list them in categories, but I will list them alphabetically here. Here are the titles:
The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle by Christina Uss, illustrated by Jonathan Bean
Akissi: Tales of Mischief by Marguerite Abouet, illustrated by Mathieu Sapin
All Summer Long by Hope Larson
Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed
Ana Maria Reyes Does Not Live in a Castle by Hilda Eunice Burgos
Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi
The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin
Baby Monkey, Private Eye by Brian Selznick and David Serlin
Backyard Bears: Conservation, Habitat Changes, and the Rise of Urban Wildlife by Amy Cherrix
The Beloved World of Sonia Sotomayor by Sonia Sotomayor
The Book of Boy by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, illustrated by Ian Schoenherr
Calling All Minds: How to Think and Create Like an Inventor by Temple Grandin
Camp Panda: Helping Cubs Return to the Wild by Catherine Thimmesh
Can I Touch Your Hair?: Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship by Irene Latham, Charles Waters, illustrated by Sean Qualls, Selina Alko
Capsized!: The Forgotten Story of the SS Eastland Disaster by Patricia Sutton
The Cardboard Kingdom by Chad Sell
A Dash of Trouble by Anna Meriano
The Dragon Slayer: Folktales from Latin America by Jaime Hernandez
Dragons in a Bag by Zetta Elliott, illustrated by Geneva B
Eat This!: How Fast Food Marketing Gets You to Buy Junk (And How to Fight Back) by Andrea Curtis, illustrated by Peggy Collins
Everlasting Nora by Marie Miranda Cruz
Facing Frederick: The Life of Frederick Douglass, a Monumental American Man by Tonya Bolden
Fake Blood by Whitney Gardner
The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler by John Hendrix
Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome
First Generation: 36 Trailblazing Immigrants and Refugees Who Make America Great by Sandra Neil Wallace, Rich Wallace, illustrated by Agata Nowicka
Front Desk by Kelly Yang
The Ghost Road by Charis Cotter
The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian’s Art Changed Science by Joyce Sidman
Gone to Drift by Diana McCaulay
The Great Googlini by Sara Cassidy, illustrated by Charlene Chua
Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
The House that Lou Built by Mae Respicio
The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson
Hurricane Child by Kheryn Callender
The Hyena Scientist by Sy Montgomery, photographed by Nic Bishop
Illegal by Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin, illustrated by Giovanni Rigano
The Island at the End of Everything by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
It’s Up to You, Abe Lincoln by Leila Hirschfeld, Tom Hirschfeld, illustrated by Lisa Weber, Neal Swaab
Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake
The Journey of Little Charlie by Christopher Paul Curtis
Knights vs. Dinosaurs by Matt Phelan
The Language of Spells by Garret Weyr, illustrated by Katie Harnett
Look at the Weather by Britta Teckentrup
Love Like Sky by Leslie C. Youngblood
Martin Rising: Requiem for a King by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney
Meet Yasmin! by Saadia Faruqi, illustrated by Hatem Aly
Merci Suarez Changes Gears by Meg Medina
The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
North to Benjamin by Alan Cumyn
Otherwood by Pete Hautman
Out of Left Field by Ellen Klages
The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
Sanity & Tallulah by Molly Brooks
The Science of Breakable Things by Tae Keller, illustrated by Alexandria Neonakis
The Season of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon
The Sky at Our Feet by Nadia Hashimi
Small Spaces by Katherine Arden
Snowy Owl Invasion!: Tracking an Unusual Migration by Sandra Markle
So Done by Paula Chase
Stanley Will Probably Be Fine by Sally J. Pla, illustrated by Steve Wolfhard
Struttin’ with Some Barbecue: Lil Harden Armstrong Becomes the First Lady of Jazz by Patricia Hruby Powell, illustrated by Rachel Himes
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Boy by Tony Medina
Tortot, the Cold Fish Who Lost His World and Found His Heart by Benny Lindelauf, illustrated by Ludwig Volbeda
The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle by Leslie Connor
The Turnaway Girls by Hayley Chewins
We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices edited by Wade Hudson
You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P. by Alex Gino
You Go First by Erin Entrada Kelly
Zenobia by Morten Dürr, illustrated by Lars Horneman
Snow Lane by Josie Angelini (9781250150929)
Annie doesn’t live in the type of family that lets them take tropical vacations during school breaks like some of the kids she goes to school with. She is the youngest of nine children in her family and money is tight. Her father works so much that she barely sees him at all unless it is while she is helping out at their family farm picking berries. Her mother doesn’t pay much attention to any of the children except the two talented ones. As Annie returns to school for a new year, she realizes that she is very different than the other kids and it goes a lot deeper than her having to wear hand-me-downs from her older brother and wait to get new shoes that don’t have a huge hole in them. Annie is consistently resilient and cheerful in the face of everything she has to deal with, something that is all the more impressive as her family secrets are revealed.
Angelini has drawn from her own family history to create one of the most heart-wrenching books of the year. Readers will immediately know that there is something wrong in Annie’s life as they witness her older siblings being cruel to Annie and her closest sister. Annie struggles with dyslexia and one older sister who is physically violent and also emotionally abusive, telling Annie that she is stupid all the time. As the book steadily reveals the truth about the family, things fall into place and leave Annie to find a way forward using her optimism and intelligence.
Angelini writes beautifully here. She allows the story to play out in front of the reader with Annie herself living in denial about what is actually happening in her family. That denial is even explained clearly towards the end of the book, which gives readers hope that Annie will not just survive but start to thrive. Angelini gives Annie two critical friendships at school that allow her to be successful. Both friends clearly have some ideas of what might be happening to Annie, but neither push that too hard, offering instead friendship, food, and safety.
Heartfelt and painfully honest, this book will speak to so many children living in similar circumstances and allow them to know they are not alone. Appropriate for ages 9-12.
Reviewed from library copy.
Kirkus has released their list of the Best Picture Books of 2018. They list them by category on their site, but I’m going to list them alphabetically here for ease. Here are the titles:
3×4 by Ivan Brunetti
All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah by Emily Jenkins, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky
And There Was Evening, and There Was Morning by Harriet Cohen Helfand and Ellen Kahan Zager
Animal Shapes by Christopher Silas Neal
Auntie Luce’s Talking Paintings by Francie Latour, illustrated by Ken Daley
Ayobami and the Names of the Animals by Pilar López Ávila, illustrated by Mar Azabal
Black Bird Yellow Sun by Steve Light
A Boy and a House by Maja Kastelic
The Boo-Boos That Changed the World: A True Story about an Accidental Invention (Really!) by Barry Wittenstein, illustrated by Chris Hsu
Carmela Full of Wishes by Matt de la Pena, illustrated by Christian Robinson
The Dam by David Almond, illustrated by Levi Pinfold
Do Not Lick This Book by Idan Ben-Barak, illustrated by Julian Frost
Down by the River by Andrew Weiner, illustrated by April Chu
Drawn from Nature by Helen Ahpornsiri
Drawn Together by Minh Le, illustrated by Dan Santat
Dreamers by Yuyi Morales
Dude! by Aaron Reynolds, illustrated by Dan Santat
Every Month Is a New Year: Celebrations Around the World by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Susan L. Roth
The Field by Baptiste Paul, illustrated by Jacqueline Alcántara
Find Colors by by Tamara Shopsin and Jason Fulford
The Fish and the Cat by Marianne Dubuc
Flying Deep: Climb Inside Deep-Sea Submersible Alvin by Michelle Cusolito, illustrated by Nicole Wong
The Fox on the Swing by Evelina Daciute, illustrated by Aušra Kiudulaite
Fur, Feather, Fin: All of Us Are Kin by Diane Lang, illustrated by Stephanie Laberis
Go Baby! Go Dog! by Anne Vittur Kennedy
Grace for Gus by Harry Bliss
Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall
Holi Colors by Rina Singh
I Can Be Anything! Don’t Tell Me I Can’t by Diane Dillon
I Got a Chicken for My Birthday by Laura Gehl, illustrated by Sarah Horne
Jerome by Heart by Thomas Scotto, illustrated by Olivier Tallec
Julian Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love
Kitten and the Night Watchman by John Sullivan, illustrated by Taeeun Yoo
Koko and Bo by Lisen Adbage
Little Boat by Taro Gomi
Look by Fiona Woodcock
Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed, illustrated by Stasia Burrington
Marwan’s Journey by Patricia de Arias, illustrated by Laura Borràs
Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968 by Alice Faye Duncan, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
Mina vs. the Monsoon by Rukhsanna Guidroz, illustrated by Debasmita Dasgupta
Mixed: A Colorful Story by Arree Chung
Mommy’s Khimar by Jamilah Thompkins- Bigelow, illustrated by Ebony Glenn
No Boring Stories! by Julie Falatko, illustrated by Charles Santoso
Ocean Meets Sky by The Fan Brothers
The Old Man by Sarah V., illustrated by Claude K. DuBois
On the Other Side of the Garden by Jairo Buitrago, illustrated by Rafael Yockteng
Opposites by Jacques Duquennoy
Pass Go and Collect $200: The Real Story of How Monopoly Was Invented by Tanya Lee Stone, illustrated by Steven Salerno
The Patchwork Bike by Maxine Beneba Clarke, illustrated by Van Thanh Rudd
Peek-A-Who? by Elsa Mroziewicz
Petra by Marianna Coppo
Pie Is for Sharing by Stephanie Parsley Ledyard, illustrated by Jason Chin
A Pile of Leaves by by Tamara Shopsin and Jason Fulford
Prince & Knight by Daniel Haack, illustrated by Stevie Lewis
The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld
Rain by Anders Holmer
The Storyteller of Damascus by Rafik Schami, illustrated by Peter Knorr
A Storytelling of Ravens by Kyle Lukoff, illustrated by Natalie Nelson
The Stuff of Stars by Marion Dane Bauer, illustrated by Ekua Holmes
Tiger vs. Nightmare by Emily Tetri
The Truly Brave Princesses by Dolores Brown, illustrated by Sonja Wimmer
The Very Last Castle by Travis Jonker, illustrated by Mark Pett
Wallpaper by Thao Lam
We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell, illustrated by Frane Lessac
We Don’t Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins
Whale in a Fishbowl by Troy Howell, illustrated by Richard Jones
What Do You Do with a Voice Like That?: The Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan by Chris Barton, illustrated by Ekua Holmes
When Angels Sing: The Story of Rock Legend Carlos Santana by Michael Martin, illustrated by Jose Ramirez
When the Cousins Came by Katie Yamasaki
Will Ladybug Hug? by Hilary Leung
Who Will Bell the Cat? by Patricia C. McKissack, illustrated by Christopher Cyr
Woodrow at Sea by Wallace Edwards
You’re Snug with Me by Chitra Soundar, illustrated by Poonam Mistry
Carmela Full of Wishes by Matt de la Pena, illustrated by Christian Robinson (9780399549045)
When Carmela woke up on her birthday, she knew that she was finally old enough to accompany her older brother as he did the family errands. The two headed out into their bustling urban neighborhood, passing shops, a nursing home, and street vendors. Her big brother though wasn’t as happy to have his little sister tagging along. He ignores her as much as possible, even as she jingles her bracelets and tries to get his attention. When Carmela discovers a dandelion growing in the sidewalk, she learns about making a wish before blowing on it. After a tumble though, it is smashed on the ground. Her brother though knows just what to do to make it better.
De la Pena and Robinson are the two that created Last Stop on Market Street together. In this second book, they tell the gentle story of a young girl reaching an important milestone in her life. The story is complex, revealing that her father has been removed from their home because he didn’t have the right papers. The relationship between the siblings is deftly shown, the older sibling not having much patience until something bad happens. Then his care demonstrates clearly his love for his little sister and leads to a culminating moment in the book.
Robinson’s art is wonderful. Done in painted collage, the illustrations have a warmth to them that works particularly well in this tale. He excels at showing relationships in his art, in creating special moments. The Valentine-like cut paper pages that show Carmela’s possible wishes are beautiful moments on the page.
Another gorgeous and diverse picture book from two masters, this one belongs in every library. Appropriate for ages 3-6.
Reviewed from library copy.
Waking Brain Cells 