The Dog Who Saved the World by Ross Welford
Girl Giant and the Monkey King by Van Hoang
History of the World in Comics by Jean-Baptiste de Panafieu, illustrated by Adrienne Barman
Never After: The Thirteenth Fairy by Melissa de la Cruz
Pirate Stew by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell
The Smartest Kid in the Universe by Chris Grabenstein
The shortlists for the UK Costa Book Awards have been announced. The winners will be announced on January 4th with a “book of the year” prize named on January 26th. The award is the only major UK book award that is open only to authors who reside in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Here are the books named in the children’s award shortlist:
COSTA CHILDREN’S AWARD SHORTLIST
The Great Godden by Meg Rosoff
The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates by Jenny Pearson
Voyage of the Sparrowhawk by Natasha Farrant
Wranglestone by Darren Charlton
The ABCs of Black History by Rio Cortez, illustrated by Lauren Semmer
After the Snowfall by Richard Lo
Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon by Kat Zhang, illustrated by Charlene Chua
Dear Earth…from Your Friends in Room 5 by Erin Dealey, illustrated by Luisa Uribe
Ice! Poems about Polar Life by Douglas Florian
Little Blue Truck’s Valentine by Alice Schertle, illustrated by Jill McElmurry
Quiet Down, Loud Town! by Alastair Heim, illustrated by Matt Hunt
Snoozie, Sunny and So-So by Dafna Ben-Zvi, illustrated by Ofra Amit, translated by Annette Appel
A Year of Everyday Wonders by Cheryl B. Klein, illustrated by Qin Leng
The winners of the National Council of Teachers of English’s Charlotte Huck Award have been announced. The award is given for excellence in writing of fiction for children that has “the potential to transform children’s lives by inviting compassion, imagination, and wonder.” Here are the award recipients for 2021:
WINNER
I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Gordon C. James
HONOR BOOKS
A High Five for Glenn Burke by Phil Bildner
Land of the Cranes by Aida Salazar
Quintessence by Jess Redman
We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom; illustrated by Michaela Goade
When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson & Omar Mohamed
RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Alice’s Farm by Maryrose Wood
The Arabic Quilt: An Immigrant Story by Aya Khalil, illustrated by Anait Semirdzhyan
The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman
Braver by Suzanne Selfors and Walker Ranson
Efren Divided by Ernesto Cisneros
Hike by Pete Oswald
Ways to Make Sunshine by Renee Watson
When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
The 2020 An Post Irish Book Award winners were announced in an online ceremony on Wednesday, November 25th. The awards are given for several different categories with three that are specifically for youth and teens. Here are the winners in those categories:
SPECSAVERS CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR – JUNIOR
The Great Irish Farm Book by Darragh McCullough, illustrated by Sally Caulwell
SPECSAVERS CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR – SENIOR
Break the Mould by Sinéad Burke, illustrated by Natalie Byrne
DEPT51@EASON TEEN & YOUNG ADULT BOOK OF THE YEAR
Savage Her Reply by Deirdre Sullivan, illustrated by Karen Vaughan
Kirkus has announced their picks for the best 100 picture books and the best middle-grade books of the year.
The books are grouped into categories for easier browsing in both lists. You can also see their entire picture book list and middle grade list alphabetically by author, which makes collection development simpler. Lots of great titles here!
The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed (9781534462724)
Set in Los Angeles in 1982 during the Rodney King riots, this teen novel deals directly with racism and class. Ashley lives in a wealthy part of LA, attends a private school, and has only white friends who she has known since childhood. They spend lots of time around the pool drinking, flirting and planning their prom. As the protests engulf LA though, race becomes a part of everyone’s focus, something that Ashley has tried to ignore, including all the comments one of her friends keeps making. Ashley finds herself becoming closer with LaShawn, a Black kid at school who is a star athlete and whose home is threatened by the protests. He has gotten into Stanford while Ashley has been placed on the waitlist. Ashley makes a comment about his new shoes to her white friends and suddenly becomes a rumor, leading to LaShawn punching another student and potentially losing his place at Stanford. Ashley must figure out how to make things right and also what side she is on.
Reed takes a historical moment in time that continues to resonate today. Remarkably, this is a debut novel. Written with such assurance and clarity, the book allows Ashley to find her own way, something that is often not clear as she continues to make mistakes based on her friends and her class. Reed keeps from becoming didactic at all, instead giving us the perfect character to learn alongside, to hope realizes what is truly happening, and to empathize with and get really angry at.
This book doesn’t duck away from anything. Reed takes on micro and macroaggressions around race and class. She explores how wealth does not protect Black Americans from being targeted, treated differently in our justice system, or stopped by police at gun point. She shows readers this with such power and straightforward honesty that it is impossible to rationalize it away.
Beautifully written, this historical novel is powerful and gripping. Appropriate for ages 14-18.
Reviewed from e-galley provided by Simon & Schuster.
The Blue Table by Chris Raschka (9780062937766)
A blue table tells the story of a family coming together again and again around it. It starts with the blue table having a flower in a vase and a child having a glass of milk. One parent joins the child with some coffee. Another parent joins in and books, newspapers and crayons appear as they share cinnamon rolls. They get going after the table is cleared. Then items from the garden appear: carrots and potatoes. Items from the store and the farm: onions, butter, corn and a turkey! They make an apple pie from scratch and gather flowers for a larger vase. Then a leaf is added to the table, making it longer. A tablecloth and more plates are placed on the blue table, until more family gather together, holding hands to celebrate with one another.
This picture book is focused and simple, giving readers just a view of the blue table itself and never seeing the humans that use the table until we see their hands towards the end of the book. The use of different sorts of cups and plates to show the ages of the family members is clever, along with their books, newspapers and crayons. The extension of the table to be ready for a shared feast is marvelous and offers a touch of surprise for the reader.
Focused on a table that brings a family together both every day and then on special occasions, this book is a celebration of the simple things. The child’s art work in the early pages can be seen at the end as placecards for the loved ones around the table. The art is free flowing and joyous, the blue table and the various objects full of bright colors.
Just right to share around any holiday that gathers people around a table together. Appropriate for ages 2-4.
Reviewed from e-galley provided by Greenwillow Books.
Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson (9780399545436)
ZJ’s father is a famous football star, a father who is everyone’s favorite person, who spends time with ZJ creating music together. He is like a father to ZJ’s friends too, someone that they can talk to and turn to. But something is changing. His father is getting headaches, becoming angry all the time and having trouble remembering things. ZJ must navigate life without really having his beloved father around, as they learn that it is the many tackles that his father sustained that have damaged his brain. Poignantly, sometimes his father returns to who he used to be, but that just reminds ZJ of what he has lost.
Told in Woodson’s dynamic verse, this book is stunningly written with a focus on ZJ himself and his present situation but also flashbacks to his father before he started having symptoms. The book shows a Black family filled with rich love and real attention to each child. The loss is made palpable on the page, the impotent rage at what is happening and the extended family of friends and other football players who care but can’t truly understand what is happening.
Dealing with the impact of head injuries on the lives of professional athletes and their families, this book is firmly modern and important. Woodson keeps the focus on ZJ’s personal experience, making the book deeply personal so that the true loss can be felt more deeply. She explores the emotions directly, not turning away from the ache and pain.
Another magnificent verse novel from a master of the form. Appropriate for ages 9-12.
Reviewed from library copy.
Waking Brain Cells 