Honoring Latino authors “whose work best portrays, affirms and celebrates the Latino cultural experience”
WINNER
I Lived on Butterfly Hill by Marjorie Agosin, illustrated by Lee White
HONOR BOOK
Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes by Juan Felipe Herrera, illustrated by Raúl Colón
WINNER
The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
HONOR BOOKS
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, & the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming
Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell, illustrated by Christian Robinson
Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting with the Great Whites of California’s Farallon Islands by Katherine Roy
Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh
The National Council of Teachers of English have announced the 2015 winner, honor books and recommended books for the Orbis Pictus Award. The award was created in 1989 to promote and recognize excellence in writing of children’s nonfiction.
2015 Winner
The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming
Honor Books
A Home for Mr. Emerson by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham
Mr. Ferris and His Wheel by Kathryn Gibbs Davis, illustrated by Gilbert Ford
The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh
Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos by Stephanie Roth Sisson
Recommended Books
Chasing Cheetahs: The Race to Save Africa’s Fastest Cats by Sy Montgomery, photographs by Nic Bishop
Eye to Eye: How Animals See the World by Steve Jenkins
The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement by Teri Kanefield
Little Melba and Her Big Trombone by Katheryn Russell-Brown, illustrated by Frank Morrison
Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting with the Great Whites of California’s Farallon Islands by Katherine Roy
The Scraps Book: Notes from a Colorful Life by Lois Ehlert
The Streak: How Joe DiMaggio Became America’s Hero by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Terry Widener
Strike!: The Farm Worker’s Fight for Their Rights by Larry Dane Brimner
The National Council of Teachers of English has announced the winners, honor books and recommended titles for the Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children. This award was established in 2014 and promotes and recognizes excellence in writing. “This award recognizes fiction that has the potential to transform children’s lives by inviting compassion, imagination, and wonder.”
2015 Charlotte Huck Award Winner
Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin
Honor Books
Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
El Deafo by Cece Bell
The Farmer and the Clown by Marla Frazee
Revolution by Deborah Wiles
Recommended Titles
A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd
Draw by Raul Colon
The Madman of Piney Woods by Christopher Paul Curtis
The Meaning of Maggie by Megan Jean Sovern
The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires
Otis and the Scarecrow by Loren Long
The Secret Hum of a Daisy by Tracy Holczer
The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye
Here are my picks for the best nonfiction titles for children from this past year. The list includes books of poetry and nursery rhymes along with more factual forms of nonfiction. Enjoy!
All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom by Angela Johnson
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin
Born in the Wild: Baby Mammals and Their Parents by Lita Judge
A Boy and a Jaguar by Alan Rabinowitz
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Colors of the Wind: The Story of Blind Artist and Champion Runner George Mendoza by J. L. Powers
The Cosmobiography of Sun Ra: The Sounds of Joy Is Enlightening by Chris Raschka
Dare the Wind: The Record-breaking Voyage of Eleanor Prentiss and the Flying Cloud by Tracey E. Fern, illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully
Edward Hopper Paints His World by Robert Burleigh
Eye to Eye: How Animals See the World by Steve Jenkins
Feathers: Not Just for Flying by Melissa Stewart
Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems by Paul B. Janeczko
Goodnight Songs by Margaret Wise Brown
Grandfather Gandhi by Arun Gandhi and Bethany Hegedus, illustrated by Evan Turk
Hi, Koo!: A Year of Seasons By Jon J. Muth
A Home for Mr. Emerson by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham
How I Discovered Poetry by Marilyn Nelson
The Iridescence of Birds: A Book about Henri Matisse by Patricia MacLachlan
Little Melba and Her Big Trombone by Katheryn Russell-Brown, illustrated by Frank Morrison
Little Poems for Tiny Ears by Lin Oliver, illustrated by Tomie dePaola
Mr. Ferris and His Wheel by Kathryn Gibbs Davis, illustrated by Gilbert Ford
The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract Art by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Mary GrandPre
Not My Girl by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard
Poem-Mobiles: Crazy Car Poems by J. Patrick Lewis and Douglas Florian, illustrated by Jeremy Holmes
The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jennifer Fisher Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
The Scraps Book: Notes from a Colorful Life by Lois Ehlert
Searching for Sarah Rector: The Richest Black Girl in America by Tonya Bolden
Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh
Thomas Jefferson: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Everything by Maira Kalman
Winter Bees and Other Poems of the Cold by Joyce Sidman and Rick Allen
Here are my picks for the best graphic novels of the year for youth! As always, share your own picks in the comments.
Comics Squad: Recess! by Jennifer L. Holm
The Dumbest Idea Ever! By Jimmy Gownley
El Deafo by Cece Bell
The Graveyard Book: Volume 1 by P. Craig Russell
Hidden: A Child’s Story of the Holocaust by Loic Dauvillier
Phoebe and Her Unicorn: A Heavenly Nostrils Chronicle by Dana Simpson
Return of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke
The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang
Sisters by Raina Telgemeier
The Stratford Zoo Midnight Revue Presents Macbeth by Ian Lendler
After doing this for a few years, I just get happy if I can pick few enough to make the number somewhat sensible. Not sure that 30 counts for that! But I really had a hard time cutting the number down any farther. So here are my Top 25 Middle Grade Books of 2014:
Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff
Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms by Katherine Rundell
Categorical Universe of Candice Phee by Barry Jonsberg
The Children of the King by Sonya Hartnett
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
Curiosity by Gary L. Blackwood
The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm
Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky
Half a Chance by Cynthia Lord
Half a World Away by Cynthia Kadohata
The Luck Uglies by Paul Durham
The Madman of Piney Woods by Christopher Paul Curtis
The Meaning of Maggie by Megan Jean Sovern
Nest by Esther Ehrlich
The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier
Nightingale’s Nest by Nikki Loftin
Nine Open Arms by Benny Lindelauf
Outside In by Sarah Ellis
Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin
The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney
The Secret Hum of a Daisy by Tracy Holczer
The Swallow by Charis Cotter
The Thickety by J. A. White
The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye
West of the Moon by Margi Preus
The Swallow: A Ghost Story by Charis Cotter
Set in Toronto in the sixties, this book is about two lonely girls living in homes that attach to one another. Polly has a huge family with foster siblings too. She feels ignored by all of them, though she can’t get away from her twin brothers and their noise. That’s how she finds her way into the attic as a safe place away from the bustle of her family. Polly has always wanted to meet a ghost, which is why she thinks that Rose is a ghost the first time she hears her singing in her neighboring attic. But Rose turns out to be a real girl, who just happens to look very ghostlike too. Rose has always been able to see ghosts, and she hates it since they never leave her alone. Rose spends a lot of her days alone, no one at school talks to her, her parents are very busy business people, and the housekeeper ignores her. So the two girls quickly form a close friendship, made even closer by the frightening ghost that looks just like Rose and who threatens Polly’s life. Can the two girls figure out who this ghost is and what she wants?
I seem to be on a roll with Canadian children’s book authors lately, and this is another wonderful Canadian read. Cotter creates a mystery inside a ghost story that twists and turns delightfully along the way. Readers will think they have it all figured out and then the story will change. Yet somehow Cotter makes it all work and in the end the entire novel makes great sense, enough that readers will want to start again to see the clues they may have missed.
The writing here is exceptional. Cotter writes with a confident voice, one that allows each of these girls to be entire unique. The two of them are quite different from one another, each clearly resulting from their very divergent upbringings. The friendship also reads as real with small arguments happening regularly and the two girls having to repair these small issues. Through the entire book there is a wonderful ghostly presence, a feeling of being in a real place but one unseen by others. It’s a place that is a delight to visit.
Perfect for reading under the covers with a flashlight, this strong ghost story is both entertaining and riveting. Appropriate for ages 9-12.
Reviewed from library copy.
Outside In by Sarah Ellis
Lynn has a busy life with two best friends, choir, and a mother who keeps messing things up. Her mother can’t hold down a job and the man who has brought a lot of stability to their little family for a few years has just left because her mother cheated on him. Luckily, he is allowing them to keep living in his condo for a few months. When Lynn chokes on a butterscotch candy at the bus stop, an unknown person helps her. All Lynn knows about the person is that they were wearing a plaid skirt. Lynn sets out to find them, but it isn’t until she gives up that Blossom introduces herself. As her choir sets off to the United States for a competition, Lynn discovers that her mother hasn’t sent in the paperwork for her passport so she can’t attend. Her friends head out without her and Lynn starts to get closer to Blossom, a strange girl who talks about disguising herself as a “citizen” and lives off the grid. Soon Lynn has been drawn into the incredible alternate life of Blossom and her family. But some things they are doing may not actually be legal and in order to be part of their lives Lynn has to promise to never reveal that they exist. Lynn’s life works as long as the two worlds remain completely separate, but how long can she lie to her friends and mother?
Ellis is a Canadian author and this book is clearly set in Canada. Lynn’s own family life is portrayed realistically and with great empathy both for her and for her mother. There is no great villain here, only humans who make mistakes. The lives of the “Underlanders” are shown as a balanced mix of utopian and harsh. The moral questions about what they are doing emerge very naturally as the plot moves forward. Then at the same time, Lynn herself is struggling with the moral ambiguity of lying to her loved ones about what she is doing in order to keep the Underlanders safe. Again, there are no right answers here, it is about the puzzles of good and bad, wrong and right.
Lynn is a fairly straightforward character caught in a world where her mother is eccentric and unreliable but her friends are her rocks. Her new relationship with Blossom captures the fact that she has some of her mother in her as well, something that wants a simpler life and a more unique and meaningful one. Ellis manages to show this without ever mentioning it, allowing her readers to deeply understand Lynn beyond what Lynn does herself.
A complex and short novel for teens, this book is richly written, filled with ethical choices, and made beautiful by a glimpse into another way of life. Appropriate for ages 11-14.
Reviewed from library copy.
Waking Brain Cells 