Ta-da … The Big Reveal. Can I remind everyone that our panelists are the world’s most fabulous book bloggers? They had to hunt down an extraordinary number of titles on their own this year. Blame the economy, as review copies were often hard to come by. A round of applause, please, as our hard-working panelists pass the baton to our …
2008 Fantasy & Science Fiction Finalists
Elementary/Middle Grade: Cabinet of Wonderswritten by Marie Rutkoski Macmillan Petra Kronos lives in a small Czech village with her father, an artisan who can move metal with his mind and work with invisible tools. When her father is commissioned by the prince to build a marvelous clock, he goes off to Prague–and comes back blinded. The prince has stolen his …
2007 Young Adult Fiction Finalists
Finding the best seven titles out of a list of 123 is… daunting, to say the least. The bloggers on this year’s YA nominating panel embraced the challenge, and below you’ll find the books that survived discussion and passionate debate through countless emails and one very long instant-message group chat. We’re proud of our shortlist, and hope you love it …
2007 Nonfiction Picture Book Finalists
The Nonfiction Picture Book panelists had some fabulous books to choose from this year, and the ones that made the short list are representative of all the best things this category has to offer: informative and engaging text, brilliant illustrations, and lots of appeal for young readers. — Eisha Prather, Nonfiction Picture Books organizer. Guess What is Growing Inside this …
2007 Graphic Novel Finalists
The hardworking Graphic Novels panel has narrowed down the nominees to five finalists at the teen/young adult age level and five at the elementary & middle-grade level, for a shortlist that’s truly dazzling as well as diverse: fantasy, manga, animals, humor–there’s a little bit of everything. Oh, and robots. You gotta have robots. —Sarah Stevenson, Graphic Novels organizer Teen/Young Adult: …
2007 MG/YA Nonfiction Finalists
The middle grade/young adult nonfiction committee has selected, from the 45 nominated books, a collection of seven high-quality, kid-friendly titles. Looking to read more nonfiction in 2008? Any or all of these titles will get you off to an excellent start. Of course, there are other wonderful titles on the nominations list, too, but the committee felt that these seven …
2007 Science Fiction & Fantasy Finalists
It was difficult to choose only ten books out of the 94 outstanding nominations we received in fantasy and science fiction, but the panelists worked hard and passionately to choose the best of the best. We selected five finalists for the teen/young adult age level and five for the elementary & middle grade level. We hope you enjoy these books …
2007 Fiction Picture Books Finalists
Pssst!by Adam RexHarcourt Children’s BooksBuy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense Pssst! is a funny, light-hearted fantasy that uses snappy text and surreal post-modern oil-and-acrylic illustrations to tell the tale of a girl who visits a zoo with crafty animals who all want something from her. This results in a surprise ending and one of the year’s most unforgettable illustrated …
2007 Poetry Finalists
Animal Poemswritten by Valerie Worth, illustrated by Steve JenkinsFarrar, Strauss & Giroux The poems about twenty-three different animals (some common and some very unusual) are told using free verse–not a typical choice in collections for children these days (at least not when it’s the sole type of verse). And these poems are spectacular in their use of imagery and metaphor. …
2007 Middle Grade Finalists
A Crooked Kind of Perfectby Linda UrbanHarcourtBuy from Amazon | Buy from BookSense "I teach middle school, and sometimes I find that I have more choices for my readers who like edgy YA stories than I do for those kids who read well but aren’t quite ready for teenager issues. A Crooked Kind of Perfect is a perfect kind of …