ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Each year, the Friends of the CCBC, Inc., underwrites the production and printing costs of CCBC Choices. The extraordinary support from this all-volunteer organization means that Choices is available at no cost to teachers, school and public librarians, and interested others across Wisconsin. We are grateful to their commitment to the work of the CCBC in this and many other ways. (For more information about the Friends of the CCBC, see Appendix VI.) Friends member Tana Elias created the index for CCBC Choices 2004. This is the ninth year that Tana has created the Choices index as a volunteer. Despite the original intent nine years ago to have a limited subject index, Tana’s work grows more comprehensive each year, and is always carried out with grace and efficiency. We thank her for her willingness to share her time and expertise to make CCBC Choices more useful to librarians and teachers. It was also nine years ago that Friends member Lois Ehlert created the cover design for CCBC Choices, giving the publication a fresh look that we continue to enjoy. Janet Piehl, a UW-Madison graduate student in the School of Library and Information Studies, provided copy editing for this edition of CCBC Choices. She worked with careful attention to detail and with good humor, despite the quick turnaround time we required. A number of individuals with specialized interests and expertise evaluated one or more books at our request, or volunteered their comments. We thank Anne Altshuler, Peggy Choy, Elizabeth Strasma Golestani, Simin Golestani, Sohrab Golestani, Joan H. Hall, Barry Hartup, Joseph Horning, Ginny Moore Kruse, John Kruse, and Sergio Rodas for contributing to our work in this way. Thank you to all who participated in CCBC monthly book discussions in 2003, and to those who attended our annual mock award discussions in November and December, 2003. (For the results of these award discussions, see Appendix IV.) Members of the CCBC-Net community, an electronic book discussion forum sponsored by the CCBC, shared some of their favorite books of the year, and the outcomes of regional or local award book discussions, during December, 2003, and January, 2004. Their comments provided us with additional perspectives and insights. We appreciate all who participate in this lively virtual community. Ginny Moore Kruse, who retired as director of the CCBC in August, 2002, continues to be involved with children’s and young adult literature in many ways. We are thankful to Ginny for her many suggestions of titles to consider for inclusion in this edition of CCBC Choices, and for the commentaries she shared. With each edition of Choices, we continue to strive to meet the standards she set throughout her years of leadership at the CCBC. Kathleen T. Horning, Merri V. Lindgren, Hollis Rudiger, and Megan Schliesman INTRODUCTION CCBC Choices is created by librarians at the Cooperative Children=s Book Center (CCBC), a library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (see Appendix II for more about the CCBC). As a book examination center and research library, the CCBC receives review copies of almost all of the trade books and many alternative press books published in English in the United States for children and young adults during the year. The library received literally thousands of newly published books throughout 2003. One or more of the professional staff examined each of them. Hundreds were subsequently read. We discussed many formally or informally with other librarians and educators in Wisconsin and elsewhere in the nation. Many were also discussed on CCBC-Net, the national electronic book discussion group moderated by the CCBC. Our goal in creating CCBC Choices is to highlight outstanding titles published for children and young adults each year. We hope that CCBC Choices will help teachers, school and public librarians, daycare providers, and others who work with children and young adults locate high quality books that meet specific curricular and developmental needs, as well as the need of every child and young adult to have access to a wide array of literature that can inform, entertain, and inspire. We recommend each and every book in CCBC Choices. But each and every book is not necessarily for every child, every classroom, or every family. We are confident, however, that everyone using CCBC Choices will find a significant number of books that will delight, inform, or stimulate the innate curiosity of children and teenagers. In choosing titles for CCBC Choices, we strive to call attention to a wide array of books. The process is a subjective one in many respects. As we look for books that are accurate, that are interesting, that are well- written and engagingly presented, we don’t always agree on an individual title’s merits (or lack thereof). It is one thing to determine accuracy in the case of an informational book, another when discussing the authenticity of events or emotions in a work of fiction. We talk about these differences. Some of these titles ultimately end up in CCBC Choices; others do not. There are books we simply miss, even with the thousands that we examine and hundreds that we read throughout the year. Throughout the year, as we discover titles we wish we’d included, we look for other ways we can draw attention to them as we work with teachers and school and public librarians. Book discussion is an important part of our evaluation process at the CCBC. In addition to the informal discussions we have with one another and colleagues, we hold monthly discussions open to any adult in order to look critically at some of the new books we have received at the CCBC. Using CCBC Book Discussion Guildeines (see Appendix III) we articulate our first critical responses to the books in question. We also host annual award discussions, using the criteria for eligibility and excellence established by national book award committees. The award discussions provide an opportunity to look critically at some of the year’s outstanding children’s books. In late 2003, we held discussions of books eligible for the Caldecott Medal, the Coretta Scott King Award, the Newbery Award, and the Michael L. Printz Award . The results of those discussions can be found in Appendix IV. Organization of CCBC Choices 2004 The organization of the books in CCBC Choices into thematic and genre categories has been developed over the years to help teachers, school and public librarians, and others who work with children quickly find books that meet their needs. We often make refinements from year to year in the organization, in part due to our ever- growing understanding of what our colleagues who work directly with children want and need, and in part to reflect the books we have chosen in a particular year. The 216 books recommended in CCBC Choices 2004 are divided into 17 thematic and genre categories. Each title has been placed in the category to which it seems most suited. Because many of the books could easily have been placed in more than one section, a “see also” listing at the end of each category draws attention to other relevant titles in this edition of Choices. There is an author/title index and subject index at the end of Choices. We provide suggested age ranges for each title we recommend. These are meant to be general guidelines based on appeal and age-appropriateness of the content. However, we know that individual children and teenagers may find books suggested for younger or older age ranges of interest, and adults may determine them appropriate. Our suggested age recommendations cannot substitute for professional judgment and personal knowledge of individual readers, classrooms, and communities. There is considerable overlap of ages in the two picture book categories (Picture Books for Toddlers and Preschoolers and Picture Books for School-Aged Children), as well as in the two fiction categories (Fiction for Children and Fiction for Young Adults). We struggle with this overlap every year, and every few years find ourselves reevaluating what to call these categories. For consistency, we have placed books in the Picture Books for Toddlers and Preschoolers category if the lower age recommendation is four or under, even though the upper age on many of these books goes to seven or eight. We have placed novels in the Fiction for Children category if the lower age recommendation is 11 or under, again acknowledging that the upper age recommendations often span into teenage years. We have tried to address the overlap using the “see also” references. The citation for each book in CCBC Choices 2004 includes the prices and international standard book number (ISBN) for any edition we were able to find in print in late 2003. Most of the books are available in hardcover trade editions. Some are also or only available in library editions with reinforced bindings. A few are only, or also, available in paperback. Whether or not hardcover-only titles eventually make it into paperback is influenced by a number of factors, including sales of the hardcover edition. Several books in CCBC Choices 2004 have a 2002 copyright date. To our knowledge, these books were not actually published until 2003, and therefore are included in this edition of Choices. There are literally hundreds of thousands of books for children and young adults currently in print. In recent years, we’ve estimated approximately 5,000 new titles join those ranks annually. Their quality varies widely. For those who are committed to finding high-quality books for the children and young adults for whom they are professionally or personally responsible, the Cooperative Children=s Book Center offers an environment for discovery and learning, and, ultimately, for making up one’s own mind about the new books published each year.