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CCBC Choices 2005 Kathleen T. Horning Merri V. Lindgren Hollis Rudiger Megan Schliesman with Tana Elias Cooperative Children’s Book Center School of Education University of Wisconsin-Madison Copyright 82005, Friends of the CCBC, Inc. (ISBN 0-931641-15-2) CCBC Choices was produced by University Publications, University of Wisconsin- Madison. Cover design: Lois Ehlert For information about other CCBC publications, visit the CCBC web site at www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ or send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: Cooperative Children=s Book Center, 4290 Helen C. White Hall, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 600 N. Park St., Madison, WI 53706-1403 USA. Inquiries may also be made via fax (608/262-4933) or e-mail ([email protected]). Contents Acknowledgments Introduction The Charlotte Zolotow Award Observations about Publishing in 2004 The Choices The Natural World Seasons and Celebrations Folklore, Mythology, and Traditional Literature Historical People, Places, and Events Biography and Autobiography Contemporary People, Places, and Events Issues in Today’s World Understanding Oneself and Others Activities The Arts Poetry Concept Books Picture Books for Babies, Toddlers and Preschoolers Picture Books for School-Aged Children Books for Beginning and Newly Independent Readers Fiction for Children Fiction for Young Adults New Editions of Old Favorites Appendices Appendix I: How to Obtain the Books in CCBC Choices and CCBC Publications Appendix II: The Cooperative Children=s Book Center (CCBC) Appendix III: The Compilers of CCBC Choices 2005 Appendix IV: The Friends of the CCBC, Inc. Author/Title Index Subject Index ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Each year, the Friends of the CCBC, Inc., underwrites the production and printing costs of CCBC Choices. Their generous support makes the Choices publication possible and makes it available at no cost to teachers, school and public librarians, and interested others across Wisconsin. (For more information about the Friends of the CCBC, see Appendix IV.) For the tenth year in a row, Friends member Tana Elias has created the index for CCBC Choices. Her extraordinary volunteer commitment has made CCBC Choices so much more useful to Wisconsin librarians and teachers by providing subject access to the titles we’ve chosen. This year, Tana volunteered to do the index even knowing that our final deadline coincided with the due date for her second child. So in addition to our immense gratitude to Tana, we also thank Meg Kavanagh, who trained with Tana to be able to step in at the final stages if needed. This is also the tenth year that we have enjoyed Lois Ehlert’s dynamic cover design for CCBC Choices. Over the years, we have adapted Lois’s design concept as the CCBC’s “logo,” which we use on our business cards, letterhead, and, most recently, in our redesigned website. For the second year in a row, Janet Piehl, a UW-Madison graduate student in the School of Library and Information Studies, has been the copy editor for CCBC Choices. We thank Janet for her willingness to take on this job again despite knowing of the quick turnaround time required for much of the copy and the challenges of smoothing out the inconsistencies inevitable among the work of four different writers. 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, Barry Hartup, Stanlie James, Ginny Moore Kruse, and Darlene St. Clair for contributing to our work in this way. Thank you to all who attended CCBC monthly book discussions in 2004, and to those who participated in our annual mock award discussions in December 2004. Members of the CCBC-Net community, a book discussion listserv sponsored by the CCBC, shared some of their favorite books of the year and the outcomes of their own regional or local award book discussions during December 2004, and January 2005. Their comments provided us with additional perspectives and insights. We appreciate all who participate in this lively virtual community. Finally, CCBC Choices is a collaborative effort in many ways, and we continue to appreciate the support and insight offered by Ginny Moore Kruse, who retired as director of the CCBC in 2002. Through her professional commitments both in Wisconsin and nationally, Ginny continues to be an advocate for providing children with the best that literature has to offer, and she shared many suggestions for books to consider for this edition of CCBC Choices, as well as many helpful commentaries on literature throughout the year. 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. 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 CCBC offers an environment for discovery and learning, and, ultimately, for making up one’s own mind about the new books published each year. 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. The CCBC received thousands of newly published books throughout 2004. One or more of the librarians examined each of them. Hundreds were subsequently read. We held monthly discussions of new books, and several end-of-the-year mock award discussions that featured some of the books eligible for the 2005 American Library Association children’s and young adult literature awards. We also discussed many books formally or informally with other librarians and educators in Wisconsin and elsewhere in the nation. Many books were also discussed on CCBC-Net, a national book discussion listserv moderated by the CCBC. As the year drew to a close, we worked toward finalizing the list of books that comprises this edition of CCBC Choices. All of the reading and opportunities for discussion and reflection we’d had throughout the year was supplemented by additional reading and discussion with one another as we narrowed our scope to the books that we all agreed should be Choices. 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, interesting, well-written and engagingly presented, we don’t always agree on an individual title’s merits. 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 and determine where consensus lies. There are books we simply miss, even with the thousands that we examine and hundreds that we read throughout the year. We know we will discover titles we wish we’d included. When that happens, we look for other ways we can draw attention to these books as we work with teachers and school and public librarians. We recommend each and every book in CCBC Choices 2005. At the same time, we know that not each and every book included is 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 meet the needs of children they are responsible for either professionally or personally, whether those needs are entertainment, information, affirmation, or acknowledgment of the complexities of being a child or teenager in today’s world. Organization of CCBC Choices 2005 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 231 books recommended in CCBC Choices 2005 are divided into 16 thematic and genre categories. Each title has been placed in the category to which it seems most suited, with the majority of picture-book stories and fiction divided into broad age-range categories for these two genres: Picture Books for Babies, Toddlers and Preschoolers and Picture Books for School-Aged Children; Fiction for Children and Fiction for Young Adults. Several of the thematic categories do include picture book stories, most notably the Seasons and Celebrations section. 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.

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