CCBC Choices 2007 CCBC Choices 2007 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 ©2007, Friends of the CCBC, Inc. ISBN–10: 0–931641–17–9 ISBN–13: 978–0–931641–17–6 CCBC Choices was produced by University Communications, 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 53706–1403USA. Inquiries may also be made via fax (608–262–4933) or e-mail ([email protected]). Contents Acknowledgments . .5 Introduction . .6 Organization of CCBC Choices 2007 . .7 The Charlotte Zolotow Award . .10 Publishing in 2006 . .12 The Choices The Natural World . .20 Seasons and Celebrations . .22 Folklore, Mythology, and Traditional Literature . .24 Historical People, Places, and Events . .29 Biography and Autobiography . .35 Contemporary People, Places, and Events . .38 Issues in Today’s World . .40 Understanding Oneself and Others . .42 The Arts . .44 Poetry . .48 Concept Books . .53 Picture Books for Babies, Toddlers, and Preschoolers . .55 Picture Books for School-Aged Children . .61 Books for Beginning and Newly Independent Readers . .73 Fiction for Children . .76 Fiction for Young Adults . .95 Appendices Appendix I: The Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) . .114 Appendix II: Obtaining CCBC Publications . .120 Appendix III: The Compilers of CCBC Choices 2007 . .121 Appendix IV: The Friends of the CCBC, Inc. .123 Author/Title Index . .125 Subject Index . .133 CCBC Choices 2007 5 Acknowledgments Publication of CCBC Choices is underwritten each year by The Friends of the CCBC, which makes Choices available free of charge to Wisconsin librarians, teachers, and others in the state. (For more information about the Friends of the CCBC, see Appendix IV.) Thank you to the current Friends board of directors for their support of this year’s edition of CCBC Choices. And thank you to Friends members in Wisconsin and around the country. Your membership in the Friends makes Choices possible. Friends member Tana Elias has created the index for CCBC Choices as a volunteer for twelve years. We thank Tana for her continued commitment to making Choices a more professional and more user-friendly publication. A number of individuals with specialized interests and expertise evaluated one or more books at our request, or volunteered their comments for this edition of Choices. Thank you to Anne Altshuler, Madison Hartup, Ginny Moore Kruse, and David Sulman for contributing to our work in this way. Thank you to all who attended CCBC monthly book discussions in 2006—your participation gave us insightful perspectives on a number of the books published throughout the year. The same is true of members of our online book discussion community, CCBC-Net. We thank the staff in the Creative Services Office of University Communications, whose work transforms Choices from word-processed document into eye-catching publication: Nancy Brower, Barry Roal Carlsen, Kent Hamele, and Frank Hennick. The CCBC’s highly capable student staff not only helps the library function all year long but also makes it possible for us to focus almost exclusively on writing Choices in the frantic final days before deadline (sometimes solving a technological crisis or two along the way). We thank them along with our families—partners and assorted children who support our work throughout the year. Kathleen T. Horning, Merri V. Lindgren, Hollis Rudiger, and Megan Schliesman 6 CCBC Choices 2007 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 I for more about the CCBC). Our goal in creating Choices is to draw attention to some of the best in literature created each year for children and teenagers. The CCBC receives review copies of about 3,000 new books for children and young adults annually, including most of the trade books published in English by corporate publishers in the United States. Our goal in creating CCBC Choices is to highlight some of the outstanding titles published for children and young adults among the 3,000 or more we receive. In choosing titles, we look for book that are well-written and that will appeal to the needs and reading interests of a children and teenagers, as well as of teachers, librarians, and others who use books with children and teens. It is a highly subjective process in many respects. As we look for books that are accurate, interesting, and engaging, we often agree on titles to include. But sometimes we disagree. We talk about our differences and determine where consensus lies. Choices is a reflection of that consensus. After Choices goes to press, we always find a handful of titles we overlooked—books we would have included in Choices had we known about them in time. Sometimes this happens because we didn’t have the book in hand; there are always some gaps in what we receive from publishers, no matter how hard we—and they—try to avoid them. And sometimes we simply miss some terrific reads. We make an effort to draw attention to these books as we find them in other ways. And we are comforted when we see one or more of these titles on one of the other annual best-of-the-year lists that offer perspectives on excellence in publishing. We are confident that the 245 titles we have singled out for inclusion in CCBC Choices 2007 will offer contemporary readers entertaining, enlightening, challenging, and stimulating choices. We know that not every book in Choices will be suitable for every child or teen. But we also know that librarians, teachers, parents, caregivers, and others face an enormous challenge in navigating the thousands of new books available for purchase each year, and an enormous challenge in meeting the diverse reading needs and interests of children and teens today. We have created CCBC Choices keeping that challenge in mind, and are confident that it offers something for everyone. CCBC Choices 2007 7 Organization of CCBC Choices 2007 The organization of the books in CCBC Choices into thematic and format 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. Books have been placed into one of the following thematic categories when appropriate: • The Natural World • Seasons and Celebrations • Historical People, Places, and Events • Contemporary People, Places, and Events • Issues in Today’s World • Understanding Oneself and Others The remaining books have been placed into one of the following genre or format categories: • Folklore, Mythology, and Traditional Literature • Biography and Autobiography • Poetry • Concept Books • Board 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 Picture books about people who actually lived have been placed in the Historical People, Places, and Events or Biography and Autobiography sections. Novels set in the past have been placed in one of the Fiction categories. Graphic novels are assessed individually based on content and placed in the category that best suits each individual title. The subject index can be used to find books across all of the categories about specific topics and in specific genres and formats (“Graphic Novels,” “Historical Fiction,” “Fantasy,” etc.). 8 CCBC Choices 2007 Age Recommendations We provide suggested age ranges for each title. These are meant to be general guidelines based on appeal and age-appropriateness of the content. We know that some children and teens are ready for and will enjoy books recommended for older readers. 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 as well as in the two fiction categories. Given the wide range of individual variation among readers, we encourage you to look through both age categories for each genre. For consistency of organization, we have divided the books as follows: • Picture Books for Babies, Toddlers, and Preschoolers: younger age recommendation is three or younger (e.g., Ages 1–4, Ages 3–6) • Picture Book for School-Aged Children: younger age recommendation is four or older (e.g., Ages 4–7, Ages 5–8) • Fiction for Children: younger age recommendation is 11 or younger (e.g., Ages 9–12, Ages 11–14) • Fiction for Young Adults: younger age recommendation is 12 or older (e.g., Ages 12–15, Age 13 and older) Publication Information The citation for each book in CCBC Choices 2007 includes the prices and ten- digit international standard book number (ISBN) for any edition we were able to find in print in late 2006. 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. This information will be helpful when looking for the books in CCBC Choices at your public library, school library media center, or bookstore.