CCBC Choices 2014 CCBC Choices 2014
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CCBC Choices 2014 CCBC Choices 2014 Kathleen T. Horning Merri V. Lindgren Megan Schliesman with Emily McKnight Townsend Cooperative Children’s Book Center School of Education University of Wisconsin–Madison Copyright ©2014, Friends of the CCBC, Inc. ISBN–10: 0–931641–24–1 ISBN–13: 978–0–931641–24–4 CCBC Choices 2014 was produced by the office of University Communications, University of Wisconsin–Madison. Cover design: Lois Ehlert This publication was created by librarians at the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, School of Education, University of Wisconsin–Madison. Funding for the production and printing was provided by the Friends of the CCBC, Inc. For information, see the Appendices, or go to www.ccbc.education.wisc.edu/ CCBC Choices 2014 3 Contents Acknowledgments .............................................4 Introduction ..................................................5 Organization of CCBC Choices 2014 ..............................6 The Charlotte Zolotow Award ...................................8 A Few Observations on Publishing in 2013 ........................10 The Choices Science, Technology, and the Natural World .....................14 Seasons and Celebrations ....................................20 Folklore, Mythology, and Traditional Literature. 21 Historical People, Places, and Events ...........................23 Biography and Autobiography ................................32 Contemporary People, Places, and Events .......................35 Understanding Oneself and Others ............................37 The Arts .................................................38 Poetry ..................................................40 Concept Books ...........................................43 Picture Books for Babies, Toddlers, and Preschoolers ...............45 Picture Books for School-Age Children .........................57 Books for Beginning Readers .................................69 Books for Newly Independent Readers .........................70 Fiction for Children ........................................71 Fiction for Young Adults ....................................84 Appendices Appendix I: Checklist of Books in CCBC Choices 2014 ............106 Appendix II: About the CCBC ..............................112 Appendix III: About the Compilers ...........................113 Appendix IV: The Friends of the CCBC, Inc ....................115 Friends Membership Form .................................116 Author/Illustrator/Title Index ..................................118 Subject Index ...............................................125 4 CCBC Choices 2014 Acknowledgments The Friends of the CCBC underwrites the publication ofCCBC Choices each year, making Choices available free of charge to Wisconsin librarians, teachers, and others in the state. Thank you to the current Friends board of directors and Friends members in Wisconsin and beyond. (For more information about the Friends of the CCBC, and a Friends membership form, see Appendix IV.) An experienced freelance copyeditor, as well as current CCBC Cataloging Coordinator and Reference Assistant, Erin Augspurger provided her copyediting expertise to this edition of CCBC Choices. We appreciate her careful attention to detail and her patience and good humor. Several people served as content specialists, providing us with feedback on questions we had about specific books. Thanks to Rachel Byington, Barry Hartup, Katelyn Martens, and Anne Waliaula for this assistance. We value the comments and insights from participants in CCBC monthly book discussions, and on CCBC-Net, our online book discussion community. Thanks to the staff in Creative Services at University Marketing who work on Choices: Nancy Brower, Barry Roal Carlsen, and Kent Hamele. We also thank our student staff during 2013 and early 2014: Erin Anthony, Erin Augspurger, Katie Behrens (2013), Jen Fiddler, Beth Hennes, Katelyn Martens, Mary Parsons (2013), Paula Steigerwald, Angela Terrab (2013), Carolyn Vidmar, and Carrie Wolfson (2013). Finally, thanks to the people we live with, who put up with countless hours of our reading at home, not to mention spontaneous book talks over dinner— sometimes a book is just too good not to share! Kathleen T. Horning, Merri V. Lindgren, Megan Schliesman, and Emily McKnight Townsend CCBC Choices 2014 5 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). The CCBC receives review copies of about 3,200 new books for children and young adults annually, which includes most of the trade books published in English by corporate publishers in the United States. By creating CCBC Choices we hope to draw attention to some of the outstanding books published for children and young adults from among the thousands we receive. Did we find every great book published in 2013? We have no doubt we did not. We always discover books we wish we’d received and read in time to include. But we also are thrilled to be recommending the 233 titles we did choose. We are confident that among them you will find numerous titles to meet the needs and interests of the children and teens in your professional or personal lives. Every book won’t be for every child, but there is something for everyone here. We are often asked how we choose books for CCBC Choices. Reading everything that comes into the library would be impossible, especially as most of the reading we do is after the work day ends. But every book is examined by a librarian, and many of them are read by one or more of us. Throughout the year we share our thoughts about the books we’ve read in written reading logs and informal conversations. Sometimes our enthusiasm is shared; sometimes our responses are mixed. But, gradually, consensus about some titles begins to emerge, although sometimes it’s a process requiring multiple exchanges. Ultimately, the books we agree on are the books that make it into CCBC Choices. We don’t have a formal rubric or checklist of criteria a book must meet, but there are a number of factors we consider. Literary and artistic quality top our list, but we also pay close attention to accuracy, authenticity, and credibility. If we have questions we’re unable to answer, we look for informed opinions from expert content reviewers, especially with regard to the depiction of race, culture, and other dimensions of experiences we may not be personally qualified to evaluate. Sometimes we’re challenged by books that we greatly appreciate for one or more reasons but that also raise questions in our minds. We depend upon further discussion, thinking, research, and sometimes other opinions to determine how those strengths and short-comings balance, and to determine whether the book ends up a Choice. We may also consider a book because it offers unique or unusual content, especially when we know there is a need and interest in books on that topic based on our discussions with teachers, librarians, and others who work directly with children and teens. We also factor in what we know about children and teens as readers. In the end, we know that the books that excite us the most are the ones we are most excited to share. Lucky for us—and you!—-every year we find titles we can’t wait to talk about, and books that leave us feeling fortunate to work in a field that gives us the opportunity to read and share the work of so many talented authors and artists. Thanks to them, and the editors and publishers who bring their work to all of us, the field of children’s and young adult literature is full of excitement. Even better, it’s full of books that can touch, challenge, and even change the hearts and minds of children and teens. 6 CCBC Choices 2014 Organization of CCBC Choices 2014 The organization of the books inCCBC 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 and teens 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 youth want and need, and in part to reflect the books we have chosen in a particular year. Books in this edition of CCBC Choices have been placed into one of the following thematic categories when appropriate: • Science, Technology, and the Natural World • Seasons and Celebrations • Historical People, Places, and Events • Contemporary People, Places, and Events • Understanding Oneself and Others • The Arts 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 • Picture Books for Babies, Toddlers, and Preschoolers • Picture Books for School-Age Children • Books for Beginning Readers • Books for Newly Independent Readers • Fiction for Children • Fiction for Young Adults Picture books about people who actually lived have usually been placed in the Historical People, Places, and Events section or the Biography and Autobiography section, unless the narrative is more fancy more than fact. 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 about specific topics and in specific genres