CCBC Choices 2017 Join the Friends of the CCBC! The Friends underwrite the cost of this annualCCBC Choices publication and support the Cooperative Children’s Book Center in numerous other ways. Please consider joining if you aren’t a member! (See Appendix IV for more about the Friends.) Individual Memberships $10 Student/Retiree $20 Personal $30 Sustaining/Family $50 Supporting $100+ Patron $500+ Distinguished Patron Institutional Memberships $75 Honor (2–5 individuals) $150 Award (6–10 individuals) $500 Distinguished (11–15 individuals) $1,000+ Corporate Make check payable to: Friends of the CCBC, Inc. Mail to: Friends of the CCBC, P.O. Box 5189, Madison, WI 53705 Name ________________________________________________________ Position ______________________________________________________ Address ______________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ City ______________________ State ________ Zip Code______________ Telephone (w) _______________________ (h) ______________________ Email _______________________________________________________ Please do NOT add me to the Friends listserv. CCBC Choices 2017 Kathleen T. Horning Merri V. Lindgren Megan Schliesman Emily McKnight Townsend Cooperative Children’s Book Center School of Education University of Wisconsin–Madison Copyright ©2017, Friends of the CCBC, Inc. ISBN–10: 0–931641–27–6 ISBN–13: 978–0–931641–27–5 CCBC Choices 2017 was produced by the office of University Marketing, 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. CCBC Choices 2017 3 Contents Acknowledgments ............................................. 4 Introduction .................................................. 5 Organization of CCBC Choices 2017 ..............................6 A Few Observations: Literature in 2016 ............................8 The Choices Science, Technology, and the Natural World .....................12 Seasons and Celebrations ....................................15 Folklore, Mythology, and Traditional Literature. 18 Historical People, Places, and Events ...........................20 Biography and Autobiography ................................30 Contemporary People, Places, and Events .......................33 Understanding Oneself and Others ............................34 The Arts .................................................36 Poetry ..................................................39 Concept Books ...........................................40 Picture Books for Babies, Toddlers, and Preschoolers ...............43 Picture Books for School-Age Children .........................57 Books for Beginning Readers .................................67 Books for Newly Independent Readers .........................69 Fiction for Children ........................................70 Fiction for Young Adults ....................................83 Appendices Appendix I: Checklist of Books in CCBC Choices 2017 ............102 Appendix II: Informational Nonfiction Titles inCCBC Choices 2017 .. 108 Appendix III: About the CCBC .............................110 Appendix IV: The Friends of the CCBC, Inc ....................111 Author/Illustrator/Title Index ..................................114 Subject Index ...............................................121 4 CCBC Choices 2017 Acknowledgments The Friends of the CCBC, Inc., pays the cost of publishing the CCBC Choices booklet each year, making Choices available free of charge to Wisconsin librarians, teachers, and others in the state. The Friends rely on memberships, and revenue from their biannual book sale, to underwrite this significant cost. Thank you to the current Friends board of directors for your work, and Friends members in Wisconsin and beyond for your support. (For more information about the Friends of the CCBC, see Appendix IV.) Thank you to content reviewers Kelly Anderle, Ellen Bunn, Susan Findley, Shannon Furman, Barry Hartup, Madison Hartup, Margaret Jensen, Marianna Rivera, and Kathleen Stetter, who provided critical content reviews of one or more titles we considered. Participants in our book discussions, held monthly March– December, also provided valuable insights. Thank you also to the staff in Creative Services at University Marketing who work on Choices: Kent Hamele, Danielle Lawry, and Preston Schmitt. We couldn’t create Choices without the support of our student staff, who handle many day-to-day responsibilities as well as some of the proofreading and other critical work in the final days of production. The following individuals worked at the CCBC during 2016 and early 2017: Johanna Boyle, Marissa Gehrke, Sammy Jackson (2016), Dana Johnson (2016), Jess McCarlson, Jennifer Pavlik, Rebecca Pettyjohn (2016), Nora Scholl, Naomi Skulan (2016), and Madeline Tyner. Finally, thanks to our families for their interest in our work, and their patience about the piles of books around our houses, waiting to be read. Kathleen T. Horning, Merri V. Lindgren, Megan Schliesman, and Emily McKnight Townsend Bios of the Choices authors are available on the CCBC web site at ccbc.education.wisc.edu/about/staffbio.asp CCBC Choices 2017 5 Introduction We create CCBC Choices as part of our work as librarians at the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC), a library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (see Appendix III for more about the CCBC). The CCBC received review copies of about 3,400 new books for children and young adults in 2016, which include most of the trade books published in English by corporate publishers in the United States, books by some smaller presses, as well as books from some educational publishers. It’s impossible for us to read everything, but we do read extensively with the compilation of this annual list in mind. Our goal is to create a list of outstanding titles for youth from birth through high school age, one that reflects many aspects of the diverse country and world in which we live. We don’t have a formal checklist when considering books for Choices, but there are a number of factors we look at, including literary and artistic quality, accuracy, authenticity, and credibility. We may also consider a book because it offers unique or unusual content, especially when we know there is a need for and interest in books on its topic based on our discussions with individuals working directly with children and teens. Throughout the year, we share our responses to books with one another in a reading log, each of us noting when it’s a book we’re especially excited about, or that we appreciate but also have questions or concerns. As the year goes on, we begin to meet and discuss the titles, always with an eye toward this final list. If we have questions about a book under consideration that we can’t answer, because we lack experience, knowledge, or expertise, we seek the perspective of other readers, whether it’s a content expert we find through professional circles or personal contacts. There are many books we appreciated throughout the year that are not in CCBC Choices, from titles that we didn’t all appreciate equally to those we all liked, but not quite enough to make them a Choice. When all is said and done, we strive to create a diverse list of books that we know we’ll want to share, over and over, with teachers, librarians, and other adults who work with children and teens, and that we hope and believe they, in turn, will want to share with youth. We know not every book in this edition of Choices will appeal to every child or teen—no book ever can. But among the 246 books we’ve chosen, we are confident you’ll find numerous titles to delight, engage, inform, and affirm the children and teens in your professional and personal lives. 6 CCBC Choices 2017 Organization of CCBC Choices 2017 CCBC Choices is organized into thematic and format categories to help teachers, school and public librarians, and others who work with children and teens quickly find books that meet their needs. Picture books about people who actually lived have usually been placed in the Historical People, Places, and Events; Arts; or Biography and Autobiography section, unless the narrative is purely fictionalized. 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 depending on whether it is fiction or nonfiction. Appendix II can be used to identify all the nonfiction books of information. The subject index can be used to find books about specific subjects and topics (e.g., Cats, Friendship) and in specific genres and formats (“Graphic Novels,” “Historical Fiction,” “Fantasy,” etc.). Publication Information All of the books in CCBC Choices 2017 have a 2016 release date in the United States, although a few may indicate an earlier publication date. The citation for each book includes the thirteen-digit international standard book number (ISBN) for the edition in the CCBC collection. 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. Many are also available as e-books. Annotations and Age Recommendations We write the annotations in CCBC Choices to