CCBC Choices 2018 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 2018 Kathleen T. Horning Merri V. Lindgren Megan Schliesman with Emily McKnight Townsend and Madeline Tyner Cooperative Children’s Book Center School of Education University of Wisconsin–Madison Copyright ©2018, Friends of the CCBC, Inc. ISBN: 978–0–931641–28–8 CCBC Choices 2018 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 2018 3 Contents Acknowledgments ............................................. 4 Introduction .................................................. 5 Organization of CCBC Choices 2018 ..............................6 Charlotte Zolotow Award .......................................7 A Few Observations: Literature in 2017 ............................8 The Choices Science, Technology, and the Natural World .....................12 Seasons and Celebrations ....................................17 Folklore, Mythology, and Traditional Literature. 20 Historical People, Places, and Events ...........................21 Biography and Autobiography ................................27 Contemporary People, Places, and Events .......................30 Understanding Oneself and Others ............................34 The Arts .................................................35 Poetry ..................................................40 Concept Books ...........................................41 Picture Books for Young Children .............................43 Picture Books for School-Age Children .........................57 Books for Beginning Readers .................................68 Books for Newly Independent Readers .........................70 Fiction for Children ........................................72 Fiction for Young Adults ....................................83 Appendices Appendix I: Checklist of Books in CCBC Choices 2018 ............103 Appendix II: Informational Nonfiction Titles inCCBC Choices 2018 .. 109 Appendix III: About the CCBC .............................111 Appendix IV: The Friends of the CCBC, Inc ....................112 Author/Illustrator/Title Index ..................................114 Subject Index ...............................................121 4 CCBC Choices 2018 Acknowledgments The Friends of the CCBC, Inc., underwrites 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 are able to make this significant commitment to the CCBC and to the Wisconsin library and education communities thanks to revenue from memberships, and from their biannual book sale. Thank you to the current Friends board of directors, stellar volunteers all, 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 Libby Bestul, Ellen Bunn, and Omar Poler, who provided critical feedback on 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. Our capable student staff members handle many day-to-day responsibilities during the creation of Choices and throughout the year. They also help with proofreading and other critical work in the final days of Choices production. The following individuals worked at the CCBC during 2017 and early 2018: Johanna Boyle (2017), Gabrielle Draxler, Marissa Gehrke (2017), Susannah Duncan Gilbert, Jess McCarlson, Jennifer Pavlik (2017), Emmon Rogers, Nora Scholl (2017), Charmaine Sprengelmeyer-Podein, and Madeline Tyner (2017). Finally, thanks to our partners, spouses, and families, for understanding that there is always another book we’re about to read. Kathleen T. Horning, Merri V. Lindgren, Megan Schliesman, Emily McKnight Townsend and Madeline Tyner Bios of the Choices authors are available on the CCBC web site at ccbc.education.wisc.edu/about/staffbio.asp CCBC Choices 2018 5 Introduction As librarians at the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC), a library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, we are immersed in books throughout the year. Publisher review copies arrive daily. They are cataloged and become part of our book examination collection used by librarians and teachers throughout the state, and by us as we read and select books for inclusion in CCBC Choices. (See Appendix III for more about the CCBC.) The CCBC received review copies of approximately 3,700 new books for children and young adults in 2017. This included 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, much of it on evenings and weekends, with an eye toward creating CCBC Choices. Our goal is to develop a list of outstanding titles for youth from birth through high school age that reflects many aspects of the diverse country and world in which we live. Throughout the year, we share our responses to books with one another in a reading log, noting when it’s a book we’re especially excited about, or one that we appreciate but about which also have questions or concerns. By late summer we’ve begun to meet, discuss, and select titles, a process that continues right into early January. If we can’t answer questions we have about a book under consideration, 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 a number of factors we consider when evaluating individual books and in developing the Choices list, including literary and artistic quality, accuracy, authenticity, and credibility. We may also choose 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. There are many books one or more of us appreciated that are not in this edition of CCBC Choices. Some are titles we didn’t all agree on; others are books we liked, just not quite enough to make them a Choice. Sometimes we simply missed something, or a book arrives too late for us to consider it for inclusion. When we’ve selected the last book, we hope we have created a diverse list of titles that reflects many and varied experiences and identities of children and teens. We know we have created a list of books we’ll want to talk about and share with teachers, librarians, and others. We know that no single book will ever appeal to every child or teen, and not every book is a perfect fit for every library or classroom. But among the 245 books we’ve chosen here, we are confident there are many titles to delight, engage, inform, and affirm the children and teens in your professional and personal lives. 6 CCBC Choices 2018 Organization of CCBC Choices 2018 CCBC Choices is arranged by 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 holidays, observances, and seasons have been placed in Seasons and Celebrations. Picture books about people who actually lived have usually been placed in the Historical People, Places, and Events; the Arts (if the focus is on their artistic work); or the 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